Q: Medicaid in its infinite wisdom has only
allowed us to submit claims to them on Magnetic reel. We just received notice
that as of 07/01/03 they will only accept 3490 tapes. Can I hook up a 3490 to
my HP e3000?
A: Michael Berkowitz replied:
You may be able to put a 3480/3490 drive on your HP e3000. HP has supported the 3480 tape drive on the 900 series machines (not A & N class) through 6.5. It may also work on 7.0 and 7.5. A 3490 is supposed to be a 3480 with data compression. The drives are made by StorageTek and are obsolete, though I suspect you can get one if you want.
Q: Has anybody had problems with BackPack
aborting in a backup (DDS-2) due to tape errors? Our hardware guy is on the way
to replace our 2 DDS-2's but he seems to recall that BackPack is overly
sensitive to recoverable I/O tape drive errors? Something about a 'high'
'medium' or 'low' setting for the BackPack Jobstream?
A: John Burke replied:
It is not just
Backpack. I had the same issue with Orbit and I expect the same would apply to
HP's Store. The issue is software compression. The higher the compression level
we used with Orbit, the more "sensitive" the drives/software became.
If you do not use software compression it is likely your drives will
"last" longer. But you probably need to use software compression so
you have a Catch 22. Bottom line is the DDS-2 drives are notoriously flaky.
Then there is the media and the important role it plays in backup reliability.
This is totally
unscientific since it is based upon personal observations at one site; however,
I found that if I replaced media (DDS-2) after at most 20 uses and cleaned the
drives daily this seemed to extend the "life/usability" of my DDS-2
drives significantly. Obviously, your mileage may vary.
Q: Do any of you know of a way using the
original BASIC/3000 (not the Business Basic) of avoiding KSAMUTIL.PUB.SYS and
Building (and later purging) a KSAM file?
A: Denys Beauchemin and Wirt Atmar replied:
This is easy. You can create a simple SPL routine that will call FOPEN with the proper parameters, using the parameters given to it by BASIC/3000. It is very simple to do, once you understand that BASIC passes all its parameter by reference, not value and that the first parameter is the number of parameters being passed. Also, the character parameter has a special construct where the first byte is the length of the string. Wirt Atmar contributed SPL code that builds and purges both CM and NM KSAM files, based on the type of machine that the code is being run on.
Q: I am looking for a way to access HP
system variables (in this case HPJOBNAME) from a compatibility mode program
(SPL). I could write a switch program to HPCIGETVAR, but is there any easier
way?
A: Michael Berkowitz and Donna Garverick
replied:
From a CM program, you can still use the COMMAND intrinsic. You may have to dump the contents of your variable into a file, but it will work.
Q: How can I convert an input date from
mmddyy date format to yymmdd format to use in an MPE stream? I want the user to
input a date in mmddyy format and do a query find, which requires yymmdd.
A: Larry Barnes replied that if you do not
care about error checking or input flexibility then this should work,
:input mmddyy;prompt = "enter a date
(mmddyy format)
:setvar yymmdd str('!mmddyy',5,2) +
str('!mmddyy',1,4)
Q: Our company is looking at a canned
package to replace our home-grown production software. One of the questions the
vendor needs answered is how many transactions we process in an hour, day, etc.
I'm not really sure how to go about doing that. Is there a product that can
provide the information?
A: John Clogg replied:
The problem with any such tool is that the vendor probably wants logical transactions. All you can measure with any of the tools is the number of database transactions, which is probably some multiple of the number of logical transactions. Probably your best measure would be to use a report writer to extract whatever kind of record corresponds with a logical transaction, and select the ones for a specific date. Once you know the transaction count for a day, you can estimate hourly rates, etc. You should probably ask you users whether they have transaction counts available.
Q: I recall that cstm has the ability to
show the configuration of your current memory installation (what the makeup of
your memory is in terms of the boards used). Can anyone tell me the command to
use to get this information?
A: John Clogg replied:
First, enter the MAP command to see a map of the hardware on your system. Each item on the resulting list has a line number. Note the line number for "memory" and use it in the "select device" command, then enter the "info" command. For example, if the memory is device 64:
cstm>select device 64
cstm>info
If you enter the map command now, you will see the status of the memory will be "Information starting" or "information running". When the status changes to "Information Successful," you can display the result with the "il" (information log) command. Note: You can avoid the necessity of repeatedly looking at MAP to determine whether the info function has completed by entering "wait" at the prompt following the "info" command. You will not receive another prompt until the info process has completed.
Craig Lalley added,
Another answer, without using cstm is to run
SYSINFO.PRVXL.TELESUP
and at the prompt type
>MEMMAP
Jeff Kell warned though you should avoid the SYSINFO solution if using Mirror/iX since it will break the mirror.
Q: Can DDS-3 tapes (125m) be used on dds2
drives?
A: John Burke replied:
In a word, the answer is no. For DDS tape and drive compatibility, Christian Lheureux created an Excel spreadsheet with everything you need to know. You can see it at
http://www.burke-consulting.com/DDS_Comp_Matrix_2003_04.xls
Q: Has anyone had any problems with DDS3
tapes going through the new airport scanners? I routinely carry several tapes
with me (as off-site backup and load to customer's systems, etc.) and will soon
be going through those scanners.
A: Denys Beauchemin replied:
Do not walk through the portals with the tapes and do not bring them close to the portals either. Sending them through the X-ray is fine. When I am talking about close proximity to the portals, I mean inside a foot or so.
Q: I recently ran into an issue where the
3000 could not "recognize" a new disc I installed in the machine. At
boot time, some strange error message occurred saying the new disc was a
"mirror of ldev 1", the system then put the drive in an inaccessible
state. When the system comes up a DSTAT all shows the disc in an
"UNKNOWN" state. It will not let me "SCRATCHVOL", if I do a
"FORMATVOL" the system goes into a loop, hitting brake and abort, it
then says the drive was put in a loaner state, but it was not.
A: Gary Paveza replied:
We had the same issue when we reused discs that had previously been part of a mirrored pair (we removed them without scratching them). HP provided a fix that basically amounted to using debug to re-write a couple of bits on the disc.
Q: Is there a command I can type in that
would show me much total hard disk space I have available to me, and how much
of that is being used? Also is it possible to break that up per account. For
instance, can it tell me how much hard drive space I would gain by purging a
particular account?
A: Tim Atwood, Craig Lalley, Connie Samuel
and John Wolff replied:
:DISCFREE C for space used and available by
drive and in total.
:REPORT z.@ will let you know how much your
accounts are using. You may want to run :FSCHECK and do a SYNCACCOUNTING first.
Q: I'm having trouble getting reliable
information on which DLT drives are supported on an 969 system running MPE/iX
6.5 PP3. My understanding has been that only FWD devices are supported. Does
anyone have part numbers for DLT7000 or DLT8000 drives which are supported?
A: Denys Beauchemin replied:
Any FWD DLT7000 or 8000 will work on your system. I do not think you can buy a new DLT7000, so it's off to the broker for that one, or check out www.dirtcheapdrives.com. They have an external Quantum DLT8000 (TH8BH-YF) with HVD connection for about $2200. An internal model (TH8AH-YF) is $200 less.
John Skelton added:
The DLT4000, which is a SE device, will also work on your 969. I have multiple 4000's on both of my 969's.
Q: I have a dtc 72mx, which is connected to
the network via the aui port. I would like to change this to use what appears
to be the rj45 connector. I tried just switching the cable and power cycling
the dtc but the switch does not show a link light for the connection. Is there
a jumper on the card? What more is there to do?
A: Bob J replied:
Look closely at the RJ45. You are probably connecting to the (serial) diagnostic port which is NOT a network connection. The network connections are AUI and BNC.
Q: Does anyone remember how to purge 'K'
files globally on MPE ?
A: A whole bunch of people jumped all over
this one:
:listf k#######.@.@,2
to see what files show up. If all is good
then do a
:PURGE K#######.@.@
If there are files in this list you do not
want to purge, then do
:LISTFILE K#######,6;SELEQ=[CODE=EDITQ]
to a file and use that list and your
favorite editor to create a command file to purge all the files.
Q: How can I purge a file with a negative
(PRIV) filecode?
A: Denis St-Amand replied:
:FILE T=$NULL
:STORE filename;*T;SHOW;PURGE
Q: Does anyone happen to know how much
supported memory a 928LX will take? Are there just four slots for memory on
this box?
A: Joseph Dolliver and Tim Atwood replied:
That is correct, it has four slots. Total maximum 512 MB. The largest memory kits you can get are A3131A at 128MB. (2x64 MB memory chips per kit / slot module). 128MB times 4 modules = 512MB.
Q: Does anyone know where there is a list of
HP DLT libraries and what version of MPE can drive them?
A: Denys Beauchemin replied:
Actually no libraries are supported on MPE in random mode. While autoloaders can easily be made to work quite well on the HP 3000, one requires specialized software in order to make use of the full functionality of a DLT library. What is important from an HP 3000 point of view is as follows:
Finally you must have software that will connect to the picker and drive it. This software can either be running on MPE or on another system, to which the picker is connected. MPE itself cannot drive a robotic library.