Best of

Hidden Value

&

net.digest

 

Note: This compendium was published in early 2001 by the parent company of The 3000 NewsWire. It appears here with permission of 3000 NewsWire LLC, publisher of The 3000 NewsWire, complete and unedited.

Preface

These items were compiled from the Hidden Value and net.digest columns that appeared in The 3000 NewsWire from January 1997 through June 2000.

If an individual’s postings are quoted at length then attribution is given. If there is no attribution, then the text is a merging of information from multiple individuals including the editor.

Where known, we indicate the necessary OS level for a feature. However, the exact release in which a feature was introduced is often unclear. Most features discussed will be available to users on late 5.5 PowerPatches. If 6.0 or 6.5 is needed it is usually, though not always, stated.

Also note that, whenever possible, tips have been checked for accuracy or are known to be correct based upon the editor's experience. There may still be typographical errors, but all efforts have been made to minimize them.

Table of Contents

1. Backups and Tape Management

1.1 Remotely putting a loaded tape online
1.2 Optimum blocking factors for tape
1.3 Controlling compression on a DDS drive
1.4 Using a DDS-3 drive to replace a DDS-2, and what to watch out for
1.5 Determining the contents and creation date of a STORE tape
1.6 Configuring a tape drive for AUTOREPLY
1.7 The "optimum" file set for a complete system backup
1.8 How to do tape-to-tape, tape-to-disk and disk-to-tape copies
1.9 Storing a system’s directory and accounting structure
1.10 How to identify only Posix files in a file set
1.11 Specifying and excluding only Posix files
1.12 Creating a self-scheduling backup job
1.13 Recovering UDC settings
1.14 Using multiple tape drives with plain old FOS STORE
1.15 How to determine if hardware compression is enabled for a DDS tape drive
1.16 The persistence of DEVCTRL settings
1.17 Hardware versus software compression
1.18 Reading tapes produced on other systems
1.19 Restoring files from one group/account to another group/account
1.20 What to do when you get "FILES NOT RESTORED – CREATOR NOT IN DIRECTORY"
1.21 How RESTORE replaces an existing file
1.22 The complete story on which DDS tapes can be used in which DDS drives

2. CI and Shell

2.1 How to eliminate the "END OF PROGRAM" message
2.2 Using FINFO to determine if a file is being accessed by another process
2.3 Erasing (or resetting) the CI REDO stack
2.4 Temporary domain files versus permanent domain files
2.5 Obtaining the spool file ID for the $STDLIST of any given job, executing or not
2.6 Numeric versus string CI variables
2.7 How to tell an MPE/iX 6.0 system from an MPE/iX 5.5 system
2.8 $OLDPASS and $NEWPASS
2.9 LISTF versus LISTFILE
2.10 CI functions
2.11 Listing files in date order, sorted by date modified, accessed or created
2.12 Using the contents of the redo stack in a command file
2.13 Reading records from a file into a variable
2.14 Symbolic links
2.15 UDCs, the whole story
2.16 What to do when you lose character echo
2.17 Dynamically controlling BREAK
2.18 Changing accounts without signing off – well sort of
2.19 Modifying HPPATH
2.20 Customizing HPPROMPT
2.21 How to check the status of one file equation out of many
2.22 ESCAPE, HPAUTOCONT, HPCONTINUE and HPMSGFENCE
2.23 How to scan a set of files for a specific string
2.24 The use of "brackets" ([]) in CI programming
2.25 The maximum length of a CI command line
2.26 How to replace a file that is currently being accessed
2.27 Moving files to another account
2.28 Selective listing of files by code type
2.29 Multiple commands on one line
2.30 Counting files
2.31 Viewing symbolic links
2.32 Converting text to uppercase
2.33 Searching for a string in a set of files

3. Diagnostics and Troubleshooting

3.1 What to check when the password is displayed
3.2 Resetting an internal modem
3.3 WARN E040 and WARN EF403.5
3.4 Using SHOWPROC in trouble shooting
3.5 KILLSESS
3.6 Replacing a flaky transceiver
3.7 Determining system memory
3.8 Uploading and downloading files over LDEV 21
3.9 How to fix "MAXIMUM USER COUNT PER LOG PROCESS REACHED"
3.10 Batch jobs sit in the WAIT state and never run
3.11 Finding the MAC address of a DTC 16
3.12 A 9x9 system will not boot to MPE/iX 6.0 during an upgrade
3.13 Temporarily stopping the system from checking memory on boot up
3.14 How to tell is a floating point co-processor is installed
3.15 Un-hanging a DTC printer
3.16 Dealing with "runaway" jobs
3.17 "Quarantined" files
3.18 Using debug to decode error codes

4. Disk and File Management

4.1 Displaying information about large files
4.2 Does LDEV 1 need to be an internal drive?
4.3 "Erasing" disks
4.4 Can two HP3000s share the same disk drives?
4.5 Incorporating the drives from one user volume set into another set
4.6 NEWGROUP and user volumes
4.7 What ":C", "V" and ":S" mean in a STORE listing
4.8 Moving ALL drives/data to another system - the standard approach
4.9 Moving ALL drives/data to another system – a novel new approach
4.10 DIRECTORY gotcha one
4.11 DIRECTORY gotcha two
4.12 Adding a disk drive on the fly without a reload
4.13 The drives have been removed but the LDEVs are still there
4.14 The maximum number of spindles per F/W SCSI interface
4.15 A checklist for a re-install
4.16 Blocking factors

5. IMAGE/SQL and Allbase/SQL

5.1 Recovering a missing root file
5.2 Capacity, block size and maximum number of blocks
5.3 What is HWMPUT?
5.4 Storing records in chronological order in a TurboIMAGE dataset
5.5 JUMBO caveats
5.6 Determining the number of chunks in a JUMBO dataset
5.7 Making existing databases read only
5.8 Column aliases in Allbase
5.9 The maximum number of items allowed in a TurboIMAGE dataset
5.10 Query, delete and the High Water Mark (HWM)
5.11The NUMBERS command in QUERY
5.12 Programmatically determining if DDX is enabled
5.13 IMAGE logging and "maximum user count per logging process reached (-110)
5.14 What does it mean when FORM SETS show a set with a negative number of entries?
5.15 Allbase and BLOBs
5.16 Locking weirdness
5.17 CIUPDATE and QUERY
5.18 Calculating disk space required for a database
5.19 IMAGE and "deadly embraces"
5.20 Stamping all datasets with the same modification date/time
5.21 Attaching two databases with the same name to one DBE
5.22 To log, or not to log
5.23 All about TurboIMAGE prefetch
5.24 What really happens when you delete the last entry in a detail dataset

6. Miscellaneous MPE

6.1 Running a program with a lockword from a batch job
6.2 Using the internal CD-ROM on your HP e3000
6.3 Copying files across account boundaries
6.4 File code definitions
6.5 Switching between HP and VT mode
6.6 Sort’s scratch files
6.7 CPU, CONNECT and DISK SPACE USAGE
6.8 "Missing" diskspace
6.9 Passwords and Samba/iX
6.10 Changing the system date
6.11 Setting up a passworded Samba share
6.12 Concatenating files
6.13 How to determine if a scheduled job exists
6.14 Modifying system logging events without a reboot
6.15 Job queues
6.16 OPTION LOGON UDC limitations
6.17 Dynamic BUILD commands
6.18 EDITOR and file dates
6.19 Multiple write accessors in home grown logging
6.20 How big can you build a file
6.21 Terminal (or emulator) escape sequences
6.22 Using lzw on IMAGE databases
6.23 Using XL libraries with the run command
6.24 HPSORT and the chronology of records
6.25 Comparing two files in MPE
6.26 Message files and string search programs
6.27 Viewing input spool files
6.28 CHGROUP
6.29 Low cost document storage and retrieval

7. Networking

7.1 Progress reporting for FTP
7.2 Eliminating the "prompt" in FTP
7.3 How to get a quick network configuration
7.4 How many IP addresses can you bind to a network card
7.5 INETD and the default configuration files
7.6 Determining the MAC address of the network card
7.7 Security over the Internet
7.8 An equivalent to 'netstat'
7.9 What to do if you have networking problems after an OS upgrade
7.10 Ping and the HP3000
7.11 Heartbeat loss and unexpected disk I/O activity
7.12 How to easily find the nodename or IP address of an HP3000
7.13 How to set the maximum number of VTSERVERs
7.14 Configuring your HP 3000 to use a DNS server
7.15 Connecting to an HP3000 through a firewall
7.16 Configuring a default gateway
7.17 Mail from your HP3000
7.18 "missing DADCONF.NET.SYS"
7.19 Configuring NMMGR
7.20 Changing the IP address without rebooting
7.21 Private network IP addresses
7.22 Search orders for IP and HP addressing
7.23 Changing systems or LANICs without having to force a DTC download

8. Performance

8.1 Recovering disk space
8.2 Mixing disk drives of different size
8.3 AutoRAID
8.4 Memory
8.5 Queues

9. Printing

9.1 Clearing the print buffer
9.2 Termtype for non-HP printers
9.3 Assigning multiple classes to one DTC ldev
9.4 MPE/iX network printing with non-HP network interfaces
9.5 MPE/iX network printing and the 3-port JetDirect EX
9.6 Configuring for network printing across a firewall
9.7 Using names instead of IP addresses in NPCONFIG
9.8 Associating one device class name with multiple printers
9.9 Sharing network printers
9.10 How to make changes in a network printer configuration active
9.11 How MPE/iX formats output to a network printer
9.12 How to undefer a spool file in the SPSAVE state
9.13 Restoring spool files
9.14 Printer logs
9.15 Can I print multiple pages per sheet to my LaserJet
9.16 Deleteing groups of spool files
9.17 Defining a bogus device LP so batch jobs can run
9.18 Printing to a slave printer

10. System Administration

10.1 How to configure AUTOBOOT
10.2 Missing file message on install of a subsys tape
10.3 What counts against the user limit for MPE licensing
10.4 Determining what HP software is installed
10.5 The diskuse command
10.6 Fixing a full COMMAND.PUB.SYS
10.7 Purging all the files in a group
10.8 Setting a password on the remote support modem
10.9 Resetting spool file numbers
10.10 What to do with orphan groups on a user volume set
10.11 The optimum SLT
10.12 DEV CONFIG MISMATCH
10.13 Labeled tapes on LDEVs > 255, DON’T
10.14 How to determine the contents of the system log files
10.15 SYSSTART revealed
10.16 Going from 5.5 to 6.5 without passing GO
10.17 Splitting groups over volume sets
10.18 Moving user definition to another account
10.19 Moving data from one volume set to another
10.20 Missing UDCs after a PowerPatch update
10.21 Enabling/disabling system logging events without a reboot
10.22 The cookbook recipe for Telnet
10.23 The default accounts created by HP
10.24 Sessions that will not go away
10.25 The missing CM> prompt
10.26 Determining if a job aborted
10.27 What to do with a corrupt system-wide udc file
10.28 Viewing bootup messages after the fact
10.29 Replacing files in use
10.30 Replacing "long_file_name" with something easier to use
10.31 Configuring a user to sign on with PRI=BS
10.32 Setting up a user to automatically execute a program at sign on
10.33 Removing UDC settings
10.34 Changing the priority of an executing process
10.35 Viewing the contents of system log files
10.36 Preventing users from logging on
10.37 What is an Express release?
10.38 Determining when your system was last rebooted
10.39 Displaying a security warning before logon
10.40 What happens, or doesn’t, to spool file number on reboot
10.41 Backing out NMMGR changes
10.42 Determining user license level
10.43 Keeping your job files secure
10.44 Changing the system prompt
10.45 Maximum number of volumes in a volume set
10.46 When changing a user’s capabilities becomes effective
10.47 Changing a system’s job and session limit maximums
10.48 Purging obsolete (old) files
10.49 Workload Manager really works
10.50 Remote console
10.51 OPENQ and SYSSTART
10.52 Setting the system clock, correctly
10.53 To disable PARM=-1 or not to disable PARM=-1
10.54 Determining the last time a user signed on
10.55 Controlling the execute priority of a program within a job
10.56 What is the HPSUSAN
10.57 Please Mr. Patchman, find me a patch.
10.58 Last, but not least, what system documentation should you have