ViewPoint Performance Monitoring Software for OpenVMS VAX and Alpha V4.3-R05 Release Notes November 30, 1998 CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Installation Notes 2.1. Host Installation Requirements 2.2. Recommended PC Client Versions 3. New Features in version V4.3 3.1. HotFiles 3.2. FOCUS 3.3. Shutdown Behavior 4. Changes for this release 4.1 Changes since release V4.2-R30 4.2 Changes since release V4.3-R01 4.3 Changes since release V4.3-R02 4.4 Changes since release V4.3-R03 4.5 Changes since release V4.3-R04 5. Restrictions and known bugs for release V4.3-R05 6. Documentation changes and corrections 1. Introduction This document contains the release notes for ViewPoint V4.3 for VAX and ALPHA computers running OpenVMS. For additional information about the product, read your copy of ViewPoint Host Guide for OpenVMS. 2. Installation Notes 2.1 Host Installation Requirements The disk space requirements for ViewPoint for OpenVMS are: required blocks (ALPHA) (VAX) installation 30,000 20,000 permanent 25,000 10,000 For more information about installing the kit, refer to the Installation chapter of ViewPoint Host Guide for OpenVMS. This version of the collector supports OpenVMS running on both VAX and ALPHA systems. Supported versions for VAX systems are OpenVMS 5.5-7.1. Supported versions for ALPHA systems are OpenVMS 6.1-7.1. OpenVMS on ALPHA versions 1.0 and 1.5 are NOT supported. This software has been on the field test version of OpenVMS 7.2 with no problems reported. However, the installation procedure will detect an 'unsupported' version of VMS (generally seen as K7.2), and will ask if you really want to install the software on this unsupported version. You can answer yes to this question, and the installation will proceed as expected. If you are running the VMS Galaxy software (introduced in OpenVMS 7.2), there are some known issues correctly reporting CPU utilization statistics. Please see section 5 for more details on this and some other restrictions with OpenVMS 7.2 compatibility. 2.2 Recommended PC Client Versions This version of the collector has been tested against versions 5.0 and 5.1 of the ViewPoint PC Client software. It should run with version 4.2, but use of that version is not recommended as the data dictionary (help file which gives descriptions for the variables) will not contain descriptions for some of the metrics reported by the host. 3. New Features in Version 4.3 3.1 HotFiles This version of ViewPoint can now reports HotFile information. HotFiles are defined as the files on the system that have the most activity in terms of either total I/O operation count or the amount of data read and written to the file. Files may be included or excluded by file type, and the user can define a minimum 'score' that must be achieved for a file to qualify as a 'Hot' file. 3.2 FOCUS This version now allows the user to report the 'N' top users for CPU, Page faults, Direct I/O operations, and Buffered I/O operations. The same top 'N' statistics can also be gathered for program images. Also, the 'N' top disks can be reported for operation count, queue length, response time, and usage. 3.3 Shutdown Behavior Previous versions of the ViewPoint data collector, when shutdown with the VPCONTROL STOP command, would send a message to the PC client that would effectively disable the 'Restart on dropped connection' option. This has been changed, so now the PC client, if the restart option is selected, will automatically reconnect to the VMS host data collector when it comes back up. This change allows for unattended operation of the PC client. 4.0 Changes for this release 4.1 Changes since release V4.2-R30 · Corrected some problems in HotFile support, documented HotFile interface · Documented VPFOCUS · Changed shutdown message sent to PC client on normal termination · Changed maximum CPU processor support from 8 to 32 · Various cosmetic changes 4.2 Changes since release V4.3-R01 · The VPCONSOLIDATOR had a bug where it was not properly collecting data from donor processes. This has been fixed. · Updated DATAMETRICS help file with more information 4.3 Changes since release V4.3-R02 · The HotFiles collector was not properly tracking write operations. This has been corrected. · The additional DISK metrics collected when HotFiles is enabled had a bug in the 'Writes/Sec' and 'KB Written/Sec' calculations, which also affected the 'Ops/Sec' and 'KB Moved/Sec' values as well. This has been corrected. · Updated ORACLE collector module. · Updated DATAMETRICS help file 4.4 Changes since release V4.3-R03 · The HotFiles collector on VAX systems had a potential fatal bugcheck. This had only been seen at one site. This has been corrected. 4.5 Changes since release 4.3-R04 · The Oracle collector module had several problems, most notable being the Eventscope display for Oracle Alerts did not work. This has been corrected (call #2693). · Several of the statistics in the Oracle Module have been set to be ignored in the VVP_ETC:ORACLE.CFG file. The statistics are not yielding any meaningful values, or are not documented in the Oracle documentation. The statistics are: 'session connect time', 'process last non-idle time', and 'background timeouts (call #2735). · The VP4STARTREK user-written metric module example has been removed, and replaced with one called VP4WIDGETS. It is located in the VVP_SRC directory (call #2712). 5.0 Restrictions and known bugs for release V4.3-R05 · If you are using DEC PAK licensing, and you attempt to run the user-written metric module (VP4WIDGETS), you will get a licensing failure message and the module will refuse to load. This will be corrected in a future release of the software. Datametrics can provide you with a PAK to enable you to run this software. Please contact customer support via e-mail to support@datametrics.com , and a PAK will be sent to you. · There are some features of OpenVMS 7.2 whose impacts have not been fully tested on this version of the collector. The following list of recommendations should be followed: 1) Do not use the extended naming features (such as 255 character file names, deep directory levels, etc.) of the ODS-5 volume structure for the directory for software installation. The software should function normally if installed on an ODS-5 volume, but the effect of long file names and such has not been fully tested. Statistics gathered for ODS-5 volumes should be correct. 2) The software gathers metrics properly on the field-test version of OpenVMS 7.2, including HotFile statistics; however, it is recommended that any abnormal behavior be reported to customer support. 3) If you are running the VMS Galaxy software, this version of the collector does not properly account for CPU utilization in the MODES metric group. You will get very strange numbers if CPUs are moved from one instance to another after the collector has been started. Restarting the collector after the CPU(s) have been moved will correct the CPU utilization reporting. This will be corrected in a future release. · If you are running the DECps/POLYCENTERPS product (or an equivalent product), you should NOT enable the ViewPoint 4.3 HotFiles option in the collector. This restriction is due to the nature of the IOPERFORM database; only one collector at a time can access the internal statistics. The results are UNPREDICTABLE if you run both of these at the same time. This restriction only affects the HotFiles data class. · The NETWORK group was added to the VP4VMS.EXE data module in V4.2-R19, but it is disabled by default. The only package for which it works is version V3.3-D of MultiNet. · Some systems may need the following or similar in their startup: $ INSTALL CREATE SYS$SHARE:VMS$IEEE_HANDLER.EXE/OPEN/HEAD/SHARE Because the kernel now invokes the IEEE handler, and the VPCOLLECT.EXE image is installed with privileges, each invocation of the IEEE handler consumes a process channel. Eventually the FILLM quota is reached, and the process can no longer respond properly to VPCONTROL SHOW and SHOW/FULL commands. Credit goes to Kym Farnik at the University of South Australia, who discovered the problem and its solution. The writeup can be found at: http://gopher.decus.org:70/0gopher_root14%3a[vms94b.net94b]axp_vms _6_1_gotcha_fix.txt · A collector which gathers HOTFILE data will not "clean up" properly if it is stopped with a VPCONTROL STOP/ABORT command. If the clean-up does not occur, it leaves: > a non-zero value in the PMS$GL_IOPFMPDB system cell > a set high bit in the PMS$GL_DOSTATS system longword bitmask > non-paged pool left allocated If the IOPFMPDB is left non-zero, then the collector will refuse to gather HOTFILES data the next time it starts unless the ninth-lowest bit of the HOTFILESENABLED parameter is set. This problem does not occur if the collector is stopped with a normal VPCONTROL STOP command. This problem will be addressed in a future release. · A collector which gathers HOTFILE data does not restart the HOTFILE sub-process properly if it is stopped with a VPCONTROL STOP/RESTART command. Other metrics are reported as expected. This problem will be addressed in a future release. · The HOTFILE collector is currently implemented as a sub- process of the main collector. The two communicate via a shared global section. On systems with heavy I/O loads, a HOTFILE collector can be 'overrun', meaning that it cannot keep up with the load of data coming in. If this 'overrun' occurs, the HOTFILE collector will temporarily disable itself until it has processed all of the outstanding data, and will then automatically re-enable itself. This event is noted in the HOTFILE collector log file (VVP_LOGS:VPH__.OUT -- it is safe to issue a TYPE/PAGE command on this file while it is open). This condition has only been seen on AXP systems where the IO_PERFORM system services (FAST I/O) are being used (introduced in VMS 7.0). Raising the HOTFILESNPPSIZE, HOTFILESSGSIZE, and HOTFILESAMSIZE may alleviate this condition. It is not known at this time if this problem can be completely overcome; future releases of the HOTFILE collector will address specific performance issues. · The ETHERNET data class does not recognize certain kinds of network adapters (particularly 100MB Fast-Ethernet adapters). This will be fixed in a future release. As a work-around, a list of Ethernet devices (e.g., EWA0:) can be supplied in the VVP_ETC:VIEWPOINT.INI files as in the following example: ETHERNETENABLED 11:2 EWA0:,ESA0:,FRB0: Note there are no spaces in the comma-separated list of Ethernet devices. See the help topic 'VIEWPOINT PROGRAMS VP4VMS DATA_CLASSES ETHERNET' in the DATAMETRICS.HLB help library for more information. 6. Documentation changes and corrections · The ViewPoint Host Guide for OpenVMS documentation for the ETHERNETENABLED parameter in the VVP_ETC:VIEWPOINT.INI file is incomplete. Please see the on-line help topic 'VIEWPOINT PROGRAMS VP4VMS DATA_CLASSES ETHERNET' which has the correct information of this parameter. · The ViewPoint Host Guide for OpenVMS documentation for the DISKENABLED parameter in the VVP_ETC:VIEWPOINT.INI file is incomplete. Please see the on-line help topic 'VIEWPOINT PROGRAMS VP4VMS DATA_CLASSES DISK' which has the correct information of this parameter. · The ViewPoint Host Guide for OpenVMS documentation does not mention the fact that additional statistics for the DISK metric class are available if HotFiles information is gathered. This additional information includes counts for read and write operations, as well the amount of data read and written. This additional information can be disabled by specifying the appropriate bit in the DISKENABLED parameter in the VVP_ETC:VIEWPOINT.INI file (see entry immediately above).