Number 57 (Update of Volume 6, Issue 2)

Samba gets another update for 3000s

HP is working on bringing Samba up to date for HP 3000s. The file sharing tool, praised by experts as giving the HP 3000 better access to companies' networks, now has a 2.07 version which has been released in beta test status by CSY lab engineers. Patch SMBLXF6 is only supported under MPE/iX 6.5. One of the advantages of the new release is it's tied to O'Reilly and Associates documentation: It's the first version for HP 3000s to use the SWAT (Samba Web Administration Tool) and has been updated to add a link to the full text of O'Reilly's "Using Samba" from the start screen. An HTML version of "Using Samba" is being distributed with the Samba software as the online documentation for Samba. It's also been tested against Windows 2000, and testers found five incompatibilities they've fixed in this version. SWAT and smbpasswd can delete users from the Samba smbpasswd file in 2.07.

Other upgrades for Samba are improvements for share mode handling to provide hundreds of concurrent PCs; support of configurable host name resolution order; enhancing the filename mapping algorithm to support the 6.5 list of legal MPE filenames that include the characters ~,\\,$,%,^,*,+,|,{,},: the support of Western European languages in filenames; and the ability to self-configure using the GNU autoconf tool.

2.07 has been released from the Open Source samba.org since this spring, and it includes security fixes implemented in the 2.05 version of the software. HP has had version 2.03 available as a beta test patch for the HP 3000 since this summer, but it's still only officially supporting version 1.9.16p9, now more than three years old. Customers can download the 2.07 version, sans support, from the CSY Jazz Web site at http://jazz.external.hp.com/src/samba/

Conference deadlines loom for papers, registration

Interex cutoff dates for its two major HP 3000-related conferences are coming up in January. On January 5, the deadline for abstracts to HP World presentations passes; papers for the August conference can't be accepted beyond that day. Giving a presentation is a great way to share knowledge with the HP 3000 community, and participation earns speakers a discount at the conference. Submit abstracts online at <http://www.hpworld.com/conference/hpworld2001/hpw01_call.html >

The deadline for "early bird" registration rates for the HP 3000 Solutions Symposium is January 15. Registration rates for the four-day training intensive in San Jose go up $100, to $795, after that date. The Symposium is set for Feb. 7-10 at the Wyndham Hotel in San Jose. Make reservations at the hotel by calling 408.453.6200, and register for the conference online at http://www.interex.org/conference/hpe3000solutions2001/index.html

e-Way application wins award

ASAP Software's eWay application has been named to Interactive Week's list of 500 e-Commerce Leaders. The application powered by an HP 3000 and NT servers includes the online order management application eBuy, which was developed using Fioravanti-Redwood International's OrderChannel B2B e-commerce application.

eBuy is ASAP's online order management solution for its Fortune 1000, state and local government customers. It offers ASAP's full range of volume licenses, shrink wrap software, add-on hardware, training, media and books. For maximum ease in order processing, customers have numerous searching and ordering options, and can track their orders and view their account status online.

The eBuy (http://www.asap.com) component resides on a Hewlett-Packard NetServer running Windows NT and the IIS Web server. eBuy is also using Microsoft's SQL Server database as its repository. The software accesses ASAP's custom-built order management application, which resides on a HP e3000 computer system. OrderChannel's built-in application programming interfaces (APIs) handle the links to the HP 3000 applications.

SCA gets overwhelmed with traffic

After our report on the high utility of the new Support Contract Assistant Web site in our November issue, other HP 3000 customers found accessing the online support service pretty tough sledding. One customer reported that it took two hours to change one support contract because of slow response, while another said they weren't able to log on at all in late November, citing incompatibility with Netscape 4.7 as her experience. HP has made a technical support line available for accessing the site, at 800-386-1115 option #2.

TraceRT readied for 3000 once more

HP is taking another crack at releasing the TraceRT tool for HP 3000 network diagnostics. The prior patch was being pulled, as we reported in our last Online Extra. The tool is making another stab at 3000 compatibility in a Beta Test patch for MPE/iX 6.0 and 6.5. Patch NSTFDX4 (for 6.0) and NSTFDX5 (for 6.5) Beta Test patches include the TRACERT functionality, including the freeware program TRACERT.PRVXL.TELESUP.

HP's James Hofmeister reports that "The appropriate 6.0 or 6.5 patch must be installed on each machine in which the program TRACERT.PRVXL.TELESUP will be executed on. Also the same 6.0 or 6.5 patch must be installed on each of the destination 3000 systems which are expected to reply to a TRACERT."

Customers interested in the TRACERT functionality can contact the HP Response Center and request the 6.0 or 6.5 patch by referencing SR 5003442715 for TRACERT.

HP spreads the 3000 name around -- to 9000 model

HP is following the lead of its 3000 division with new HP 9000 model numbers, introducing the L3000 model of its L-Class HP 9000 systems. These L-Class systems use the 550MHZ PA-8600 processors, the fastest ones in the HP lineup until the SuperDome systems come online next year. The L-Class isn't being planned for a 3000 model introduction, though, and some customers took issue with HP's use of 3000 to name a computer which has little to do with the MPE/iX product line.

HP Product Planning Manager Dave Snow of the 3000 division stepped in to explain why the product name was used. "Within Hewlett-Packard we debated whether there would be some confusion in using the suffix 3000 in naming a member of the HP 9000 L-Class family," Snow said in an Internet posting. "We realized that there might be, but in the end concluded that since our Unix brethren would always be using the adjective HP 9000 prior to using the term L3000 (i.e., HP 9000 L3000), that confusion would be minimal. We also saw the value to the HP 9000 product line in maintaining a clean naming convention (i.e., L1000, L2000, L3000). In addition, our HP NetServer product line already had a member in it for year or more that has used a 3000 suffix with minimal confusion."

Snow added that HP "is working on supporting new HP e3000 technology including the N-Class family, which we plan on introducing during the first calendar half of 2001, and a new low-end HP e3000 Server which we will probably introduce by the end of the third calendar quarter of 2001." Support for the L-Class technology isn't planned, Snow said, because the division expects to use slower speeds of the N-Class boxes in place of the L-Class systems. HP is releasing A-Class servers for the HP 3000 line as low-end introductions, but it's not clear if the A400 and A500 models are the ones being introduced. The A400s have PA-8500 chips at 440 MHz, while the A500s have PA-8600 chips at 440/550 MHz speeds.

PDF product gets updated

Sanface Software has released txt2pdf version 4.2 at http://www.sanface.com. The software converts text files to PDF format files, and it's been tested and used in the HP 3000 community. This is a script that relies on Perl 5, so you will need that shareware installed on the HP 3000 to use txt2pdf. The latest 4.2 version adds a rotate feature and pstoepd http://epd.sourceforge.net/pstoepd.html, a contributed program which converts a PostScript design to EPD, a new encapsulated vectorial graphic format. The software costs $55, and there's a free Java program to make your text files which don't rely on CCTL information ready for use with it. Details on the Java helper program are in a prior issue of the Online Extra at http://www.3000newswire.com/subscribers/OnExtraNo53-0008.html

CSY opens the hood on FTP improvements

Getting the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) working on HP 3000s has been a long road, as users who've been relying on the transfer program in other computer environments can attest. The software has gotten more compatible with the rest of the world's FTP with each release, but CSY isn't resting yet. Now it's investigating concerns reported with the logging (or lack of logging) of FTP connections on MPE/iX 6.0/6.5. Logging apparently hasn't been working the same as it did in the MPE/iX 5.5 version of FTP/iX, the HP 3000 client.

HP's James Hofmeister reported in a summary that among other things, the FTP logon cannot be seen in :showjob. "Prior to MPE/iX 6.x an FTP logon created a MPE session which included a JSMAIN, CI and a FTPSRVR.ARPA.SYS process. On MPE/iX 6.0 and beyond, a FTP logon only creates a FTPSRVR.ARPA.SYS process under the JINETD job. An AIFCHANGELOGON is performed to assure logon security is met and that data is exchanged with the appropriate file system structures and security. The utility :showconn will display connections for the FTPSRVR."

"The FTP logon or logon failures are not seen on the system console or in MPE logfiles. An actual MPE logon with JSMAIN and CI is not performed on MPE/iX 6.0 and beyond, thus no logon message is generated to the console or MPE logfiles."

"The LISTF,8 or LISTF,9 function which displays REMote IP address does not work on INETD or FTPSRVR. INETD logging "-l" is not overly useful. For example:

Received call for: ftp tcp
ftp/tcp: Connection from ector.atl.hp.com (15.44.48.52) at Thu Dec 14 13:26:48 2000

I agree. First of all don't use INETD "-l" logging if you do not have a configured and working DNS. A reverse name lookup is performed with the IP address requesting the node name and if your DNS is not working, you will see a 1 minute delay (seen in Telnet and FTP) waiting for this request to time out. Secondly, the output is to the $stdlist of INETD and this reduces the usefulness of this data. Finally there is no disconnection message."

Hofmeister is working on improving this aspect of FTP, which has emerged as the leading transfer method between HP 3000 systems and others. Other requests he's seen for 6.0 and 6.5 include:


1) Log to the console (and MPE Logfiles) successful and unsuccessful
connection attempts including USER.ACCOUNT and IP address.

Messages from FTP/iX pre 6.x:

11:42/#S215/92/(PROGRAMMATIC) LOGON FOR: "MANAGER.SYS,PUB" ON LDEV #29.
11:43/119/INVALID PASSWORD FOR "MANAGER.SYS," DURING LOGON ON LDEV #29.
(js 65)
11:44/123/MISSING ACCOUNT NAME FOR "X.X," ON LDEV #29. (js 10)

A suggested solution for FTP/iX 6.x and beyond:
11:42/92/ FTP (CONNECTION) FOR: "MANAGER.SYS,PUB" ON LDEV #29, IP
15.44.48.51
11:43/119/FTP INVALID PASSWORD FOR: "MANAGER.SYS," ON LDEV #29, IP
15.44.48.51
11:44/123/FTP MISSING ACCOUNT NAME FOR: "X.X," ON LDEV #29, IP 15.44.48.51
... similar messages for MISSING USER NAME & MISSING GROUP NAME.

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2) Log connection information:

- Date & Time
- Pin & Logon & IP & unique port number
- Connection Established ~or~ Connection Closed

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3) Log "Verbose" protocol information:

- Date & Time
- Pin & Logon & IP & unique port number
- Protocol Level 'command' executed (this would include files
transferred).

An example of this data is commands seen when "debug" is executed in a
FTP session:

---> USER manager/pass.sys/pass
---> PASS
---> SYST
---> SITE MPE/iX FTP Client [A0010A02]
---> TYPE I
---> RNFR /SYS/PUB/COMMAND
---> RNTO /SYS/PUB/COMMAND
---> SITE BUILDPARMS /SYS/PUB/COMMAND
---> PORT 15,44,48,51,209,182
---> SITE FILELABEL RETR /SYS/PUB/COMMAND
---> SITE USER_LABELS /SYS/PUB/COMMAND
---> PORT 15,44,48,51,209,183
---> RETR /SYS/PUB/COMMAND
---> QUIT

This would fill up a file fast and it WILL slow the FTP/iX server down. If
it is implemented, it should be a parameter in a configuration file.

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4) Log "file transfer" information:

- Date & Time
- Pin & Logon & IP & unique port number
- Protocol Level file transfer 'command' executed .

in the case of a FTP GET:

---> RETR /SYS/PUB/COMMAND

in the case of a FTP PUT:

---> STOR /SYS/PUB/PURGEME;REC=128,1,F,BINARY;DISC=1023,8

also in the case of a FTP RENAME:

---> RNFR /SYS/PUB/PURGEME
---> RNTO /SYS/PUB/PURGENOW

and in the case of a FTP DELETE:

---> DELE /SYS/PUB/PURGENOW

Other FILE commands to be logged ???

This would fill up a logging file some what fast and it will slow
the FTP/iX server down. If it is implemented, it should be a
parameter in a configuration file.

Hofmeister is looking for feedback on what customers need in FTP on the 3000. You can send him your comments at james_hofmeister@HP.COM.