To: osf-managers Date: May 2, 1995
From: Chris McCabe
Enet: mccabe_at_lando.enet.dec.com
Group: Digital Product Performance
Phone: (508) 486-2676
Subject: An Overview of the Digital Product Performance Program
Hi,
I have been on this distribution list for a while and I feel this
is exactly the target audience I would like to get a message out to
around a program at Digital that you might be interested in. After
reading the charter for the mailing list, I decided to send this mail
because I firmly believe this program can have a positive impact for
Digital Unix (OSF/1) system managers by giving you a high quality
product, and since our Software ships with OSF/1 version 3.2a, there
may be some questions you may have around the program that others on
this distribution list also have and I will answer them for you here.
If any of you were at Spring DECUS last year we presented the
program there along with other quality programs at Digital. You
should be seeing more information on the program on upcoming Software
and Hardware releases.
I manage a program called the Digital Product Performance (DPP)
program that collects reliability and availability information from
customer sites World-wide. I would like to take a moment to give you
an overview of the DPP program and ask that you consider installing
our monitoring software on your Digital Unix (OSF/1) systems at your
site. Our group provides reports directly to the Hardware design
groups and the Operating Systems group on the performance of the
monitored system. We work with these groups as well as MCS and
Manufacturing to improve the reliability and availability of Digital
products at your site. We are currently monitoring approximately 3000
system World wide, most of which are OpenVMS. We would really like to
increase the sample size of our Digital Unix (OSF/1) customer base.
If you have any additional questions about the program, please don't
hesitate to ask. In keeping with the theme of this distribution list,
I will compile a list of your questions, respond to them and post the
results. I hope you will consider participating in this mutually
beneficial program. Thank you.
Regards,
Chris
1 INTRODUCTION
The Digital Product Performance (DPP) Program monitors and
verifies the availability and reliability of Digital systems. This
program provides our Service, Manufacturing, and Design Engineering
organizations with accurate information on the performance of released
products at customer and Digital internal sites. This program also
provides Design Engineering with accurate information on the
performance of Field Test products during Internal and External Field
Test.
The DPP group has developed a system monitoring tool called
Monitoring Performance History (MPH). MPH collects error log entries,
crash dump footprints and configuration information from customer and
Digital internal systems. The information is collected on a periodic
basis (biweekly for Digital Unix (OSF/1) sites) and sent back directly
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to Digital. This data is analyzed and reports are issued directly to
Hardware and Software Engineering, Manufacturing and Digital Service.
All system information collected is Digital Confidential and is only
used to gauge and improve availability and reliability.
The MPH process, with the exception of installing the software,
is automatic, requiring no human intervention. The software will not
impact or degrade your system's performance. MPH runs as a background
task utilizing negligible system resources. The disk space required
for the collected data and the application is approximately 300 blocks
per system.
There are versions of MPH for OpenVMS, Digital Unix (OSF/1),
Ultrix and the Windows NT Operating system. The MPH kits employ
various transport mechanisms to transfer the data to Digital including
DSNlink for OpenVMS and Internet mail for OpenVMS, Digital Unix
(OSF/1) and Ultrix. Windows NT data is collected via FTP to a VMS or
Digital Unix system with Internet mail or DSNlink. The MPH for
Windows NT kit is currently in Internal Field Test and should be
released in the near future.
Additional Information on MPH or the DPP program can be requested
by sending mail to mph_admin_at_dppsys.enet.dec.com. Using the keyword
INFO anywhere in the subject header of your message will expedite
routing of your request.
2 OBTAINING THE OSF/1 MPH KIT
The latest MPH kit is located on the OSF/1 Version 3.2A
Complementary Products CD. It is part of the base operating system
i.e. it is included in the V3.2 patch and not a separate entity on
the CD. After installing the V3.2A software the MPH files are
contained in the /usr/field/mph directory. To install the MPH for
OSF/1 kit please see the detailed instructions at the end of this
document.
You may also use anonymous FTP to access the MPH archive on
gatekeeper.dec.com. to obtain the MPH for OSF/1 kit. The OSF/1 MPH
kit and installation guide can be found in the directory:
/archive/private/mph/osf
The kit is available as a tar set called mph_osf.tar After you have
connected with FTP, give these commands:
ftp> ascii
ftp> get /archive/private/mph/osf/mph_osf.tar mph_osf.tar
ftp> bye
Another method to obtain the file by ftp is as follows:
ftp> ascii
ftp> cd /archive/private/mph/osf
ftp> get mph_osf.tar
ftp> bye
Note that since this is a private area, FTP will close the connection
if you attempt to do an ls of any of the directories in the /private
area.
The text and postscript versions of the installation guide are
contained in the TAR set and are called user_guide.txt and
user_guide.ps
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Additional information on MPH for OSF/1 can be requested by
sending mail to mph_admin_at_dppsys.enet.dec.com. Using the keyword OSF
anywhere in the subject header of your message will expedite routing
of your request.
3 THE MPH V2.0 FOR OSF/1 INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
3.1 Installation From CD
The installation procedure must be executed as user root. To run
the installation procedure, set the working directory to:
/usr/field/mph
and execute the command:
./MPH_OSF_020.CSH
and enter the data requested by the installation procedure.
3.2 Installation From FTP
The MPH kit is contained in the tar file mph_osf.tar. Prior to
installation this tar file must be expanded to obtain the kit files -
it is recommended that the file is expanded to an empty directory.
The following command will expand the tar file:
tar xvf mph_osf.tar
The installation procedure must be executed as root. To run the
installation procedure set the working directory to be the directory
where the tar file was expanded and execute the command.
./MPH_OSF_020.CSH
and enter the data requested by the installation procedure.
3.3 Effect Of Installation
o Create an MPH directory (the default location is /var/mph).
o Update the system crontab files to execute the MPH files files at
the appropriate times. The binary error log extractor runs daily
at 2 A.M., with the data being mailed to Digital at 3 A.M. every
Wednesday and Sunday.
3.4 Notes
o The MPH OSF installation will take approximately 5 minutes.
o Disk space requirements for MPH OSF are approximately 100 blocks
after installation.
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o The installation *must* be performed as root.
o MPH OSF will need to be reinstalled with each new OSF/1 baselevel.
o If the system needs to be shutdown for any reason, it is extremely
important that an orderly shutdown process be followed.
o Note: If installing from the V3.2A Complementary products CD
please ignore the following error messages:
cp: user_guide.ps: No such file or directory
cp: user_guide.txt: No such file or directory
These files can be found in /usr/field/mph
Received on Wed May 03 1995 - 15:05:05 NZST