Order Number: BA322-90088

This manual describes the new features associated with OpenVMS Version 8.4 for Integrity servers and OpenVMS Alpha Version 8.4 operating systems and provides an overview of the documentation that supports this software.

Software Version: OpenVMS Version 8.4 for Integrity servers
OpenVMS Alpha Version 8.4

Hewlett-Packard Company
Palo Alto, California

© Copyright 2010 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

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ZK6679

The HP OpenVMS documentation set is available on CD.

Contents

Index

Intended Audience

This manual is intended for general users, system managers, and programmers who use the HP OpenVMS operating system.

This document describes the new features related to Version 8.4 of the OpenVMS operating system. For information about how some of the new features might affect your system, read the release notes before you install, upgrade, or use OpenVMS Version 8.4.

Document Structure

This manual contains the following parts and chapters:

• Part I, OpenVMS Version 8.4 New Features
  • Chapter 1 summarizes the new OpenVMS software features.
  • Chapter 2 describes the new features of interest to general users of the OpenVMS operating system.
  • Chapter 3 describes the Virtualization features of the OpenVMS operating system.
  • Chapter 4 describes the new features relating to performance enhancements.
  • Chapter 5 describes the new features relating to disaster tolerance and clusters.
  • Chapter 6 describes the support added for new Storage devices and I/O controllers.
  • Chapter 7 describes the new security features.
  • Chapter 8 describes the new features that are applicable to the tasks performed by system managers.
  • Chapter 9 describes the new features that support programming tasks.
  • Chapter 10 describes the significant layered product new features.
• Part II, OpenVMS Documentation
  • Chapter 11 describes the OpenVMS documentation changes from the previous version.
  • Chapter 12 describes how the documentation is delivered.
  • Chapter 13 describes each manual in the OpenVMS documentation set.

Related Documents

For additional information about HP OpenVMS products and services, see: http://www.hp.com/go/openvms

Reader's Comments

HP welcomes your comments on this manual. Please send your comments or suggestions to:

openvmsdoc@hp.com

How to Order Additional Documentation

For information about how to order additional documentation, see: http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/doc/order

Conventions

The following conventions may be used in this manual:

Ctrl/ x	A sequence such as Ctrl/ x indicates that you must hold down the key labeled Ctrl while you press another key or a pointing device button.
PF1 x	A sequence such as PF1 x indicates that you must first press and release the key labeled PF1 and then press and release another key or a pointing device button.
[Return]	In examples, a key name enclosed in a box indicates that you press a key on the keyboard. (In text, a key name is not enclosed in a box.) In the HTML version of this document, this convention appears as brackets, rather than a box.
...	A horizontal ellipsis in examples indicates one of the following possibilities: Additional optional arguments in a statement have been omitted. The preceding item or items can be repeated one or more times. Additional parameters, values, or other information can be entered.
. . .	A vertical ellipsis indicates the omission of items from a code example or command format; the items are omitted because they are not important to the topic being discussed.
( )	In command format descriptions, parentheses indicate that you must enclose choices in parentheses if you specify more than one.
[ ]	In command format descriptions, brackets indicate optional choices. You can choose one or more items or no items. Do not type the brackets on the command line. However, you must include the brackets in the syntax for OpenVMS directory specifications and for a substring specification in an assignment statement.
|	In command format descriptions, vertical bars separate choices within brackets or braces. Within brackets, the choices are optional; within braces, at least one choice is required. Do not type the vertical bars on the command line.
{ }	In command format descriptions, braces indicate required choices; you must choose at least one of the items listed. Do not type the braces on the command line.
bold type	Bold type represents the introduction of a new term. It also represents the name of an argument, an attribute, or a reason.
italic type	Italic type indicates important information, complete titles of manuals, or variables. Variables include information that varies in system output (Internal error number), in command lines (/PRODUCER= name), and in command parameters in text (where dd represents the predefined code for the device type).
UPPERCASE TYPE	Uppercase type indicates a command, the name of a routine, the name of a file, or the abbreviation for a system privilege.
Example	This typeface indicates code examples, command examples, and interactive screen displays. In text, this type also identifies URLs, UNIX commands and pathnames, PC-based commands and folders, and certain elements of the C programming language.
-	A hyphen at the end of a command format description, command line, or code line indicates that the command or statement continues on the following line.
numbers	All numbers in text are assumed to be decimal unless otherwise noted. Nondecimal radixes---binary, octal, or hexadecimal---are explicitly indicated.

OpenVMS Version 8.4 delivers the highest possible levels of availability, scalability, flexibility, performance, and security that are required for operating in a 24x365 environment. OpenVMS continues to enhance its availability and performance by including new technology in the base operating system and in the OpenVMS Cluster software environment. OpenVMS Version 8.4 now supports HP Virtualization and can be installed as a Guest operating system on HP Integrity Virtual Machines (Integrity VM).

1.1 Summary Table

OpenVMS Version 8.4 includes all the capabilities of OpenVMS Version 8.3 and Version 8.3--1H1 in addition to the new features added in this release. For more information about OpenVMS Version 8.3--1H1 features, see the HP OpenVMS Version 8.31--H1 for Integrity Servers New Features and Release Notes at:

Table 1-1 summarizes all the available features on OpenVMS Version 8.4 and presents these features according to their functional component. The new features are categorized as general user, virtualization, performance enhancements, I/O support, security, system management, programming, and associated product features.

Table 1-1 Summary of OpenVMS Version 8.4 New Features

General User Features
Features	Description
HP Code Signing Service (HPCSS)	All OpenVMS kits, which are updated for OpenVMS Version 8.4 are signed using HP Code Signing Service. A new companion file, <full kit name>_HPC is created and is provided along with the kit.
DCL command enhancements	Following are the enhancements to the DCL commands and qualifiers: DELETE command is enhanced with the /TREE qualifier to delete all the files and sub directories recursively excluding the parent directory New /KERNEL_THREAD_LIMIT qualifier added to the DCL SET PROCESS command New OUTPUT and SYMBOLS keywords added and can be used with the SEARCH /STATISTICS qualifier New /CACHE qualifier added to the SET VOLUME command along with the new keywords DATA, NODATA and CLEAR_DATA. New DATA and NODATA keywords added and can be used with the MOUNT/CACHE command New BACKUP/DATA_FORMAT=COMPRESS=[DEFLATE] qualifier added to create a compressed save set DCL has been enhanced to support up to 16 parameters as command line input with the command procedures
New F$CUNITS Lexical function conversion units added	New conversion units B, KB, MB, GB, and TB added to F$CUNITS Lexical function.
F$GETDVI lexical function enhanced	F$GETDVI is enhanced with NOCACHE_ON_VOLUME and NOXFCCACHE_ON_VOLUME new item codes. F$GETDVI functionality is also enhanced for volumes larger than 2 TiB.
2 TiB volume support	Following are the enhancements: Support for disk volumes up to 2 TiB in size OpenVMS BACKUP utility extended to support volume up to 2 TiB
Per-Process Kernel Thread Limit	This new feature can be used to limit the number of kernel threads that can be created in a process. OpenVMS is enhanced to control the kernel-thread limit on a per-process basis.
Dynamically enabling or disabling Data cache (XFC)	XFC caching attributes of mounted volumes can now be modified dynamically, eliminating the need to dismount the volume.
Enabling or disabling XFC while mounting a volume	Data cache (XFC) status can be enabled or disabled independent of the meta data cache (XQP) status.
MALLOC increased to 4 GB	Any C application that makes use of the malloc() API can allocate 4 GB memory dynamically.
Mail utility enhancements	Following are the enhancements to the Mail utility: Mail headers can have up to 998 characters Mail forwarding entry limit is increased from 31 to 255 characters
High Precision Time	High Precision Time ($GETTIM_PREC) system service added to return the system time after accounting for the time elapsed since the last one millisecond update of system time.
Batch queue maximum increased	Job limit increased to 65535.
Virtualization Features
Features	Description
OpenVMS as a Guest operating system on Integrity VM	Support for OpenVMS Version 8.4 as a Guest operating system on Integrity VM.
ID-VSE for OpenVMS	Support for ID-VSE suite of multi-platform products on OpenVMS Version 8.4
Performance Enhancements
Features	Description
Resource Affinity Domain (RAD) support	RAD support added for cell-based Integrity server systems.
Performance improvements	The following performance improvements have been made in OpenVMS Version 8.4: Improved Exception Handling on OpenVMS Integrity servers Global Section unmap related changes Inner mode semaphore upcalls for Kernel and Exec mode System Service dispatch Pthread spinlock algorithm improvement Reducing I-cache Flushes - Changes memory management to reduce the number of instruction cache (I-cache) flushes
Disaster Tolerance and Cluster Features
Features	Description
Cluster over Internet Protocol	Support for OpenVMS Cluster to use IP for cluster communication.
HP Volume Shadowing for OpenVMS enhancements	Following are the new features: Support added for six disks in a host-based volume shadowing set. Supports a maximum of six-member shadow set compared to the previous three member shadow set, which provides multi-site disaster tolerant configuration. New DISMOUNT keyword added for Host-Based Mini Merge (HBMM) and uses all 12 bitmaps for HBMM. Fast minicopy and minimerge. New qualifiers for SET SHADOW /DISABLE=SPLIT_READ_LBNS /ENABLE=SPLIT_READ_LBNS /STALL=WRITES[=nnn] /NOSTALL=WRITES[=nnn] Performance improvements in write bitmaps. This allows shadowing writes to be faster.
Storage Devices and I/O Support
Features	Description
8 Gb Fibre Channel adapter	Support for 8 Gb Fibre Channel PCIe adapter.
HP AD317A PCI support	Limited support for HP AD317A PCI sound card.
Storage devices and I/O controllers	Several new storage devices and I/O controllers are added after the initial OpenVMS 8.3--1H1 Release
Security Features
Features	Description
HP SSL features	HP SSL Version 1.4 is based on OpenSSL 0.9.8h and it also includes the latest security updates from OpenSSL.org.
Global and Local mapping of LDAP users	OpenVMS Version 8.4 is enhanced to support global and local mapping.
System Management Features
Features	Description
Provisioning enhancements using HP Systems Insight Manager (SIM)	Provisioning OpenVMS using HP SIM, Version 4.0 provides the following new features: Deploying OpenVMS Version 8.4 Configuring OpenVMS TCP/IP
vKVM capability for OpenVMS	Adds support for Integrated Remote Console, on Integrity servers and BladeSystems that support Integrated Lights Out (iLO).
CPU Component Indictment - Dynamic Processor Resilience (DPR)	Support for CPU Component Indictment on Integrity servers.
Power Management	Support for processor p-states to reduce power use while a CPU is not in idle state.
New system parameters	Following are the new system parameters: NISCS_UDP_PKTSZ - allows the system manager to change the packet size used for cluster communications over IP on network communication paths. NISCS_USE_UDP - this parameter is set to enable Cluster over IP functionality. PEDRIVER uses the UDP protocol in addition to IEEE 802.3 for cluster communication. PAGED_LAL_SIZE - sets the maximum size, in bytes, to use the page dynamic pool lookaside lists. ZERO_LIST_HI - sets the maximum number of pages zeroed and populates the zeroed page list.
HP System Analysis Tools enhancements	Following are the enhancements: Support for partial dump copies Index page generated for SET OUTPUT is no longer truncated when the pages are full; additional pages are created with links SHOW PFN_DATA /SUMMARY expanded as SHOW PFN_DATA /SUMMARY [=list] where: "list" is ALL or any combination of PROCESS, RAD, and/or GLOBAL Enhanced SHOW POOL /RING_BUFFER and SHOW PROCESS /POOL /RING_BUFFER[=ALL] to include an optional filter address: /RING_ BUFFER[=n] New /BASE_ADDRESS=n qualifier for SHOW SYMBOL New SHOW ACPI /NAMESPACE and SHOW ACPI /TABLES command with optional qualifiers and/or parameters New /DEVICE and /MISCELLANEOUS qualifiers for SHOW SPINLOCKS New /FULL qualifier for SHOW RESOURCE /CONTENTION New /NOLOG qualifier for SET CPU New /PRIMARY qualifier for SET CPU and SHOW CPU New /PXML qualifier for SHOW RAD
InfoServer utility enhancement	Support for booting from an InfoServer server using a memory disk.
Programming Features
Features	Description
Callable Mail enhancement	Mail interface to allow message placement directly into specified folder.
HP C Run-Time Library (C RTL) enhancements	Following are the enhancements: Unicode - UTF-8 encoding for filenames given in UNIX syntax Enhanced strcmp( ) and memcmp() for performance improvements Support for Open Group semaphore control operations in the C RTL New DECC$PRINTF_USES_VAX_ROUND feature switch
Linker utility enhancement	New /CBT and /NOCBT linker qualifiers added.
Additional item codes for system services	Following are the new item codes added: DVI$_NOXFCCACHE_ON_VOLUME and DVI$_XFC_DEPOSING for $GETDVI MNT$_DATA and MNT$_NODATA for $MOUNT
New "send item" code	MAIL$_SEND_RECIP_FOLDER has been added to specify the destination folder for the mail.
Associated Products Features
Features	Description
HP TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS	Version 5.7 supported on OpenVMS Version 8.4.
DECnet-Plus enhancements	Support for secure DECnet/IP connections using TCP/IP SSH service.
DECwindows enhancements	Support for Audible Warning (xBell).

Before getting started with OpenVMS Version 8.4 installation, see the HP OpenVMS Version 8.4 Release Notes and the HP OpenVMS Version 8.4 Upgrade and Installation Manual.