HP OpenVMS Systems Documentation

V8.3

Before introducing an OpenVMS Version 8.2--1 system into an existing OpenVMS Cluster system, you must apply certain patch kits (also known as remedial kits) to your systems running earlier versions of OpenVMS. Note that these kits are version specific.

The versions listed in Table 4-1 are supported in a warranted configuration. For more information about these configurations, see the HP OpenVMS Version 8.2--1 for Integrity Servers Upgrade and Installation Manual.

Table 4-1 lists the facilities that require patch kits and the patch kit file names. Each patch kit has a corresponding readme file by the same name with a .README file extension.

You can either download the patch kits from the following website or contact your HP Support representative to receive the patch kits on media appropriate for your system:

V8.2

Before introducing an OpenVMS Version 8.2 (or higher) system into an existing OpenVMS Cluster system, you must apply certain patch kits (also known as remedial kits) to your systems running earlier versions of OpenVMS. If you are using Fibre Channel, XFC, or Volume Shadowing, additional patch kits are required. Note that these kits are version specific.

The versions listed in Table 4-2 are supported in either a warranted configuration or a migration pair configuration. For more information about these configurations, see the HP OpenVMS Cluster Systems or the HP OpenVMS Version 8.3 Upgrade and Installation Manual.

Table 4-2 lists the facilities that require patch kits and the patch ID names. Each patch kit has a corresponding readme file with the same name (file extension is .README).

You can either download the patch kits from the following web site (select the OpenVMS Software Patches option), or contact your HP support representative to receive the patch kits on media appropriate for your system:

Note that VAX systems cannot be in a cluster with Integrity servers. For a complete list of warranted groupings within a cluster, see the HP OpenVMS Version 8.3 Upgrade and Installation Manual.

4.37.2 API to Correct Incompatibility of FC and SCSI Multipath with Some Third-Party Products

V7.3-2

OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.2-1 introduced the multipath feature, which provides support for failover between the multiple paths that can exist between a system and a SCSI or Fibre Channel device. OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3-1 introduced support for failover between Fibre Channel multipath tape devices.

This multipath feature can be incompatible with some third-party disk-caching, disk-shadowing, or similar products. HP advises that you do not use such software on SCSI or Fibre Channel devices that are configured for multipath failover until this feature is supported by the producer of the software.

Third-party products that rely on altering the Driver Dispatch Table (DDT) of either the OpenVMS Alpha SCSI disk class driver (SYS$DKDRIVER.EXE), the OpenVMS Alpha SCSI tape class driver (SYS$MKDRIVER.EXE), or the SCSI generic class driver (SYS$GKDRIVER) may need to be modified in order to function correctly with the SCSI multipath feature.

Producers of such software can now modify their software using DDT Intercept Establisher routines introduced in OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3-2. For more information about these routines, see the HP OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--2 New Features and Documentation Overview manual.

For more information about OpenVMS Alpha SCSI and Fibre Channel multipath features, refer to Guidelines for OpenVMS Cluster Configurations.

4.37.3 DDT Intercept Establisher Routines and Device Configuration Notification Results

V8.3

To ensure proper behavior of certain routines, a patch kit is required. Using those routines without the required patch kit can result in system hangs, crashes, or data corruption, and is not supported by HP.

For more information about these routines, see the HP OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--2 New Features and Documentation Overview manual.

4.37.4 Cluster Performance Reduced with CI-LAN Circuit Switching

V7.3-1

In rare cases, in an OpenVMS Cluster configuration with both CI and multiple FDDI, 100 Mb/s or Gb/s Ethernet-based circuits, you might observe that SCS connections move between the CI and LAN circuits at intervals of approximately 1 minute. This frequent circuit switching can result in reduced cluster performance and may trigger mount verification of shadow set members.

PEdriver can detect and respond to LAN congestion that persists for a few seconds. When it detects a significant delay increase or packet losses on a LAN path, the PEdriver removes the path from use. When it detects that the path has improved, it begins using it again.

Under marginal conditions, the additional load on a LAN path resulting from its use for cluster traffic may cause its delay or packet losses to increase beyond acceptable limits. When the cluster load is removed, the path might appear to be sufficiently improved so that it will again come into use.

If a marginal LAN path's contribution to the LAN circuit's load class increases the circuit's load class above the CI's load class value of 140 when the marginal path is included (and, conversely, decreases the LAN circuit's load class below 140 when the path is excluded), SCS connections will move between CI and LAN circuits.

You can observe connections moving between LAN and CI circuits by using SHOW CLUSTER with the CONNECTION and CIRCUITS classes added.

Workarounds

If excessively frequent connection moves are observed, you can use one of the following workarounds:

• You can use SCACP or Availability Manager to assign a higher priority to the circuit, or the port you wish to be used, thus overriding automatic connection assignment and moving.
  Examples of SCACP commands are:

  $ MC SCACP SCACP> SET PORT PNA0 /PRIORITY=2 ! This will cause circuits from local ! CI port PNA0 to be chosen over ! lower priority circuits. SCACP> SET PORT PEA0 /PRIORITY=2 ! This will cause LAN circuits to be ! chosen over lower priority circuits.

• You can use the SCACP SHOW CHANNEL commands to determine the channels that are being switched into or out of use. You can use SCACP to explicitly exclude a specific channel by assigning it a lower priority value than the desired channels. For example:

  SCACP> SET CHANNEL LARRY /LOCAL=EWB/REMOTE=EWB /PRIORITY=-2

  
  Note that the CHANNEL and LAN device priority values in the range of max, max-1 are considered equivalent; that is, they are treated as if they both had the maximum priority value. A difference of 2 or more in priority values is necessary to exclude a channel or LAN device from use.

V7.3-1

While the INITIALIZE command is in progress on a device in a Fibre Channel multipath tape set, multipath failover to another member of the set is not supported. If the current path fails while another multipath tape device is being initialized, retry the INITIALIZE command after the tape device fails over to a functioning path.

This restriction will be removed in a future release.

4.37.6 No Automatic Failover for SCSI Multipath Medium Changers

V7.3-1

Automatic path switching is not implemented in OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3-1 or higher for SCSI medium changers (tape robots) attached to Fibre Channel using a Fibre-to-SCSI tape bridge. Multiple paths can be configured for such devices, but the only way to switch from one path to another is to use manual path switching with the SET DEVICE/SWITCH command.

This restriction will be removed in a future release.

4.38 OpenVMS Galaxy (Alpha Only)

The following sections contain notes pertaining to OpenVMS Galaxy systems.

Note that OpenVMS Galaxy is supported on OpenVMS Alpha systems only.

4.38.1 Galaxy Definitions

V8.2

Because the HP OpenVMS Alpha Partitioning and Galaxy Guide is not being updated for this release, this note provides improved definitions of the word Galaxy, which depends on context.

V8.2-1

If you have multiple nPartitions on your HP Integrity rx7620, HP Integrity rx8620, or HP Integrity Superdome servers, and you are running a multi-operating system environment with OpenVMS on one of the nPartitions, one of the other operating systems might register an error or event on the System Event Log (SEL) while OpenVMS is booting. OpenVMS holds the SEL until it has produced a table of Field Replaceable Units (FRU), which might cause other operating systems to register an error or an event.

4.39.1 Galaxy on ES40: Uncompressed Dump Limitation

Permanent Restriction

On AlphaServer ES40 Galaxy systems, you cannot write a raw (uncompressed) dump from instance 1 if instance 1's memory starts at or above 4 GB (physical). Instead, you must write a compressed dump.

4.39.2 Galaxy on ES40: Turning Off Fastpath

Permanent Restriction

When you implement Galaxy on an AlphaServer ES40 system, you must turn off Fast Path on instance 1. Do this by setting the SYSGEN parameter FAST_PATH to 0 on that instance.

If you do not turn off Fastpath on instance 1, I/O on instance 1 will hang when instance 0 is rebooted. This hang will continue until the PCI bus is reset and instance 1 rebooted. If there is shared SCSI or Fibre Channel, I/O will hang on the sharing nodes and all paths to those devices will be disabled.

4.40 Corrupted Version 2 Format Database

V7.3-2

If you create eight or more volatile subkeys in a key tree and then reboot a standalone system or a cluster, the OpenVMS Registry server can corrupt a Version 2 format Registry database when the server starts up after the reboot.

To avoid this problem, do one of the following:

• Do not use volatile keys.
• Use a Version 1 format database.

Note that the Advanced Server for OpenVMS and COM for OpenVMS do not create volatile keys.