INFO-VAX Thu, 12 Apr 2007 Volume 2007 : Issue 201 Contents: Re: CSWB on EV4 (21064) Re: Error Checking in DCL using $severity Re: ftp: display some text and close session Re: MicroVAX II chiller theatre Re: MicroVAX II chiller theatre Re: MicroVAX II chiller theatre Re: MicroVAX II chiller theatre Re: OT: 216 Billion Americans Squirrels Are Scientifically Illiterate (Part 36) Re: OT: 216 Billion Americans Squirrels Are Scientifically Illiterate (Part 36) Re: OT: 216 Billion Americans Squirrels Are Scientifically Illiterate (Part 36) Re: OT: 216 Billion Americans Squirrels Are Scientifically Illiterate (Part 36) Re: OT: 216 Billion Americans Squirrels Are Scientifically Illiterate (Part 36) Re: OT: 216 Billion Americans Squirrels Are Scientifically Illiterate (Part 36) PING Ton Dorland or current DFU maintainer Re: PING Ton Dorland or current DFU maintainer Re: PING Ton Dorland or current DFU maintainer Re: Quick Sanity Check: Itanium-II ZX2000 Re: Quick Sanity Check: Itanium-II ZX2000 Re: Quick Sanity Check: Itanium-II ZX2000 Re: Quick Sanity Check: Itanium-II ZX2000 Re: Quick Sanity Check: Itanium-II ZX2000 Re: Quick Sanity Check: Itanium-II ZX2000 Re: SDLT 1 tape cartridge longevity? Re: SDLT 1 tape cartridge longevity? Re: SDLT 1 tape cartridge longevity? Re: SDLT 1 tape cartridge longevity? Re: Updated VMS Information (not to big) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 22:42:30 +0000 (UTC) From: helbig@astro.multiCLOTHESvax.de (Phillip Helbig---remove CLOTHES to reply) Subject: Re: CSWB on EV4 (21064) Message-ID: In article , "H Vlems" writes: > Phillip, before you spend real money on a new video card, remember DEC's > advice: > buy more memory! > Memory for th AS1200/DS5305 is not so expensive (US$30 for 256 MB) on eBay. Actually, performance is OK on the AS1200/DS5305. Even on the 3000/600, there was still some memory free. It's probably CPU-bound on this machine. I have the AS1200/DS5305 connected to a "PC style" monitor which came with an ALPHAstation 255/233. I get a better picture, though, on an old Digital monitor on a VAXstation. I'm not sure if that's due to the monitor or the video card. The AS1200/DS5305 is fine as a Mozilla machine. (It's fine for many other things as well, but due to the power consumption I only switch it on for Mozilla.) If a smaller ALPHA could run Mozilla successfully (better than the 3000/600, not necessarily as well as the AS1200/DS5305, then I might consider putting such a machine into my cluster (perhaps removing another one) so that one could start Mozilla without booting the AS1200/DS5305. (I would still keep the AS1200/DS5305 configured as a satellite as it is now so that I can boot it whenever I need the performance.) Memory is always good. In my inventory I am making a note of which machine has how much memory and how it is divided up, so that I know what to buy. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:26:38 -0500 From: David J Dachtera Subject: Re: Error Checking in DCL using $severity Message-ID: <461D8ACE.583B74F2@spam.comcast.net> ababeel wrote: > > Hi > I am using a DCL to create a TAR file using the vmstar command as > follows.... > > $ vmstar /create myfile.temp [.work...]*.* /verbose > > and I want to check in the DCL if the vmstar completed succesfully or > not. I am using the $severity symbol for that...as follows > > $ if .NOT. $severity > $ then > $ say "ERROR in VMSTAR" > $ goto ZIPFAIL > $ endif > > vmstar fails because some of the files are locked by a process (which > is fine) but I want it to exit if vmstar fails..which it doesnt...it > just continues on > > Have I done the error check correctly...??? Any help much appreciated UN*X-land programs "ported" to VMS tend to retain their UN*X-like behavior of returning zero(0) for success, and non-zero for errors. VMS, however, interprets the low-order bits of $STATUS (found in $SEVERITY) like so: 0 = Warning ("%facility-W-mnemonic, message text") 1 = Success (No message by default) 2 = Error ("%facility-E-mnemonic, message text") 3 = Informational ("%facility-I-mnemonic, message text") 4 = Severe (Fatal) Error ("%facility-F-mnemonic, message text") Thus, any odd status is o.k.; any even status means potential trouble. -- David J Dachtera dba DJE Systems http://www.djesys.com/ Unofficial OpenVMS Marketing Home Page http://www.djesys.com/vms/market/ Unofficial Affordable OpenVMS Home Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/soho/ Unofficial OpenVMS-IA32 Home Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/ia32/ Unofficial OpenVMS Hobbyist Support Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/support/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 19:39:50 -0400 From: JF Mezei Subject: Re: ftp: display some text and close session Message-ID: Pierre wrote: > hi, > > I would like for a some users, when they connect with ftp, display > some text explainig why they can no longer do that and then close the > session. Look at the file: SYS$SYSTEM:TCPIP$FTP_SERVER.COM $ ! activate any site-specific login file $ ! $ if f$trnlnm("tcpip$ftpd_sylogin") .nes. "" .and. - f$search("tcpip$ftpd_sylogin") .nes. "" then - @tcpip$ftpd_sylogin This file could do some tests and if positive, write the message to sys$net (not sure if this works) and this logout. This way the ftp child image is never invoked to allow file transfers. Another way, although different, would be to have the message in the normal file (can't remember the specific file name but it is in the doc), and set the directory to noread, no write, no nothing along with all files in it. ------------------------------ Date: 11 Apr 2007 16:37:00 -0500 From: koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) Subject: Re: MicroVAX II chiller theatre Message-ID: In article <584eo8F2f24khU1@mid.individual.net>, bill@cs.uofs.edu (Bill Gunshannon) writes: >>> I know that this might sound really extreme, but sincerely said this >>> method has worked more than once and never rendered a disk unusable. >>> >>> >>> Kari >> >> I've seen a lot of DEC field service tricks, but not that one! I'll put >> that one at the end of my list and report back if it actually works. :-) > > I cabn verify that the method does, in fact, work. However, it only works > when the failure is due to "stiction" and based on his description, I don't > think that is his problems. We had tiny little disks for pagefiles on our VAXStation 2000. When it would get stuck you could turn the arm's shaft with a pencil eraser and off it would go again. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 19:32:21 -0400 From: JF Mezei Subject: Re: MicroVAX II chiller theatre Message-ID: <41d43$461d7031$cef8887a$22593@TEKSAVVY.COM> Curtis Rempel wrote: > I don't hear any evidence of it spinning down. You can't hear something that doesn't make noise :-) Do you hear evidence it is still spinning ? (putting a pinger on the HDA usually yields useful vibration information on whether it is spinning and how fast it is spinning. Question here: Could his problem be due to a unformatted RD53 ? Say it passed through a strong magnetic field ? What would happen then ? Would the console still branch to whatever was on block 0 (or whatever the boot block) and then fail due to invlid opcodes ? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 19:43:03 -0400 From: JF Mezei Subject: Re: MicroVAX II chiller theatre Message-ID: <414f2$461d72b3$cef8887a$15269@TEKSAVVY.COM> R.A.Omond wrote: > I can't believe noone's mentioned this already. There's probably not a > file-system on the RD53. Simple as that. BAKUP/IMAGE should initialise the disk by default. (you may wish to try /INIT after /IMAGE just in case). However, an unformatted drive would not be usable. > Suggestion: to check if the disk is readable, use BACKUP/PHYSICAL > instead of /IMAGE, which can only work if there's a recognised > file-system on it. That is a good idea. But backup/PHYSICAL DUA0: NLA0: (does NLA0: exist in standalone backup ?) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:25:22 -0600 From: Jeff Campbell Subject: Re: MicroVAX II chiller theatre Message-ID: <1176344804_963@sp12lax.superfeed.net> Curtis Rempel wrote: > Jeff Campbell wrote: > > [ snip ] > >>>>>> BOOT MUA0 >>> 2..1..0.. >>> >>> >>> OpenVMS (TM) VAX Version V7.3 Major version id = 1 Minor version >>> id = >>> 0 >>> %WBM-I-WBMINFO Write Bitmap has successfully completed initialization. >>> PLEASE ENTER DATE AND TIME (DD-MMM-YYYY HH:MM) 10-APR-2007 19:48 >>> >>> Configuring devices . . . >>> Now configuring HSC, RF, and MSCP-served devices . . . >>> >>> Please check the names of the devices which have been configured, >>> to make sure that ALL remote devices which you intend to use have >>> been configured. >>> >>> If any device does not show up, please take action now to make it >>> available. >>> >>> >>> Available device DUA0: device type RD53 >>> Available device MUA0: device type TK50 >>> >>> Enter "YES" when all needed devices are available: YES >>> %BACKUP-I-IDENT, Stand-alone BACKUP T7.2; the date is 10-APR-2007 >>> 19:50:09.05 >>> $ BACKUP/IMAGE DUA0: MUA0:DUA0.BCK/SAVE_SET >>> %BACKUP-F-NOINDEXF, no valid index file header found on DUA0: >>> -SYSTEM-F-VOLINV, volume is not software enabled >>> If you do not want to perform another standalone BACKUP operation, >>> use the console to halt the system. >>> >>> If you do want to perform another standalone BACKUP operation, >>> ensure the standalone application volume is online and ready. >>> Enter "YES" to continue: >>> >>> >>> So, VMS sees DUA0: alright but complains that it can't back it up. Maybe >>> there is nothing on the disk and the disk is actually working after all. >>> The same repetitive brief flashing of the Ready light and arm motion >>> sounds happen as they do when trying to boot DUA0. >> Glad to see you got this far! 8-) > > I'm either stubborn or insane I guess ... > >> The -F- messages from SAB are telling you that the RD53 is not online; >> that is, spinning and heads loaded over cylinder zero. SAB tries to read >> the index file, but the device is not online to the controller, hence >> not enabled. > > Sounding more like a hardware problem with the drive then I guess. > >> The common RD53 spin up and down cycling is almost always due to a >> 'sticky' voice coil actuator arm landing pad. The head slider arm is >> retracted at power down. It rests against a cushioning pad. These pads >> deteriorate with age. If the drive is allowed to sit unused for a while >> the pad will glue itself to the arm. The drive spin up and down cycling >> occurs when the drive spins up to the speed that the heads can be safely >> loaded, but the voice coil servo current limits trying to 'unstick' the >> arm from the landing pad. It stalls and the drive firmware resets and >> tries again... and again... 8-) > > Hmmm... but it doesn't sound like it is spinning up and down. On power on, > it spins up and I don't ever heard it spinning down. Just faint and brief > arm movement sounds which are repeated at regular intervals for about a > minute or so when issuing a BOOT command or when s/a backup tries to access > the drive. If the drive was operating correctly and there was nothing on > the drive, I would have expected the BOOT command to produce a message > indicating that it could not find a boot block or something like that. > Since it takes about a minute for the BOOT command to fail, all the while > the drive is repeatedly trying to do something, I think the drive is likely > hosed. Ok, so you hear head movement every so often. The most likely problem is loss of format. The drive has scribbled (written) random data over the home track, so cannot read it. The drive will need to be reformatted but you will need the TK50 based diag tape to do that. > >> Since the drive is otherwise unusable, you might try removing the top >> cover and manually unsticking the actuator arm. > > Interesting as this may sound, I'm not sure it's actually stuck if the drive > isn't spinning up/down? Or do you think it's still worth the risk taking > off the cover? No, no point if the heads are loading and moving. > >> I don't think this will violate the warranty... 8-) >> >>> Seems as though the Q-bus is operating correctly now that I moved the >>> cards >>> up one slot and set the RQDX2 back to factory. The DEQNA works (at least >>> as far as to be refused into a cluster) and the TK50 is alive now. VMS >>> sees the RD53 via s/a backup so I would think at this point the RD53 is >>> either unstructured or has a hardware fault. >> It's also possible the RQDX2 is fubar. > > Possibly, although I think I'm almost at the end of my adventure here in > terms of time and effort. > > Jeff ----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==---- http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups ----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =---- ------------------------------ Date: 11 Apr 2007 16:42:02 -0500 From: koehler@eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob Koehler) Subject: Re: OT: 216 Billion Americans Squirrels Are Scientifically Illiterate (Part 36) Message-ID: In article <461c1f3a$0$7608$157c6196@dreader2.cybercity.dk>, "Dr. Dweeb" writes: > > C02 is not a pollutant, particulate mass is, and the stuff that comes out of > diesel engines is nasty stuff. As the Supreme Court just informed the White House and the rest of us have known all along, CO2 is a polutant. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 00:19:41 +0000 (UTC) From: david20@alpha2.mdx.ac.uk Subject: Re: OT: 216 Billion Americans Squirrels Are Scientifically Illiterate (Part 36) Message-ID: In article , Dave Froble writes: >Bill Todd wrote: >> Dr. Dweeb wrote: >> >> ... >> >>> C02 is not a pollutant >> >> *Anything* is a pollutant when present in excess. To relate back to our >> own industry, haven't you ever heard of 'cache pollution' (caused by >> data, even though it's considered desirable to hold in cache rather than >> a pollutant under other circumstances)? >> >> - bill > >Nitrogen is the biggest air pollutant. About 80% of the atmosphere. > >Oxygen is also a big pollutant. > To early life forms on Earth Oxygen really was a big and very very deadly pollutant. We may rely on it now but photosynthesis could be regarded as the greatest source of pollution that Earth has ever suffered. David Webb Security team leader CCSS Middlesex University >:-) > >-- >David Froble Tel: 724-529-0450 >Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc. E-Mail: davef@tsoft-inc.com >DFE Ultralights, Inc. >170 Grimplin Road >Vanderbilt, PA 15486 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 17:30:22 -0400 From: Dave Froble Subject: Re: OT: 216 Billion Americans Squirrels Are Scientifically Illiterate (Part 36) Message-ID: Bill Todd wrote: > Dr. Dweeb wrote: > > ... > >> C02 is not a pollutant > > *Anything* is a pollutant when present in excess. To relate back to our > own industry, haven't you ever heard of 'cache pollution' (caused by > data, even though it's considered desirable to hold in cache rather than > a pollutant under other circumstances)? > > - bill Nitrogen is the biggest air pollutant. About 80% of the atmosphere. Oxygen is also a big pollutant. :-) -- David Froble Tel: 724-529-0450 Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc. E-Mail: davef@tsoft-inc.com DFE Ultralights, Inc. 170 Grimplin Road Vanderbilt, PA 15486 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 19:21:10 -0400 From: "Richard B. gilbert" Subject: Re: OT: 216 Billion Americans Squirrels Are Scientifically Illiterate (Part 36) Message-ID: <461D6D66.3090000@comcast.net> Bob Koehler wrote: > In article <461c1f3a$0$7608$157c6196@dreader2.cybercity.dk>, "Dr. Dweeb" writes: > >>C02 is not a pollutant, particulate mass is, and the stuff that comes out of >>diesel engines is nasty stuff. > > > As the Supreme Court just informed the White House and the rest of us > have known all along, CO2 is a polutant. > When you equip yourself with a pollution control system to depollute your own exhalations, we might take you seriously! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 05:33:41 GMT From: John Santos Subject: Re: OT: 216 Billion Americans Squirrels Are Scientifically Illiterate (Part 36) Message-ID: Dave Froble wrote: > Bill Todd wrote: > >> Dr. Dweeb wrote: >> >> ... >> >>> C02 is not a pollutant >> >> >> *Anything* is a pollutant when present in excess. To relate back to >> our own industry, haven't you ever heard of 'cache pollution' (caused >> by data, even though it's considered desirable to hold in cache rather >> than a pollutant under other circumstances)? >> >> - bill > > > Nitrogen is the biggest air pollutant. About 80% of the atmosphere. > > Oxygen is also a big pollutant. > Not sure about Nitrogen, but Oxygen certainly is, especially if you're an anaerobic bacterium. :-) The atmosphere had no free oxygen until it was produced by plants, poisoning most of the existing life. Of course the descendants of the original critters had hundreds of millions of years of slowly changing conditions to adapt to the presence of O2 (or to hide from it), or about a million times longer than present day life. > :-) > -- John Santos Evans Griffiths & Hart, Inc. 781-861-0670 ext 539 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 05:38:53 GMT From: John Santos Subject: Re: OT: 216 Billion Americans Squirrels Are Scientifically Illiterate (Part 36) Message-ID: david20@alpha2.mdx.ac.uk wrote: > In article , Dave Froble writes: > >>Bill Todd wrote: >> >>>Dr. Dweeb wrote: >>> >>>... >>> >>> >>>>C02 is not a pollutant >>> >>>*Anything* is a pollutant when present in excess. To relate back to our >>>own industry, haven't you ever heard of 'cache pollution' (caused by >>>data, even though it's considered desirable to hold in cache rather than >>>a pollutant under other circumstances)? >>> >>>- bill >> >>Nitrogen is the biggest air pollutant. About 80% of the atmosphere. >> >>Oxygen is also a big pollutant. >> > > > To early life forms on Earth Oxygen really was a big and very very > deadly pollutant. We may rely on it now but photosynthesis could be regarded as > the greatest source of pollution that Earth has ever suffered. > > David, sorry for essentially duplicating your post with my (much later) followup to Dave, but on the plus side (or maybe this isn't such a positive thing to people trying to avoid all the OT), the reason I didn't notice your followup is that Mozilla threaded it as followup to the same post Dave was replying to, rather than as a reply to Dave's post. Mozilla bug?? > > > > David Webb > Security team leader > CCSS > Middlesex University > > >>:-) >> >>-- >>David Froble Tel: 724-529-0450 >>Dave Froble Enterprises, Inc. E-Mail: davef@tsoft-inc.com >>DFE Ultralights, Inc. >>170 Grimplin Road >>Vanderbilt, PA 15486 -- John Santos Evans Griffiths & Hart, Inc. 781-861-0670 ext 539 ------------------------------ Date: 11 Apr 2007 12:59:21 -0700 From: "AEF" Subject: PING Ton Dorland or current DFU maintainer Message-ID: <1176321561.319471.179060@y5g2000hsa.googlegroups.com> Can anyone help me with this? Thanks! AEF ------------------------------ Date: 11 Apr 2007 14:30:13 -0700 From: "Ian Miller" Subject: Re: PING Ton Dorland or current DFU maintainer Message-ID: <1176327013.552306.168470@o5g2000hsb.googlegroups.com> Try via http://www.digiater.nl/contact.html ------------------------------ Date: 11 Apr 2007 16:43:21 -0500 From: burley.not-this@encompasserve-or-this.org (Graham Burley) Subject: Re: PING Ton Dorland or current DFU maintainer Message-ID: <0ZG83hW4$Hq1@eisner.encompasserve.org> In article <1176321561.319471.179060@y5g2000hsa.googlegroups.com>, "AEF" writes: > > Can anyone help me with this? I think Jur van der Burg has taken on DFU, see: http://www.digiater.nl/ ------------------------------ Date: 11 Apr 2007 11:25:14 -0700 From: "johnhreinhardt@yahoo.com" Subject: Re: Quick Sanity Check: Itanium-II ZX2000 Message-ID: <1176315914.713539.134290@e65g2000hsc.googlegroups.com> On Apr 11, 11:49 am, chuckmoor...@gmail.com wrote: > Hi Folks, > > Thanks for the quick replies ! > > Sounds like this Itanium box is worth looking into. I'll check into > how many CPUs I can put into it (would like 2). From what I've seen so > far, the Itanium would be cheaper to run than my (beloved) Alpha 4100. > Also, from what y'all have said, I can use my existing VT100 with it. > > Thanks again, > Chuck The ZX2000 is a single CPU system. One socket. No dual-core upgrades (AFAIK). I have one here and it uses less power than my AlphaServer 1200 also and is a lot faster. John H. Reinhardt ------------------------------ Date: 11 Apr 2007 11:26:59 -0700 From: "johnhreinhardt@yahoo.com" Subject: Re: Quick Sanity Check: Itanium-II ZX2000 Message-ID: <1176316019.427564.327600@n76g2000hsh.googlegroups.com> On Apr 11, 8:05 am, "FredK" wrote: > "Eberhard Heuser" wrote in message > > news:004201c77c0e$c12b3850$05072286@vg2... > > > Chuck, > > Graphics: Find a Original Radeon 7500 AGP with 64 MB Mem > > After starting the Xserver you'll see the usual login > > screen > > Console messages are sent to the serial port > > (Didn't find a solution for this problem...). > > The VGA console is not implemented by VMS. It will be implemented in the > next OpenVMS I64 release, but will not work on older systems (zx2000, > zx6000, rx2600) - it will only work on systems with upgraded firmware (the > interface that is the text-window version that includes the ability to set a > "primary" console). How about if I slip you a fiver? ;-) ------------------------------ Date: 11 Apr 2007 20:34:15 +0200 From: peter@langstoeger.at (Peter 'EPLAN' LANGSTOeGER) Subject: Re: Quick Sanity Check: Itanium-II ZX2000 Message-ID: <461d4647@news.langstoeger.at> In article <1176306570.532911.25230@o5g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>, chuckmoore55@gmail.com writes: >Sounds like this Itanium box is worth looking into. Check again the recent note from Fred K. VMS will not support the console on this old system (and on the ZX6000, RX2600) in newer VMS versions... -- Peter "EPLAN" LANGSTOEGER Network and OpenVMS system specialist E-mail peter@langstoeger.at A-1030 VIENNA AUSTRIA I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 18:42:26 GMT From: "FredK" Subject: Re: Quick Sanity Check: Itanium-II ZX2000 Message-ID: wrote in message news:1176316019.427564.327600@n76g2000hsh.googlegroups.com... > On Apr 11, 8:05 am, "FredK" wrote: >> "Eberhard Heuser" wrote in message >> >> news:004201c77c0e$c12b3850$05072286@vg2... >> >> > Chuck, >> > Graphics: Find a Original Radeon 7500 AGP with 64 MB Mem >> > After starting the Xserver you'll see the usual login >> > screen >> > Console messages are sent to the serial port >> > (Didn't find a solution for this problem...). >> >> The VGA console is not implemented by VMS. It will be implemented in the >> next OpenVMS I64 release, but will not work on older systems (zx2000, >> zx6000, rx2600) - it will only work on systems with upgraded firmware >> (the >> interface that is the text-window version that includes the ability to >> set a >> "primary" console). > > How about if I slip you a fiver? ;-) > You'd have to slip me enough to bribe a few others as well. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 18:46:38 GMT From: "FredK" Subject: Re: Quick Sanity Check: Itanium-II ZX2000 Message-ID: "Peter 'EPLAN' LANGSTOeGER" wrote in message news:461d4647@news.langstoeger.at... > In article <1176306570.532911.25230@o5g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>, > chuckmoore55@gmail.com writes: >>Sounds like this Itanium box is worth looking into. > > Check again the recent note from Fred K. VMS will not support the console > on this old system (and on the ZX6000, RX2600) in newer VMS versions... > True. However... If you plug in a serial port to your favorite terminal emulator and get the system installed and working - and get DECwindows installed and working... You *can* boot from the VGA head (and get a warning about it only wanting one console selected)... you just will never get any console output - which will go to the serial port. Eventually DW will come up and you are golden. The EFI firmware reflects console in/out to all of the enabled console ports - serial and VGA. But VMS only uses one of them. Since we don't support VGA console on this box - it will go to the serial port. As long as you have a way to get VMS and Motif installed and the license loaded - you don't *have* to connect something to the serial port. And you *can* tell the FW to boot from the VGA/KB port. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 13:15:37 -0700 From: "Malcolm Dunnett" Subject: Re: Quick Sanity Check: Itanium-II ZX2000 Message-ID: <461d4183$1@flight> "Peter 'EPLAN' LANGSTOeGER" wrote in message news:461d4647@news.langstoeger.at... > Check again the recent note from Fred K. VMS will not support the console > on this old system (and on the ZX6000, RX2600) in newer VMS versions... > I understood Fred to mean that VMS won't support using the VGA adapter as a console on the older systems, not that it wouldn't continue to support serial console (or management processor console). ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 11:17:39 -0700 From: David Mathog Subject: Re: SDLT 1 tape cartridge longevity? Message-ID: David Mathog wrote: > However I've just seen a second Quantum > cartridge develop a bad spot Quantum has simplified the RMA process for bad cartridges since the last time I did this. Or at least the first step of that process. Here's a page for requesting an RMA for most common cartridges, and it will let you submit requests for up to 20 cartridges at once: http://www.quantum.com/ServiceandSupport/WarrantyInformation/TapeMediaRARequest/Index.aspx So it looks like Quantum stands behind the guarantee, even if the cartridges don't always live up to the claimed MTBF. Regards, David Mathog ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 12:45:30 -0700 From: Alan Frisbie Subject: Re: SDLT 1 tape cartridge longevity? Message-ID: <1176320725.818030@smirk> David Mathog wrote: > SDLT 1 cartridges from Quantum claim that they have a MTBF of 1 million > passes across the drive head. However I've just seen a second Quantum > cartridge develop a bad spot (this one at about 100Gb in, uncompressed), > so I'm a bit dubious about the manufacturer's longevity claims. I have also been seeing a lot of failures with Quantum SDLT 1 cartridges -- over 10%. Some fail immediately, when we try to initialize them, and others fail well into the tape (50+ GB). These failures occur on two drives (Quantum SDLT320) and on both our Alpha system and on an Intel Windoze (ugh!) box. It is nice that Quantum makes it easy to return tapes, but it doesn't make up for us missing a critical backup event. I have adopted a policy of only using new tapes for non-critical backups, and only using known-good tapes for the critical ones. Our failure rate with DDS-120 (4mm) tapes was less than 1%, so I find these SDLT 1 failure rates quite disturbing. Alan ------------------------------ Date: 12 Apr 2007 01:24:48 GMT From: healyzh@aracnet.com Subject: Re: SDLT 1 tape cartridge longevity? Message-ID: David Mathog wrote: > The DLTSage-xtalk diagnostic from Quantum showed the total tape motion > hours on our two drives were 378 and 203, and total tape loads 204 and > 207. Hard to get a million passes over the heads from that, especially > since this is over a rotation of 10 cartridges, 2 of which have now > failed. Half the cartridges are Maxell, none of which have failed. 2 > of the 5 Quantum cartridges have gone bad. Are you "Shoe-Shinning" the tape, or are you constantly streaming enough data to so that it is constantly writing? How clean is the drive and the environment that it is in? I have a DLT7000 on my VMS box at home, I was asking one of their repair people the other day and he suggested that it might be a good idea for me to leave an unloaded tape in the drive to keep dirt and dust out of it. Have you run a cleaning tape through the drive? > How does this compare with SDLT I cartridge reliability where you are? I think we have at most few bad ones per week, but that is out of several hundred tapes used per week. All of our drives are in Jukeboxes however, and the tapes are climatized prior to use. If we had an 20-40% failure rate such as you are describing there would be a problem. I'm not really involved with that aspect, but I think we're seeing far less than 1% per week. Zane ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:35:12 -0500 From: David J Dachtera Subject: Re: SDLT 1 tape cartridge longevity? Message-ID: <461D8CD0.E66FA5BC@spam.comcast.net> David Mathog wrote: > > For those of you with SDLT drives... > > SDLT 1 cartridges from Quantum claim that they have a MTBF of 1 million > passes across the drive head. However I've just seen a second Quantum > cartridge develop a bad spot (this one at about 100Gb in, uncompressed), > so I'm a bit dubious about the manufacturer's longevity claims. Also it > was one that was in a very slow rotation, so it only saw the inside of a > drive a couple of times a year. > > The DLTSage-xtalk diagnostic from Quantum showed the total tape motion > hours on our two drives were 378 and 203, and total tape loads 204 and > 207. Hard to get a million passes over the heads from that, especially > since this is over a rotation of 10 cartridges, 2 of which have now > failed. Half the cartridges are Maxell, none of which have failed. 2 > of the 5 Quantum cartridges have gone bad. > > How does this compare with SDLT I cartridge reliability where you are? > > I also had really, really bad luck with the Quantum DLT IV cartridges. > When we retired the DLT4000 drives there was only one left that still > worked, with four others having failed. Conversely, I don't recall a > single IIIXT cartridge failure. It was explained to me once that a "pass" is considered literally any tape motion. For example: The drive starts streaming and writes some data. Then, "buffer underrun" occurs, so, the drive stops streaming, and "backs up for a running start" when the buffer is full again. The tape stopping completes one "pass"; the tape reversing then restarting until tape motion stops again constitutes the next pass. -THAT- is what is meant by so many (million) passes, not one complete pass through the entire length of a volume. Thus, the discussion of "shoe-shining" (repeatedly backing up and streaming past the same tape segment) comes into play. Hope this helps. -- David J Dachtera dba DJE Systems http://www.djesys.com/ Unofficial OpenVMS Marketing Home Page http://www.djesys.com/vms/market/ Unofficial Affordable OpenVMS Home Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/soho/ Unofficial OpenVMS-IA32 Home Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/ia32/ Unofficial OpenVMS Hobbyist Support Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/support/ ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:31:52 -0500 From: David J Dachtera Subject: Re: Updated VMS Information (not to big) Message-ID: <461D8C08.69B50D49@spam.comcast.net> Sue wrote: > [snip] Here's a code segment that uses F$GETSYI( "SERIAL_NUMBER" ), as is frequently requested here and in other fora. Note that this returns a null string on my little Alphas here at home (Jensen, AS200), but returns good data on the big ones at work (ES4x, GS1280, AS255). $ say := write sys$output $ snum = f$gets("SERIAL_NUMBER") $ if f$len( snum ) .eq. 32 then - $ gosub decode_snum $ node = f$getsyi( "nodename" ) $ hdwe_name = F$GETSYI("HW_NAME") $ say f$fao( " !AS (!AS), serial nbr !AS", node, hdwe_name, snum ) $ exit $! $decode_snum: $ tsnum := $ ptr = 0 $decode_loop: $ disp = 32 - (ptr * 2) $ hex = f$extr( disp - 2, 2, snum ) $ stbit = ptr * 8 $ if %X'hex' .ne. 0 then - $ tsnum['stbit',8]=%X'hex' $ ptr = ptr + 1 $ if ptr .lt. 16 then - $ goto decode_loop $ snum = tsnum $ return In my testing, V7.3 on an Alpha 4100 returned a 32-byte string of hex digits. The subroutine above decodes them. This was also tested on TD184 in HP's testdrive cluster (I64). -- David J Dachtera dba DJE Systems http://www.djesys.com/ Unofficial OpenVMS Marketing Home Page http://www.djesys.com/vms/market/ Unofficial Affordable OpenVMS Home Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/soho/ Unofficial OpenVMS-IA32 Home Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/ia32/ Unofficial OpenVMS Hobbyist Support Page: http://www.djesys.com/vms/support/ ------------------------------ End of INFO-VAX 2007.201 ************************