Not everybody is running their HP 3000s under Release 5.5 -- not
by a long shot,
since some sites are still running MPE/iX 4.0, sans support -- but those
who do use 5.5
can rest a little easier with a crucial patch which HP just put into
general release. Yes,
it's the long-awaited Ping Of Death fix to protect HP 3000s from System Aborts.
Customers first discovered late last fall that any Windows 95 user could
run the program
PING.EXE, PING the HP 3000 on the network and crash the system. Lots of
other systems
got the Ping-o-Death treatment, as it became known, and for awhile the only
really
secure way to run Windows 95 clients on an HP 3000 network was to remove
PING.EXE
from the clients. A fix appeared first for HP-UX systems and then HP
released the fix for
MPE/iX 5.0 in March, but the 5.5 patch only went into general release July
1. Definitely
better late than never -- but we wonder why such a security-critical fix
had to wait for the
28 other fixes to network transport problems which HP included in the same
patch.
To immunize your HP 3000s running MPE/iX, contact the HP Response Center
and ask
for patch NSTEDL8A. According to intrepid networking and Posix guru Mark
Bixby of
California's Coast Community College District, the patch now lets the HP
3000s running
5.5 ignore "deviant pings that I try to send it from Win95." And if you're
running MPE/iX
5.0, look for patch NSTEDJ2A. The documentation included with the packed
file is
important, as that patch is dependent on a NMSED98A patch being installed
before the
NSTEDJ2A patch is installed. HP ships both of the 5.0 patches together.
Let's hope they
ship all of these patches in this fall's Express releases -- HP's supposed
to have one
scheduled for both 5.5 and 5.0.
3000's 100VG AnyLAN gets MPE/iX components
In the same HP SupportLine notice announcing the antidote for Ping-o-Death, HP also sent a patch into general release that includes some essentials for VG AnyLAN, the 100 megabit per second networking technology HP has been promising HP 3000 users since 1996. We reported in our June issue that the hardware is rumored to be shipping this fall for HP 3000s, so the operating system had to be made ready as well. Patch MPEJXN3A adds IO Services Support for 100VG AnyLAN.
Patch helps on IMAGE stalls, but doesn't prevent them
HP released a 5.5 version of a patch that helps recoveries when IMAGE
databases stall,
but it's not a fix for the stalled Transaction Manager problem reported to
the HP 3000
database lab last year. Patch MPEJX35B helps in stall situations by
ensuring the database
is not disabled for access and that the transaction is backed out. SIGIMAGE
Executive
Committee member Chris Hagood said he thinks this may be a 5.5 version of a
patch that
was out last year for 5.0, but that this is not a 'fix' to the stalled
transaction problem.
Hagood reported the stall problem to HP through an SR last year, and noted
it again
during the SIGIMAGE discussions at this spring's IPROF meeting.
Hagood, one of the newest members of the 22-person Executive Committee, said that without the latest patch when a transaction would stall, the database was disabled for access. Anyone in the database could stay in the database but no one new could get in. According to Hagood, nothing has happened to the stalled transaction problem other than this "minor patch."
The stalls take place in high transaction volume situations. The operations at Hagood's employer HSI, a fairly large healthcare site with six HP 3000s and three HP 9000s, use Oracle's gateway to get at their IMAGE data on the 3000 through IMAGE/SQL. Hagood has reported that HSI has had no problem overwhelming the IMAGE/SQL Transaction Manager (XM). Overflowing the XM buffer can stall transactions, because the buffer's limits aren't dynamic. It's a problem that doesn't effect sites that don't do a high volume of transactions through IMAGE/SQL. HP has been investigating the issue, according to Horizontal Growth solution team manager Larry Boyd.
3000 DNS services get an upgrade, investigation
BIND/iX, the Domain Name Server that runs on an HP 3000 and eliminates
the need for
foreign devices between a 3000 and other parts of an intranet, got a new
release in late
June from freeware creator Mark Bixby. HP's 3000 division (CSY) loaned a
3000 to
Bixby to give him a safe test machine while creating the DNS software for
MPE/iX. BIND/iX
is another instance of a volunteer, outside of HP freeware project serving
a mission
critical role for HP 3000s. The latest 8.1.1-REL production release is more
stable than
predecessor we reported on in our June issue. You can download yours from
Bixby's site.
Bixby says of his new version, "a particularly evil security bug has been fixed which will prevent malicious sites from corrupting your cache with bogus entries." Bixby has found his share of bugs in Posix implementations of things like MPE/iX datagram handling, the kinds of issues that HP 3000 gurus call "Posix smoothing." He lists three service requests, as well as a discussion of the "fork of death" problem, that he presented to the HP 3000 division while making BIND/iX functional enough to be called a production release. Unfortunately, he notes that he's been told the division's technical resources have already been booked through the end of October, so nobody at CSY can look at resolving MPE/iX problems that might bind up BIND.
At least HP knows there's some payoff in smoothing out the Posix problems. Those problems continue to crop up as volunteers like Bixby wade in to create things that CSY's engineers are too busy to work on, like a DNS server for the 3000. HP's Jeri Ann Smith, the Solution Team leader for the 3000's Internet solutions, said HP is looking at providing support for BIND. But planning for technical projects such as that was only underway in May -- so its still too early to see if BIND/iX makes the cut for next fiscal year's CSY to-do list. For some HP 3000 customers a solution without HP support, however well built, can't be placed in service.
It's not a 908... It's Fastran/PC
While HP mulls over the requests for a smaller HP 3000 (advocates call
it a Series 908,
for lack of a better term), users of Transact have the next best thing:
software for PCs
that behaves just like the venerable HP 3000 4GL. It's a little out of
date, because
Fastran/PC wasn't exactly a market success when the Performance Software Group
(703.471.0076) first introduced it a few years back. But for Transact users
it's "a whole
development environment for your PC," according to NewsWire subscriber
Cecile Chi,
one of the members of the SIGRAPID Special Interest Group. Chi, who carries
the banner
for Transact at meetings like IPROF and HP World, says all Fastran/PC
requires is a 386
or better PC with 4 Mb of memory, a hard disk, MS-DOS 5.0 or better,
Windows 3.1 or
better and WRQ's Reflection. "To compile and test code you need MPE, so MPE
emulation of some basic CI commands is included (stuff like FILE, LISTEQ,
FCOPY and
ABORT). Click on the icon and there's the colon prompt!"
The software is missing KSAM support, the ability to call subroutines written in other languages and those neat Transact string-handling functions. But the product might become more of a success now that companies are planning Year 2000 work on Transact applications -- many of which are too mission-critical to take offline long enough to make Year 2000 changes. Many of those Transact applications don't use the newer functionality of the language anyway, Chi notes.
Fastran/PC isn't a complete standalone HP 3000 clone. The dictionary, databases, and VPlus forms files must be created on a real HP 3000, then compressed, downloaded to the PC and uncompressed. The source code can be copied from the HP 3000 if it is existing code being modified, or it can be written from scratch on the PC. The source code is compiled on the PC using the downloaded dictionary. The compiled code is executed on the PC, using downloaded data bases and forms files, and any MPE files either downloaded or created on the PC. Thus software can be tested without impacting anything on the HP 3000. In fact, any standalone software, such as data collection, can be run in a production mode on the PC.
Chi points out that the most important Transact enhancement, the DATE/C option on the LIST command, is already in Fastran/PC. "Changing the system date on the PC is MUCH less traumatic than changing it on the HP 3000," she says, "unless, of course, you have a dedicated crash-and-burn HP 3000 available!"
She creates a compressed dictionary, test-size Image databases and any needed VPlus forms files, then loads them onto a floppy disk. The floppy is loaded onto the PC and the files uncompressed. "Then I can download source code to be modified or write new code as needed," she says."Then I compile the code using the client's dictionary and test the programs using the client's data bases, forms files, and MPE files -- all on my own PC, with no worry about any adverse impact on my client's computer." When the work on the PC is complete, the new source code is uploaded or sent on a floppy, and then compiled on the HP 3000.
Get new Year 2000 tools from Jazz Web site
HP's posted a preview copy of its new Year 2000 date intrinsics at its Jazz
Web site. The Mover631 archive contains
DATEXL, a new date manipulation intrinsics XL file; DATEINTR, an intrinsic
definition
file for above date intrinsics (like SYSINTR), and documentation in the
form of external
specifications for the new intrinsics.
The intrinsics will handle the existing HP 3000 date formats and three new date formats: An integer representation of the ISO 8601 date format, an ASCII representation of the ISO format and an extension of the existing 16-bit CALENDAR date format to a 32-bit format. HP says the new intrinsics can be broadly categorized as those that are:
1. Converting dates from one supported format to another (HPDATECONVERT);
2. Converting the supported format dates to the display formats desired
by the user
(HPDATEFORMAT).
3. Determining the number of days that separate two given dates
(HPDATEDIFF).
4. Adding/subtracting an offset (days) to/from the given date
(HPDATEOFFSET).
5. Validating the given date for conformance to a supported date format
(HPDATEVALIDATE).
6. Supporting the new 32-bit HPCALENDAR format (HPCALENDAR,
HPFMTCALENDAR).
HP plans to roll these intrinsics into both an Express release of MPE/iX later this year as well as the 6.0 version of the operating system. But if you need them now, you don't have to wait. Full documentation on the intrinsics' syntax and behavior is included.
Mover should move over, say downloaders
Advance release of important tools from HP, as well as most of its HP
3000 patches,
arrive online as Mover files, a compressed format that's getting some
criticism from
customers. Postings to the 3000-L internet newsgroup report that there's
too much
confusion over which version of the Mover program will unpack HP's files
without
errors. Jeff Woods, an engineer at HP 3000 backup supplier Unison Software,
noted:
that "perhaps the best solution would be to leave behind this particular
tool (and the
confusion it continues to generate) and move to some other tool that does
the same job
but with less confusion and better technical features too.
Woods and others have proposed the freeware LZW program as a substitute,
"very
similar in functionality to Mover with the additional advantages of being
available on
multiple platforms including MPE/iX (Native Mode), MPE/V (Compatibility
Mode), HP-UX,
MS-DOS and others" The program is named after the LZW compression scheme it
uses
instead of RLE. "I suggest that LZW be used for all future software
packaging tasks where
Mover has been used," Woods said." It does the task for which it was
designed simply,
easily and well, just like the HP 3000, MPE and IMAGE."
LZW is in use at some of the more popular freeware sites outside of the CSY labs. Allegro Consultants' shareware archives use the packaging for software offered on the company's freeware Web pages. LZW doesn't "walk" directories, according to engineer Randy Medd at Telemon, the HP 3000 solution supplier which has been maintaining and enhancing LZW for several years. Medd said he's working on a new version, but "LZW doesn't know won't (by design) process byte-stream files. " Medd didn't know when the new version will be available. "The complexity is in having one program that can easily live in both the MPE and Posix domains. I'm having to mix intrinsic access with direct open()/read()/write()/close() calls to be able to handle all (most) file types."
HP 3000 engineer Jeff Vance, who's written many valuable improvements to MPE/iX over the years that have been packaged with Mover, suggests that HP use the tar program be to package software in place of Mover. Vance notes that tar is on all MPE/iX 5.5 HP 3000s. This latest version preserves all MPE file attributes, unlike its 5.0 predecessor. Vance said is the main purpose of mover. tar doesn't do compression, however; compress, a standard Unix compression utility is on all MPE systems starting with 5.0
Vance thinks that tar archives of patches and shareware could be an immediate alternative, so long as Mover versions of the same archives would be available for users still on 5.0 and earlier releases of MPE/iX. Mover could be eliminated alogether for customers using MPE/iX 5.0 and later if tar 5.0 could be fixed to preserve MPE file attributes.
How to add new HP 3000 disks and redesign volume sets
Bill Lancaster, whose name is among the select presenters at the
upcoming HP World
MPE Supersessions, recently posted a great checklist and advice on how to
revamp
volume sets while adding new disks to an HP 3000. As Lancaster says,
sometimes projects
require a complete move of all data and programs to new disks. Here's how:
I have a customer who was in serious need of some hardware and hardware setup redesign. Essentially, they had 30Gb of disk all in the system volume set and wanted to add 20Gb more and go to multiple volume sets.Get a look at how HP 3000 performance lived up to promisesWhat follows is a checklist which can be used to add new disks and completely redesign the volume sets:
1. Perform two full system backups and verify each.
2. Create a new sysgen tape.
3. Check the new sysgen tape with CHECKSLT.
4. Copy @.@.SYS to a separate tape and verify.
5. Verify all disk drives configured and working properly.
6. Create a BULDACCT job for each new volume set with just the accounts destined for that volume set.
7. Verify that a current full BULDACCT exists on tape.
8. Shut down the system.
9. Restart the system.
10. From the ISL prompt, INSTALL.
11. In VOLUTIL, scratch all drives except for ldev 1.
12. In VOLUTIL, do "NEWVOL volset:member# ldev# 100 100" for each volume in the system volume set (other than ldev 1).
13. In VOLUTIL, do "NEWSET volset member# ldev# 100 100" for the master volume for each new set.
14. In VOLUTIL, do "NEWVOL volset:member# ldev# 100 100" for each volume in each new
set.
15. Restore SYS account files with ;KEEP;SHOW;OLDDATE options.
16. Stream all BULDACCT jobs to create accounts structure.
17. Restore all files with ;KEEP;SHOW;OLDDATE options.
18. Spot-verify applications.
19. Once everything appears OK, run a BULDACCT.
20. Perform a full system backup.
Our project was a bit more involved in the we were also installing a DLT backup using Orbit software, as well as installing the new 4.3-Gb half-height drives into a Jamaica enclosure at a 5.0 pp2 level.Everything worked except step 15 where we were going to restore from a separate tape with @.@.SYS. We had neglected to verify that tape and found that we had a bad tape. The reason we did this separate tape is for additional comfort factor, since we were relying on a third-party backup product. Call me paranoid, but I like the feeling of knowing I can get at least the operating system back up without third-party intervention. As it turned out, I had to rely on the Orbit tapes anyway! The moral of this story is "Be sure to verify all tapes you will restore from.
A couple of rules of thumb we followed:
1. Don't mix unlike-size drives on a single volume set. This is mostly an operational consideration. We wanted to avoid having the small volumes in the set fill up first with plenty of space left on the larger volumes.
2. Put the more critical user accounts on the faster, newer disk drives. In our case
we had a mix of 1.3, 2.0, 4.0 and 4.3 disks so we had to pay attention to this.3. Set up the volume sets in a business-logical manner. In other words, put accounts
in a volume set with other, related accounts, if possible. In our case, this was simple since this customer is essentially a service bureau for many clients. We were
able to clearly isolate the volume sets along client boundaries.4. Since we were completely redesigning the disk environment and doing an INSTALL, be sure to have at least two verified backups. With the exception of the problem already mentioned, this worked well.
5. Don't be afraid to have a volume set made up of drives configured on multiple controller paths. In our case, we had three single-ended I/O controller cards. On a few of the sets, we had drives from each.
Atmar's site also does a great job of dividing the HP 3000 line into
generations, to help
identify the major processor changes that have been unveiled in the 12
years of PA-RISC
designs. According to the AICS data, the top-end HP 3000 Series 997 is 76
times as
powerful at the Series 39 systems that were once at the top of the HP 3000
heap. Atmar
calculates that the HP 3000's performance has improved by more than 50,000
percent
in its lifetime. Most computers haven't even been around long enough to
rack up one
tenth of that kind of improvement.