HP Availability Manager - Version 2.5 Release Notes The following notes address late-breaking information and known problems for the HP Availability Manager Version 2.5. These notes fall into the following categories: o Installation note o New and changed features o Problems corrected o Operation notes o Display notes 1 Installation Notes The notes in this section are related to the preinstallation and installation of the Availability Manager software. 1.1 Uninstall Prior Versions Before Installing the New Kit On both Windows and OpenVMS systems, check the following list to see if any item applies to you. If so, follow the instructions in the appropriate section before installing Version 2.5: o On Windows systems, you must first uninstall Versions 2.3 and lower. o On OpenVMS systems, perform one of the following steps: - If you have never installed the Availability Manager on your system, you can install Version 2.5 directly. - If you have installed a version of the Availability Manager prior to Version 2.4 and you are running OpenVMS Version 6.2 through Version 7.3-1 or its variants, you must perform the following steps: a. Uninstall the previous version of the Availability Manager. b. Install the Availability Manager Data Collector Version 2.4 kit. c. Install the Version 2.5 kit. 1 - If you have installed a version of the Availability Manager prior to Version 2.4 and you are running OpenVMS Version 7.3 or higher, you must perform the following steps: a. Uninstall the previous version of the Availability Manager. b. Install the Version 2.5 kit. These requirements are explained in the Version 2.5 installation instructions. 1.2 Installing from an ODS-5 Disk If you install the Version 2.5 kit from an ODS-5 disk, the file name must be in all-capital letters for the kit to install correctly. 1.3 Copy Your AVAILMAN.INI File Prior to installation, you might want to make a copy of your AVAILMAN.INI file to save your customizations such as the groups you usually monitor. On Windows systems, also delete any desktop shortcuts for previous versions of the Availability Manager because they will be invalid with the new version. 2 New and Changed Features The following sections discuss new and changed features introduced in Version 2.5 of the Availability Manager. 2.1 I64 Data Analyzer Introduced Version 2.5 introduces the Availability Manager Data Analyzer for the I64 platform. With this new feature, you can run both the Data Analyzer and Data Collector on i64 nodes. 2.2 OPCOM and OpenView Are Notified of Events The Data Collector has logged all access denials and executed write instructions to the operator communications manager (OPCOM) for some time. OPCOM has also put messages in the SYS$MANAGER:OPERATOR.LOG file. Beginning in Version 2.5, you can also select other events to be signalled to OPCOM when they exceed a specified criteria. 2 After you install and configure HP OpenView on your system, you can determine which events you want the Availability Manager to signal to OpenView if they exceed certain thresholds. These thresholds are a function of the severity of an event and the length of time it is displayed in the Event pane. New events are displayed in the Events pane if the Availability Manager is unable to initiate communication with or send messages to OPCOM or OpenView. 2.3 New Customization Features New customization features allow you to include or exclude groups of nodes or individual nodes from your display. New icons represent the levels at which you can customize the collection of data. The following sections describe these new customization features. 2.3.1 Selecting Groups and Nodes to Display When you first enter the Availability Manager and select the "Customize" option at the top of the main System Overview page, the Availability Manager displays the Application Settings page on which you choose the groups or node you want to display. You can choose to include or exclude whole groups of nodes or individual nodes from your display, or you can include all of the nodes on your system. 2.3.2 Recognizing Icons That Represent Customization Levels On Customization pages, the icons described in Table 1 are now displayed: Table 1 Customization Icons ___________________________________________________________ Icon Level Explanation ___________________________________________________________ Graph A.M. Current setting is from the built- Default in A.M. Defaults. Magnifying Application Current setting is from the glass Application level. (continued on next page) 3 Table 1 (Cont.) Customization Icons ___________________________________________________________ Icon Level Explanation ___________________________________________________________ Swoosh OpenVMS Current setting has been modified Operating at the OpenVMS Operating System System Level. Note: A "swoosh" is a broad, curved arrow. Double Group Current setting has been modified monitors at the group level. Single Node Current setting has been modified monitor at the node level. ___________________________________________________________ For more information, refer to the chapter on customization in HP OpenVMS Availability Manager User's Guide. Additional Information Displayed on Customization Pages Availability Manager Customization pages now display additional information in icons: o Bottom left: icon representing the level of customization to be modified (for example, double monitors, which represent the group level) o Top right: icon representing the level to which the customization will revert if you click "Use default values"; for example, a graph indicates that the setting will revert to the Availability Manager default value. Customization pages also contain many more tooltips that provide more information about icons and customization options. 2.4 Diagnostics File Added for Improved Customer Support The file SYS$MANAGER:AMDS$DIAGNOSTICS.COM has been added to the kit. When you submit a problem report to HP, executing this file and submitting its output helps HP determine what the problem is. 2.5 New Help for AMDS$STARTUP Procedure When you enter the $ @SYS$STARTUP:AMDS$STARTUP HELP command, the Availability Manager displays help on the parameters that are available for this procedure. 4 2.6 New Logging Messages When Setting Logicals Setting the following logicals might result in the output of new logging messages: o AMDS$RM_DEFAULT_INTERVAL o AMDS$RM_SECONDARY_INTERVAL o AMDS$NUM_DL_READS o AMDS$RM_MAX_BRANCHES If you set one of these logicals above the maximum or below the minimum allowed values, the $ @SYS$STARTUP:AMDS$STARTUP START or RESTART command displays one or more of the following messages, telling you what the maximum or minimum value is and the value that will be used. For example, if you set AMDS$RM_SECONDARY_INTERVAL to 2000, the following message is displayed: %AMDS-I-LOGINTVALRESET, AMDS$RM_SECONDARY_INTERVAL value has been reset to 1800 from 2000 -AMDS-I-LOGINTVALMAX, maximum value is 1800 If you set AMDS$RM_SECONDARY_INTERVAL to 2, the following message is displayed: %AMDS-I-LOGINTVALRESET, AMDS$RM_SECONDARY_INTERVAL value has been reset to 90 from 2 -AMDS-I-LOGINTVALMIN, minimum value is 5 The identification prefixes in the messages have the following meanings: ___________________________________________________________ Prefix Meaning ___________________________________________________________ LOGINTVALRESET A value has been reset because the desired value was higher than the maximum or lower than the minimum value, or was an invalid value. In the examples, the first value is the reset value, and the second value is the desired value. 5 ___________________________________________________________ Prefix Meaning ___________________________________________________________ LOGINTVALMAX A secondary message stating what the maximum value is LOGINTVALMIN A secondary message stating what the minimum value is ___________________________________________________________ 3 Problems Corrected The following sections discuss problems that have been corrected in Version 2.5 of the Availability Manager. 3.1 Data Collector Kits Save Customizations That Users Have Made Previous Data Collector kits renamed the files AMDS$LOGICALS.COM and AMDS$DRIVER_ACCESS.DAT to AMDS$LOGICALS.COM_OLD and AMDS$DRIVER_ACCESS.DAT_OLD. In Version 2.5 if these two files exist, they are left on the system as is. If they do not exist, then the kit supplies initial copies from the AMDS$LOGICALS.TEMPLATE and AMDS$DRIVER_ACCESS.TEMPLATE files. This preserves the customizations users have made to these files. Future versions of the Availability Manager Data Collector might add to or change customization options. The Data Collector kit will compare the current and previous versions of the .TEMPLATE files for changes. If changes exist, the installation will signal that changes have been made and provide the DCL command to show the changes. This will enable users to merge these changes into the AMDS$LOGICALS.COM and AMDS$DRIVER_ACCESS.DAT files. 3.2 Event Pane Menu Options on I64 Systems Fixed If you right-click in the Event pane, the Availability Manager displays a menu that includes the following options: o Display o Customize These options, which have not worked on prior versions of the Availability Manager on I64 systems, do work on Version 2.5. 6 3.3 Virtual Circuit Fixes Corrected The initial values for the Transmit Checksumming and Compression fixes are now displayed correctly. All virtual circuit fixes in which the remote node name is less than six characters previously failed. This problem has been corrected. 3.4 Additions to Virtual Circuit Displays Transmit options have been added to the Transmit page of the Virtual Circuit Details display and to the Virtual Circuit Summary on the Cluster page. These options allow you to see if packet checksumming or compression, or both, are enabled for the virtual circuit selected. The ECS Maximum Delay field has been added to the LAN VC Channel Selection Data page. This shows the management- specified lower limit on the maximum delay an ECS member channel can have. 3.5 LAN Channel Fixes Corrected The initial values that are displayed for the maximum packet size fix are now displayed correctly. 3.6 Improved Formatting of Displays Formatting of data display in the Events pane and the Cluster Summary page has been improved for the OpenVMS Data Analyzer. 3.7 Improved Data Recovery for Network Connections to Nodes The detection of network transmission errors for packets of data has been improved. Packets with transmission errors generate a PKTCER event; this event signals that the packet checksum verification failed. This improved method is the default for Version 2.5 of the Data Analyzer and Data Collector. 4 Operation Notes/Restrictions The following sections contain notes pertaining to the operation of the Availability Manager Version 2.5, including restrictions on operation. 7 4.1 Running Reflective Memory by GE Fanuc and Availability Manager The Reflective Memory product by GE Fanuc sets up the device RMA0: as part of its normal operation. Because the Availability Manager Data Collector also creates the device RMA0:, both products cannot run on the same node at the same time. 4.2 Administrator Account Required to Run the Availability Manager On Windows 2000 and Windows XP platforms, the Data Analyzer must be run from an account in the Administrator group. This restriction will be removed in a future release of the Availability Manager. 4.3 Problem Displaying Large Numbers of Processes or Disks Very busy networks can sometimes interfere with the transfer of data between the Data Analyzer and the Data Collector. This problem is noticeable when you display large numbers of disks or processes. The number of disks or processes might change temporarily because of a lost data message. This problem will be corrected in a future release. 4.4 Local Administrator Account Required for Windows Installation To install the Availability Manager on a Windows system, you must use the local Administrator account. Some users have had problems when they use a Windows domain account that has Administrator privileges instead. For example, a failure message might appear saying "Failure to install AMNDIS50" after most of the installation is complete. This problem will be corrected in a future release. 5 Display Notes The following sections contain notes pertaining to the display of Data Analyzer data on all platforms and on OpenVMS systems. 8 5.1 Problems Using the Data Analyzer on All Platforms The following sections contain notes about the display of the Data Analyzer on Windows and OpenVMS platforms in Version 2.5. 5.1.1 Events Sometimes Displayed After Background Collection Stops The Data Analyzer sometimes displays events after users customize their systems to stop collecting a particular kind of data. This is most likely to occur when the Data Analyzer is monitoring many nodes. Under these conditions, a data handler sometimes clears events before all pending packets have been processed. The events based on the data in these packets are displayed even though users have requested that this data not be collected. 5.1.2 Truncated LAN Channel Summary Display On versions of OpenVMS prior to Version 7.3-1, the LAN Channel Summary display might be disabled for some OpenVMS nodes if there are more than seven channels for that virtual circuit. This problem results from a restriction in the OpenVMS Version 7.3 PEDRIVER. For this condition, the following error message is displayed: Error retrieving ChSumLAN data, error code=0x85 (Continuation data disallowed for request) This problem was corrected in the OpenVMS Version 7.3-1 PEDRIVER. 5.2 Problem Using the Data Analyzer on OpenVMS Systems: Long Runs Exhaust XLIB Resource ID On older versions of DECwindows Motif, a resource ID allocation scheme works poorly with the Motif support in Java for OpenVMS. As a result, long-running Availability Manager sessions might stop updating the display at a time that depends on the speed of the OpenVMS machine. For example, a session running on a dual-processor 275 MHz system reported the following after 14 hours: Xlib: resource ID allocation space exhausted! On faster machines, this message was reported after only 8 hours. This problem appears to have been corrected in DECwindows Motif Version 1.3-1. 9