DOMAIN/OS UPDATE April 1993 1.0 INTERWORKS '93 CONFERENCE -- APRIL 25-28 InterWorks is the International Hewlett-Packard Workstation Users Group. The Software Technology Division (SWT) will participate at the InterWorks '93 conference (Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.A.). A product update will be provided to Domain/OS users and SWT will introduce its plans for support of existing HP-UX operating system products for the Series 300 and Series 400. SWT will participate in: o Presentations targeting your specific concerns and needs o Question and answer desk -- 68K Workstation Operating System Support: Domain and HP-UX -- Come talk with us o Focus session -- Patch process o Technical lab/product activities (Domain/OS, HP-UX, and NFS) SWT PRESENTATIONS AT INTERWORKS '93 SWT will also deliver the following presentations: (1) 68K Operating System (OS) Strategy, (2) Domain/OS -- What's New?, and (3) HP-UX/Domain Interoperability with ONC/NFS. 1. 68K OS Strategy. Addresses HP's commitment to support the installed base of HP Domain (DN Series and Series 400) and HP-UX (Series 300 and Series 400) users through the year 2000. Also describes services and support to be provided based on version of operating system in use. 2. Domain/OS -- What's New? At InterWorks '92 (New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A.), you requested interoperability enhancements between Domain and Series 700 HP-UX systems. SWT listened. (See also ONC/NFS presentation and following article regarding the Domain '93 Program.) You also requested an improved software patch process and distribution plan. We heard you and we've responded. (See also following article re: Improvements to Domain Patch Process.) The Domain/OS presentation includes announcement of new enhancements being added to SR10.4 in July 1993. Those enhancements include: o X11R5 run-time environment o Motif 1.2 run-time o HPterm 1.3 o User Environment Development Kit o Domain patch process improvements 3. HP-UX/Domain Interoperability with ONC/NFS. Presents the latest NFS features (NFS 4.1) available on HP-UX 9.0 and Domain SR10.4. Also discusses interoperability between Domain and HP-UX through the use of NFS, NIS and automount. Supplies answers to the most commonly asked questions about Domain NFS 4.1 and interoperability with HP-UX. INTERWORKS MEMBERSHIP We encourage you to join InterWorks and attend the conference. Membership is free and your involvement can directly affect Domain's future. For membership information, contact Carol Relph; Manager, Member Services; c/o Hewlett-Packard Company; Workstation Business Unit; 300 Apollo Drive, MS# IWorks; Chelmsford, MA 01824-3623. 2.0 IMPROVEMENTS TO THE DOMAIN PATCH PROCESS Based on information received through InterWorks, customer visits, mail and phone surveys, your top two concerns relate to patches: 1. Domain patch documentation is incomplete and difficult to read. 2. Domain patch information is not proactively communicated to you. A multi-functional SWT team investigated existing patch deliverables and processes with an eye to improvement. The changes they recommended and implemented included: 1. Improving readability and completeness of patch documentation. The patch documentation has been reformatted to make it easier to read. Improvements include a common overall structure for patch descriptions, which enhances readability and documentation completeness. The new structure follows: A. Patch contents (affected filesets) B. Compatible environment (10.3.5, 10.4) C. Required patches (other related patches) D. Obsolete patches (those patches "rolled up" into this patch) E. Detailed patch information 2. Proactively communicating patch documentation in a timely way. SWT is establishing improved methods to communicate and distribute valuable support information such as patch documentation. One method for timely distribution of this information is to use HP SupportLine. HP SupportLine is available to all customers with an HP support contract. Accessed via modem or internet, it provides on-line access to marketing and support information as well as patch documentation. Should you find reference to a patch in HP SupportLine that you want to load on your system, there is a facility to electronically download the patch. Users of HP SupportLine can also electronically submit assistance requests to the HP Response Center, or provide general feedback to HP. Past users of HP SupportLine have noticed a lack of current on-line information. Because SWT plans to use HP SupportLine extensively as a means to improve the quantity, quality and timeliness of the support information you receive, the HP SupportLine database must be kept up to date. SWT is committed to make timely submittals to the database. This commitment will help assure that you receive the most current information with regard to your Domain environment. To help notify you that new data is available on HP SupportLine, a brief overview of the updated information will be sent to comp.sys.apollo and the InterWorks notes group whenever the HP SupportLine database is updated. You then will know to check HP SupportLine for details. SWT plans to submit updated patch information to HP SupportLine beginning in May 1993. Log-on procedures will be communicated to you via the next quarterly Domain mailing, scheduled for June. Made at your request, these specific improvements to the patch process should deliver increased value and satisfaction with your HP support contract. 3.0 DOMAIN '93 PROGRAM SWT supports Domain users such as you by providing Current Product Engineering (CPE) and customer-driven enhancements to help extend your existing system investments. SWT has recently developed a new update for Domain/OS SR10.4. The release objectives are to: o Provide continued investment protection for your Domain environment o Address your top graphics requests o Provide interoperability with HP Series 700 systems based on the HP-UX operating system RELEASE CONTENTS The Domain '93 program release includes: o Support for X11R5 o Motif 1.2 Shared Libraries o hpterm 1.3 o User Environment Development Kit (UEDK) o Application note -- Configuring your Domain node for X Terminal-like Operation 1. Support for X11R5: Run-time environment which allows the execution of X11R5-compliant applications. (NOTE: the X11R5 server is backward-compatible with previous versions of X Windows applications.) The major components of X11R5 are an X Server, a font server, fonts, a set of shared and archived libraries, various standard clients and header files. The major differences between X11R5 and the existing X11R4 are: o A new more general mechanism for storing/accessing fonts. o Internalization hooks. o Ability to use new color spaces. o Defect fixes and performance enhancements. 2. Motif 1.2 Shared Libraries: Motif 1.2 shared libraries are those libraries required for running Motif 1.2-compliant applications within an X11R5 environment. 3. hpterm 1.3: X11R4-compliant application for running an HP 2392A terminal emulation window. Useful for accessing HP SupportLine via modem or internet. 4. User Environment Development Kit (UEDK): The UEDK enables the creation of applications which are X11R5- or Motif 1.2-compliant. It includes the X11R5 archive libraries, X11R5 header files, and Motif 1.2 development environment. 5. Application Note -- Configuring your Domain node as an X Terminal-like Operation: The application note outlines how to configure a Domain node as an X Terminal. Beneficial when using a high-performance S700 server in conjunction with Domain nodes. For example, with such a configuration, the performance of a DN3000 can be increased to approximate that of an entry-level Series 400. RELEASE AVAILABILITY July 1, 1993 The Domain '93 program release (except for the UEDK*) is free of charge to those who have a current Domain/OS HP support contract. In early summer, you will receive a post-paid business reply card and instructions on how to order the release. You may complete the card and return it to request receipt of a Domain/OS 10.4 update tape. By providing the release only to those who respond with the card, we can reduce the cost of release distribution. Reducing costs can help us focus resources on improvements to the Domain environment. Most of the content for the Domain '93 program release was included as a result of direct feedback from Domain support customers such as you. We have relied on your direction via the InterWorks conference, customer visits, paper and phone surveys. Once again we encourage you to take the time to partipate in Domain's future direction by filling out the surveys you receive from us. The information we receive is key to delivering the enhancements you need. *You may purchase the UEDK for $1250 through SWT telesales after July 1, 1993. Additional instructions will be included in our June communications to you. 4.0 NON-SCSI CT DRIVES -- tar PERFORMANCE A number of customers who use the tar command to write files onto cartridge tape (CT) have reported a performance loss of a factor of two or greater with tar on SR10.4 compared to SR10.3.5. The problem has been seen only with non-scsi cartridge tape drives. SWT engineers have investigated the problem. Generally, the performance of tar with SR10.4 is better than with SR10.3.5. However, under certain conditions, tar performance is worse with SR10.4 than SR10.3.5. The key to avoiding these conditions and improving performance is to use tar with the correct options for SR10.4. By using the correct options, tar performance with SR10.4 can be 30-40% better than with SR10.3. When you use tar, you specify the device you wish to write to by specifying (on the tar command line) the name of one of the device special files in the /dev directory. In Domain, each of these device special files has a type. You can find out the type of a file by using the Aegis command: /com/ld -tu Access to a device is mediated by a software module known as a type manager. (The type of the file determines which type manager will mediate access to the file.) Each type manager has different performance characteristics. SR10.4 uses a new type manager--"uct"--when reading or writing to /dev/rct8. SR10.3 uses the "mt" type manager when reading or writing to /dev/rct8. The following table contrasts the two type managers: SR10.4 uct type manager SR10.3 mt type manager o Writing or reading to the CT via o Writing or reading to the CT via /dev/rct8 uses the uct type manager. /dev/rct8 uses the mt type manager. o Provides better performance for o Provides better performance for writes of large chunks of data, numerous writes of small chunks of which is what tar does when used data, which is what tar does when with a large blocking factor. used with a small blocking factor (set via the b flag on the tar command line. o Does not buffer data. Writes o Accumulates data in a buffer. data to kernel immediately as When buffer reaches a certain size, received. (This is "correct" UNIX it passes data to the kernel, then behavior, important to customers to the CT drive. (Buffering sometimes who require strict UNIX behavior causes problems for customers who from tar.) Less efficient when it require strict UNIX behavior from tar.) is repeatedly called with small chunks of data. Efficiency can be increased by explicitly resetting the blocking factor. SETTING THE BLOCKING FACTOR FOR OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE With the uct or mt type manager, the tar command uses a small blocking factor by default. To get optimal performance in SR10.4, you must explicitly set the blocking factor to a large value on the tar command line. Note: A blocking factor of 512 is optimal for large files (100 kbytes or greater). For example with SR10.4, by using tar with a large blocking factor (512 in the following example) performance will be as good or better than the same command used with SR10.3: tar cfb /dev/rct8 512 /etc/salvol Without using an explicit large blocking factor (see following example) tar may not perform as well. tar cf /dev/rct8 /etc/salvol It is still possible to use the mt type manager with SR10.4. Write to: /dev/rctfp8 instead of /dev/rct8 To do so, you must first rewind the cartridge tape device. Use the following sequence of commands: /usr/apollo/bin/mt -f /dev/rctfp8 rewind tar cf /dev/rctfp8 NOTE--Be sure to use: /usr/apollo/bin/mt instead of /bsd4.3/usr/bin/mt OTHER FACTORS WHICH MAY AFFECT TAR PERFORMANCE In addition to the difference between type managers in SR10.4 and SR10.3 and the use of tar command line options, a number of other factors may affect tar performance. On machines with a small amount of physical memory and those that are running discless, tar may show decreased performance. 5.0 HP SWT SUPPORTS HP-UX OPERATING SYSTEM (Series 300/400) SWT now supports the HP-UX operating system (Series 300/400). As in the case of the Domain/OS, users of HP-UX will benefit from focused, customer-driven support through the year 2000. As with Domain, users will be able to maintain, mix or migrate their operating system investments. SWT will provide a stable environment for these users, as well as specific functionality critical to system interoperability and migration. 6.0 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Q: What does HP SWT's support of HP-UX mean to me? A: Whether you use Domain or HP-UX (or both) on Motorola 68000-based platforms, you will receive support at least through the year 2000. Enhancements, defect fixes and features will be driven by you and support revenues. HP is committed to provide interoperability between 68000-based HP-UX, Domain, and future releases of PA-RISC HP-UX. Q: Are Domain 10.4 and HP-UX 9.0 (Series 300/400) the last releases of these operating systems? A: No. HP will make the necessary investments to provide continuing enhancements and support of these operating systems. Q: Why transition the Domain and now HP-UX (68000) operating systems to SWT? A: The transfer of Domain and now HP-UX to SWT coincides with HP's decision to pursue further development of its more powerful, lower-priced Series 700 PA-RISC product line. As an organization dedicated to providing extended value and support to users of established HP software products, SWT can focus on a different set of unique customer needs.