Robelle Tech: 3000 Reference Information

Terix Sponsor Message

February 2003

Boosting Your e3000 Productivity

3000 Reference Information

By Bob Green

As Hewlett-Packard loses interest in the HP 3000, it is important that end users start taking responsibility for their own systems. Toward that end I have compiled a list of useful reference Web sites on the HP 3000 (excluding the topic of migration).

OpenMPE

One site that has as its explicit goal to archive the useful information required to maintain and operate an HP 3000 is the “OpenMPE” site, www.openmpe.org. OpenMPE is gathering 3000 information that will be needed after HP exits the business. For example, they already list companies that use the 3000, relative power ratings of the 3000 servers, 3000 software tier structure from HP, lists of hardware and software support organizations, freeware downloads, and links to MPE manuals.

3000 Manuals

HP has most of the MPE software manuals online in PDF and HTML format at docs.hp.com and John Burke has links to many of the most useful on his Web site, www.burke-consulting.com

At HP World in September, HP agreed to make the 3000 hardware and software manuals available to independent Web sites such as OpenMPE when they remove the manuals from the HP Web site. I hope that someone at OpenMPE has already downloaded copies of the files, just in case.

Some other vendors’ 3000-related manuals are on the Web as well: Robelle’s, at www.robelle.com/library/manuals; Lund’s, at www.lund.com/support; Adager’s at www.adager.com; and at Bradmark, www.bradmark.com/site/downloads/downloads.html

However, many vendor Web sites have no obvious sign of user documentation for their HP 3000 software products. For example, Cognos and DISC. So for these products, you should ensure that you carefully file copies of the documentation.

Interex

Another Web site that should be useful to those with HP 3000 systems is the Interex users group Web site, www.interex.org

However, it is difficult to find 3000 information on the site, many of the pages are dated, and the most useful information — which is the archive of papers from past HP World Conferences — requires that you login with your Interex user number and name. The papers are in PDF format and sorted by Author, Title and Track. The Track sorting is most useful, since we are presumably looking for papers under the MPE track. In case you are a member, know your membership number, and want to browse some technical papers, here are some links:

HP World 2002:

www.interex.org/conference/hpworld2002/proceedings

HP World 2001:

www.interex.org/conference/hpworld2001/proceedings/home.html

HP World 2000:

www.interex.org/conference/hpworld2000/proceedings/home.html

Although there were many useful papers published in years prior to 2000, I could not find them on the Interex Web site.

The 3000 NewsWire

Another great source of information is the Web site for this newsletter. As a subscriber, you can browse a great deal of online info at the Web site, www.3000newswire.com/subscribers.

3kWorld

Another site that was once quite useful was 3kWorld at www.3kworld.com — but it hasn’t been updated in a while and may be winding down. Vendors continue to post press releases on the site, but the site is showing signs of neglect.

Books

Beyond RISC. This book is a guide to the PA-RISC version of the HP 3000 and the software of the MPE operating system. It is slightly dated, since MPE has had many releases since the conversion to RISC architecture, but it is still very useful. The book is out of print, but a few copies are still available at Allegro. E-mail to cindy@allegro.com if you would like to buy one.

MPE/iX System Administration Handbook by Jon Diercks. This book was published in 2002 by Prentice Hall. It “covers the essential tools and skills required for successful MPE/iX system management. Diercks presents hands-on examples, solutions to common problems, and dozens of tips for streamlining operations and making the most of your HP e3000 system.” Very useful: diercks.net/mpe/

TurboIMAGE

TurboIMAGE (or IMAGE for short) is the database included with MPE. The user manuals are online at docs.hp.com and here are some other useful links:

The IMAGE FAQ answers the most common questions about this database and points to useful vendors, tools, etc.:

beechglen.com/pub/imagefaq.txt

Robelle’s IMAGE Programming Tutorial teaches how to write programs that access IMAGE databases: robelle.com/library/tutorials/pdfs/imgprog.pdf

Robelle’s IMAGE Performance Analysis explains how to use HowMessy, DBLoadng, Adager and DBGeneral to monitor and improve the performance of your database: robelle.com/library/tutorials/pdfs/imgperf.pdf

Robelle’s IMAGE Encyclopedia Page on the IMAGE database: www.robelle.com/library/smugbook/image.html

3000-L Mailing List

The 3000-L mailing list is a place where users can post and answer questions. It will probably continue to be a place where confused system managers can go for help with their HP 3000s. The list is hosted at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC); the archives are at raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html

3kWorld also archives the messages at www.3kworld.com/message.asp?appMode=threadList&mbo_PK=318

There are other mailing lists at UTC: raven.utc.edu/archives/index.html. Other mailing lists are at www.techgroupmd.com/TGU%20-%20CyberCafe.htm

3000 FAQs

FAQs are Frequently Asked Questions. The HP 3000 FAQ in HTML format is hosted at 3k Associates, at www.3kassociates.com/faq/hpfaqi.html. There is also an HP 3000 FAQ Search engine at qwebs.qss.com/faq3k.html

Robelle’s Encyclopedia of HP 3000 and related topics is not an FAQ, but it is an excellent resource of cross-linked articles: www.robelle.com/library/smugbook

Technical Papers

Allegro has an excellent guide for new 3000 users as “Learning MPE” at allegro.com/papers/learnmpe.html

Jazz is a Web site at HP which developed as a resource for porting Internet and Posix utilities to MPE. It has a great deal of software for download, as well as numerous papers and reference documents. It is not known how long this server will stay in operation or where the content will eventually go, but you can find it today at jazz.external.hp.com

John Burke (www.burke-consulting.com) writes the “net.digest” and “Hidden Value” columns in the NewsWire. His net.digest columns and Hidden Value columns are online at his Web site (organized by date) as well as a “Best Of” compilation by topic at www.burke-consulting.com/best_of/best_of_TOC.htm

[Ed. Note: The columns at John Burke’s site are the author’s editions, unedited and uncut, with some material that has never been published in the NewsWire. On the other hand, about a year’s worth of these two NewsWire columns, from 1998-1999, can only be found in the archives of the 3000 NewsWire site. More than six years of MPE technical papers, indexed through a search engine, are available to subscribers at www.3000newswire.com/subscribers/TechHeads.html]

Robelle has 14 papers and 14 tutorials online at www.robelle.com/library covering topics from the System Debugger to programming the CI. Allegro has 13 papers online at allegro.com/papers covering topics from “what to do when your system is hung” to “setting up a network printer.”

Adager has most of the database papers written by their staff over the years, plus guest papers from VEsoft and others: www.adager.com/TechnicalPapers.html

Interex has an excellent resource, “Managing HP 3000s for the Complete Novice” which is in 24 parts! Available to its members at www.interex.org/enterprise/hp3000.html

News

Of course The 3000 Newswire is the premier source of news. However, Robelle also posts 3000-related news and links to its home page and archives them via monthly newsletters at www.robelle.com

John Dunlop maintains the www.hp3000links.com Web site, and shows new links on his what’s new page at www.hp3000links.com/whatnew1.htm

3kWorld: some vendors post news and announcements at www.3kworld.com