HP OpenVMS Systems Documentation

Always read the product documentation prior to using the software. This chapter describes additional guidelines for using the PATHWORKS Advanced Server software.

3.1 Disk Space Requirements

The installation software calculates the system disk space required for installation. The installation software needs room on the system disk to unpack the savesets containing the software options requested by the installer. The installation procedure calculates the needed space based on the sizes of the savesets to be unpacked, adding an additional 4500 blocks needed for the unpacking process. (The actual space occupied by the PATHWORKS Advanced Server software after installation and configuration might be less, but additional room is needed on the installation device to run the configuration procedure (PWRK$CONFIG).)

Table 3-1 lists the amount of free disk space on the OpenVMS system disk that is required during the installation procedure.

3.2 Upgrading a Version 5 Member Server or Standalone Server

Files with security specified entirely according to PATHWORKS V5 for OpenVMS (LAN Manager) security can be upgraded by the Upgrade utility. As an alternative, you can enable the Advanced Server to perform dynamic security upgrades of the files when they are accessed by the server. Compaq recommends letting the Upgrade utility perform the file security upgrade, especially if you are upgrading a BDC or standalone server to a member server.

When a member server performs dynamic security upgrade of PATHWORKS V5 for OpenVMS (LAN Manager) files, it upgrades the security ACE for a user or group by first looking in the member server's local Security Account Manager (SAM) database for the security identifier (SID) of the user/group. If the member server does not find the user/group in the local SAM, it then looks for the SID in the SAM on the primary domain controller (PDC). When it finds the SID, it creates an upgraded (Version 6.0) security descriptor and applies it to the file. All built-in users and groups, such as Administrator and Administrators, are located in the member server's local SAM database. So the SIDS of built-in users and groups will be from the local SAM database.

As an example, all Version 5 security ACEs for the Version 5 user ADMIN (where the Version 5 user ADMIN is upgraded to the Version 6 user Administrator during the User upgrade) will be upgraded using the SID from the member server's local SAM database.

3.3 Server Installation in OpenVMS Clusters with Multiple System Disks

When installing the Advanced Server on an OpenVMS Cluster member, you must shut down the server and, possibly, reboot the systems running the server, if both of the following conditions are true:

• Two or more Alpha systems, or two or more VAX systems, use multiple system disks.
• The Advanced Server is already running on one or more cluster members booted from a system disk other than the one on which the installation is occuring.

To avoid having to reboot the systems that are already running the Advanced Server, the system administrator can deassign the logical name (PWRK$REBOOT_REQUIRED) that forces the reboot to occur on each affected node, as follows:

 $ DEASSIGN/SYSTEM PWRK$REBOOT_REQUIRED

The Advanced Server provides the following configuration utilities:

• The PWRK$CONFIG.COM configuration procedure for determining the initial setup and configuration parameters. The procedure also allows you to start the Advanced Server. You can use the procedure to reconfigure the server at a later time.
• The Configuration Manager for managing server-specific configuration parameters that affect the system environment in which the Advanced Server operates. The PWRK$CONFIG.COM configuration procedure gives you the option of invoking the Configuration Manager, or you can invoke it manually with the ADMINISTER/CONFIGURATION command at the OpenVMS DCL prompt.

In addition, the LANMAN.INI file stores server parameters that affect the behavior of the Advanced Server but not, for the most part, file server resource consumption.

3.4.1 Initial Server Configuration Procedure

The PWRK$CONFIG.COM configuration procedure allows you to:

• Perform basic on-disk structure setup
• Modify server system environment parameters (using the Configuration Manager)
• Start the Advanced Server
• Modify initial server configuration parameters that determine, for example:
  • Domain administrator account information
  • Domain name
  • Whether to run the License Server
  • Whether to enable certain services (Timesource, Alerter, and Netlogon)
  • Server role (primary or backup domain controller)
  • Computer name
  • Server cluster alias
  • Server announcement string

You run the PWRK$CONFIG.COM configuration procedure after installing the Advanced Server. You may run it again at a later time if you want to reconfigure the Advanced Server. For more information about installing and configuring the PATHWORKS for OpenVMS (Advanced Server) software, refer to the Compaq PATHWORKS for OpenVMS (Advanced Server) Server Installation and Configuration Guide.

3.4.2 Modifying Server System Environment Parameters

To manage server-specific configuration parameters that determine the system environment in which the server operates, you can use the Configuration Manager, a character-cell user interface. These parameters are, for the most part, directly or indirectly related to the environment in which the Advanced Server operates, such as the server's usage of OpenVMS system resources and physical memory. Examples of these parameters include the server's client capacity, the size of its data cache, and which network transports it should use. The parameters modified by the Configuration Manager are not stored in the LANMAN.INI file.

The PWRK$CONFIG.COM configuration procedure gives you the option of invoking the Configuration Manager. After installing and configuring your server, you can also invoke the Configuration Manager at the OpenVMS DCL ($) prompt as follows:

$ ADMINISTER/CONFIGURATION

Refer to the Compaq PATHWORKS for OpenVMS (Advanced Server) Server Administrator's Guide for more information about using the Configuration Manager.

3.4.3 LANMAN.INI Parameters

The LANMAN.INI configuration file stores parameters that affect the behavior of the Advanced Server but not, for the most part, file server resource consumption. Examples of these parameters include the name for the Advanced Server on the network, its cluster alias, values that specify how the Advanced Server deals with Browser activity, values that affect network logon, and values that define the shares created automatically by the Advanced Server.

When the PATHWORKS Advanced Server is installed, the LANMAN.INI file contains values for certain keywords. Other keywords, and the titles of the sections to which they belong, are added when you run the Configuration Manager or edit the LANMAN.INI file. If a keyword does not appear in the file (or is commented out with a semicolon), it is set to its default value.

Before you change any keywords in the LANMAN.INI file, you should understand the relationship between the LANMAN.INI file entries and server parameter default settings. All server parameters have default settings.

With certain exceptions, you can edit the LANMAN.INI file to set keywords to values other than the server defaults. Server parameter defaults do not appear in the LANMAN.INI file. A value assigned to any keyword in the LANMAN.INI file always supersedes the default value for that keyword.

The keywords whose value you cannot change by editing the LANMAN.INI file are:

• domain
• listenname
• pwrkalias

To change these parameters, use the PWRK$CONFIG.COM configuration command procedure.

When you want to set the value of a keyword to something other than the default, you must edit the LANMAN.INI file, locate or add the appropriate section title in the file, and then add the desired keyword=value entry. For more information, refer to the Compaq PATHWORKS for OpenVMS (Advanced Server) Server Administrator's Guide.

3.5 Startup of the Advanced Server

Beginning with PATHWORKS V6.0C-ECO1, when you invoke the PWRK$STARTUP procedure, or use the PWSTART command defined in the command definition file SYS$STARTUP:PWRK$DEFINE_COMMANDS.COM, the PWRK$STARTUP script no longer stops the file server if it is running. Instead, it reports PATHWORKS is running and continues. PWRK$STARTUP.COM issues the following message and exits with a status of 1 if the file server is already running:

PWRK-I-RUNNING, Advanced Server is already running on this node

If you would like the PWRK$STARTUP procedure (or PWSTART command) to stop the server automatically, use the PWRESTART command (contained in the PWRK$DEFINE_COMMANDS.COM file). PWRESTART invokes PWRK$STARTUP with RESTART as the P1 parameter, which shuts down the server before restarting.

To shut down and restart a file server, use one of the following:

• PWSTOP command, followed by PWSTART
• PWRESTART command
• PWSTART RESTART command

If the server is already running, a message will indicate so. If it is not running, it will start.

3.6 Shutting Down the OpenVMS System with the Advanced Server

Before shutting down the OpenVMS system, Compaq recommends that you first stop the Advanced Server.

3.7 Guideline for File Share Description Strings

Compaq recommends that the description (comment) strings defined for file or directory shares be limited to at most 32 characters in length. Strings exceeding that limit are not cached by the file server, and therefore, for each server transaction, must be accessed from disk, at the expense of server performance.

3.8 Startup THREAD Resume Error Message

When the server starts up, a "THREAD\resume" error message might appear, as in the following example:

24-JAN-2000 15:16:03.40 20400137:AST_LVL  THREAD\resume_0: threadinit
has not been called!!
24-JAN-2000 15:16:03.41 20400137:AST_LVL    results of the execution
of this function are unpredictable!!

The condition being reported is benign and does not affect the operation of the file server. You can safely ignore this error message.

3.9 "LANMAN.INI Has an Unknown Keyword" Messages in System Event Log

The system event log might include "LANMAN.INI Has an Unknown Keyword" error messages such as the following:

T Date     Time        Source    Category    Event  User    Computer
- -------- ----------- --------- ----------- ------ ------- ----------
W 02/15/99 10:32:15 AM SERVER    None        6123   N/A     ALP010
ASU6123: LANMAN.INI has an unknown keyword [vmsserver] hostpasswordsync.

These messages might indicate that the LANMAN.INI file includes outdated parameters (for example, PATHWORKS V5 parameters that are no longer valid with PATHWORKS V6 and later versions), or that the parameters are misspelled.

To prevent these messages from appearing again, modify the LANMAN.INI file to correct the spelling of misspelled parameters and to remove any outdated parameters.

3.10 The Advanced Server in an OpenVMS Cluster

The following list summarizes some of the most important considerations for servers in an OpenVMS Cluster. Refer to the appropriate documentation for more information.

3.10.1 Installation and Configuration Considerations for Clusters

• PATHWORKS for OpenVMS (Advanced Server) servers running in an OpenVMS Cluster share the same copy of the user accounts and shares databases and assume a single role, either a primary domain controller (PDC) or a backup domain controller (BDC). They operate as a single entity identified by the Advanced Server cluster alias name.
• The Advanced Server cluster alias is transport independent. The DECnet cluster alias name is used by the DECnet transport only. OpenVMS Clusters running TCP/IP may have a cluster alias defined for the purpose of providing failover for Network File System (NFS) clients (this cluster alias is referred to as the TCP/IP cluster impersonator name). HP strongly recommends that the Advanced Server cluster alias not be the same as the TCP/IP cluster impersonator name.
• If you plan to use the TCP/IP transport, ensure that all cluster members on which the Advanced Server will run are in the same TCP/IP subnet.
• Do not use the name of the domain as the Advanced Server cluster alias; if they are the same, the NetLogon service will fail to start.
• On each cluster member that you want to use as a file and print server, run the Advanced Server configuration command procedure (PWRK$CONFIG.COM) before you start the server. This ensures that each node has its appropriate parameters set and enough resources to run the server. You can then use the SYSMAN utility to start the server on all cluster members.
• All cluster members that will run the Advanced Server must share a common:
  • System user authorization file (SYSUAF.DAT)
  • Rightslist file (RIGHTSLIST.DAT)
  • Advanced Server data directory location (PWRK$COMMONROOT:)
• On an OpenVMS Cluster with multiple system disks, all nodes on which you plan to run the Advanced Server must use the same disk device (PWRK$COMMONROOT:, as noted previously) to store and access Advanced Server data files. Using separate disks on separate cluster members is strictly prohibited.
• If you are using external authentication, HP recommends that you set up external authentication software on all the nodes in the cluster. You can set up external authentication support on nodes that do not run Compaq OpenVMS file servers. For details about setting up external authentication in OpenVMS Clusters, refer to the Compaq PATHWORKS for OpenVMS (Advanced Server) Server Installation and Configuration Guide.
• You can run the License Server on an OpenVMS Cluster with the Advanced Server, where cluster failover provides increased availability. (Cluster failover also provides increased availability for the Advanced Server file server.)
• To gain the benefits of load balancing and failover, clients should connect to the Advanced Server using the Advanced Server cluster alias. Failover occurs when the node to which the client is connected becomes unavailable; the client is reconnected (using the Advanced Server alias) to the cluster member that is least loaded.
  The Advanced Server does not dynamically register the Advanced Server cluster alias with the WINS server. Therefore, you should define a static multihomed entry for the Advanced Server cluster alias in the WINS database. In addition, define a static entry for the Advanced Server cluster alias in the LMHOSTS file of each client that will access the server but is not using WINS. To gain the benefits of load balancing and failover using DNS, you might have to remove the static multihomed entry for the Advanced Server cluster alias from each client's WINS database. (If Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT clients aer configured to use both WINS and DNS for NetBIOS name resolution, they first query the WINS server to resolve the name.) Likewise, remove any static entries for the server cluster alias from the LMHOSTS file and local hosts file on any clients that will access the Advanced Server and have DNS enabled for name resolution on those clients. For more information on setting up load balancing, refer to the Compaq PATHWORKS for OpenVMS (Advanced Server) Server Administrator's Guide. Refer to the Compaq TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Management guide for more details on configuring the required TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS software.
• Other domain controllers (including the PDC) that are not in the same subnet as the Advanced Server cluster must add an entry for the Advanced Server cluster alias to their LMHOSTS file. This assumes they are not using other methods (WINS or DNS) for resolving NetBIOS names. For domain operations, all the domain controllers in the cluster operate as a single domain controller identified by the Advanced Server cluster alias name, rather than by the specific computer names of the individual cluster members. However, because the LMHOSTS file does not offer any means for mapping multiple IP addresses to a single NetBIOS name, the entry for the Advanced Server cluster alias must be mapped to the IP address of one specific server cluster member. If the Advanced Server is stopped on that cluster member, you must modify the LMHOSTS file on all clients and servers to map the cluster alias name to the IP address of a cluster member on which the Advanced Server is still running. On systems running a Microsoft Windows operating system, the NetBIOS name cache must also be reloaded using the command NBTSTAT -R (capital R required).
  Due to the LMHOSTS limitations noted above, it is difficult (and perhaps unmanageable) to gain the benefits of load balancing and failover using an LMHOSTS file.

• To perform administrative functions on a particular cluster member, you must connect to that member by using its specific node name, rather than the cluster alias.
• Use the PWRK$CONFIG configuration procedure to modify the cluster alias.
• OpenVMS disk devices mounted clusterwide are offered to users as shared devices (autoshares) by all server nodes in an OpenVMS Cluster system. Devices mounted on a specific server (not clusterwide) are accessible to users connected to that server only. You can make a device available clusterwide by using the AutoShare keyword in the LANMAN.INI file. You can restrict device availability using the NoAutoshare keyword. In addition, you can control the devices to be automatically shared on a single node in the cluster, using the Autoshare_nodename and NoAutoshare_nodename values.

• The client license product authorization keys (PAKs) must be loaded on the system that runs the License Server. In an OpenVMS Cluster, the PAKs must be loaded in a shared license database available to all cluster members.
• When registering and loading a new Advanced Server license PAK on an OpenVMS Cluster, use the LICENSE REGISTER command on one node of the cluster to register the PAK and then use the LICENSE LOAD command on each cluster member to load the licenses on that cluster member. This ensures that Advanced Server license components running on any member of the cluster will be able to detect the new licenses.
• When using server-based licenses for access to file and print services in an OpenVMS Cluster environment, HP recommends that clients connect to the cluster using the Advanced Server cluster alias, if this option is available. Clients connecting using the alias consume one server-based license for each connection to a different cluster member. Clients connecting directly to specific cluster members consume one server-based license for each connection to a different cluster member. A client can map multiple drives and printers to a single server while consuming a single server-based license.
• As noted previously, you can run the License Server on an OpenVMS Cluster with the Advanced Server, taking advantage of cluster failover in the event that license services terminate on the node running the active License Server. Normally, the License Server process (PWRK$LICENSE_S) is started on every node of the OpenVMS Cluster that starts the file server, but only one License Server process is active at any one time. The other License Server processes remain dormant until an event, such as system shutdown or a system failure, causes the active License Server process to stop. When the active License Server stops, one of the dormant License Servers becomes active and continues to provide license services to clients.
  In most cases, HP recommends that you run the License Server on all nodes of the cluster that run the file server, for maximum availability. The exception is the case where the License Server will serve licenses to WAN clients. Then you will want to limit the License Server to running on one node of the cluster. For more information, refer to the Compaq Advanced Server for OpenVMS Guide to Managing Advanced Server Licenses.
  For additional information on licensing, see Section 3.12, Licensing Information.

PATHWORKS for OpenVMS (Advanced Server) versions prior to V6.0C use the PWRK$LMDMN process to validate logons and replicate the domain security accounts database. Now the PWRK$LMSRV process provides this functionality instead. As noted in Section 2.2.3, Domain Database Replication and Network Logon Performance Improvement, this serves to streamline the operation of the Advanced Server, especially during replication.

The PWRK$LMDMN process and its associated startup command file (PWRK$LMDMN_STARTUP.COM) are no longer part of the software kit and are not installed with the software.