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! d i g i t a l ! I N T E R O F F I C E M E M O R A N D U M
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To: Jared Aaronson
Date: May 19, 1980
From: Peter Mierswa
Dept: NCSS
Loc: MR1-2/H22
Ext: 5254
Subj: TOPS10/TOPS20 Communications Products Training Plan
The development of a personalized training plan for a software
support specialist requires the setting of goals for skill level and
topic breadth, assessment of current skills, and the development of
a sequence of courses, self instruction, and evaluation designed to
reach the desired skill level.
Skill levels can be defined by grouping people with similar
experience and needs:
1. Pre-sales skills are required by salesmen and specialists.
These skills include a general understanding of the
function of the communications product and the general
advantages and disadvantages of its implementation on a
particular system.
2. End-user skills are required by specialists and all users
of the product. These skills include use of file transfer
utilities and task-to-task programming.
3. Installation and network management skills are required by
the specialist and the network manager or systems
programmer. These skills include installation, basic
trouble shooting, and basic performance analysis.
4. Maintenance/Consulting skills are required by senior field
specialists and home office support specialists. A
specialist with these skills can help during pre-sales,
help with difficult installations, do applications
consulting, and isolate and perhaps solve most
post-installation problems.
To: Jared Aaronson Page 2
Topic Definitions
The development of a personalized training plan must also
consider the breadth of topics included in any communications
application. It may be decided that certain topics are unecessary
or require special emphasis for a particular employee. These topics
include:
1. Mainframe hardware, system software, and communications
software.
2. Front end hardware, system software, and communications
software.
3. Communications interfaces (line devices).
4. Modems, multiplexers, modem eliminators, etc.
5. Carrier services and private line arrangements.
6. Protocols.
7. Diagnostic tools training.
8. Familiarity with other DECnet products.
To: Jared Aaronson Page 3
Topic Definitions
For each communication product, courses, materials, and self
study projects are listed in four groups. The first group would
provide pre-sales skills, the second group, end-user skills, the
third group, installation and network-managment skills, and the
forth group maintenance and consulting skills.
To: Jared Aaronson Page 4
DECNET-20 PRE-SALES SKILLS TRAINING PLAN
1.0 DECNET-20 PRE-SALES SKILLS TRAINING PLAN
Do a number of the following. All are not necessary. Sales
Training has produced a DECnet self study package which contains a
number of the following items.
1. Read the DECnet-20 SPD.
2. Read the SPD's for all other DECnet products.
3. Read or skim through Terminals and Communications Handbook.
4. Read chapters 1 and 2 of TOPS-20 DECnet-20 Programmer's
Guide and Operations Manual, SDC AA-5091B-TM.
5. Read the Distributed Systems Handbook, EB-P1195.
6. Read Distributed Processing and Communications Primer
EG-16165-05.
7. Read Introduction to DECnet, SDC AA-J055A-TK.
8. Read Distributed Processing and Networks Marketing Guide,
EG-18701-18.
9. Review the following media packages. Distributed
Processing and Networks - 8 minute sound/sync show.
Distibuted Processing and Networks - 6 module slide show.
Under One Flag - sound sync show.
10. Read a selection of Network Profiles and Customer Support
Plans.
11. Read the DECnet Support Strategy document.
Following the self study, get some experience:
1. Attend a DECnet pre-sales presentation given by someone
else.
2. Prepare a DECnet presentation and give it to your peers.
3. Prepare a DECnet presentation and give it to a customer.
To: Jared Aaronson Page 5
DECNET-20 END-USER SKILLS TRAINING PLAN
2.0 DECNET-20 END-USER SKILLS TRAINING PLAN
The employee and customer courses offered by Ed Services
combine classroom lecture and lab exercises into a very effective
training program. Ed services courses included in this training
plan should be considered required parts of the training plan.
Before attending courses:
1. Read chapters 3-5, 7, and 8 of the TOPS-20 DECnet-20
Programmer's Guide and Operations Manual.
2. Find an installed network and try using the file transfer
utility and the network command terminal program.
Take one of the Ed services communications courses:
1. TOPS-20 Networks (customer course).
2. DECsystem-20 Data Communications (employee course).
Practice using network facilities:
1. Look at an existing example of task-to-task code. A number
of examples can be found on the DECnet-20 SWSKIT.
2. Choose a project which requires you to code task-to-task
programs in assembler language. Design, code, and
implement the programs on a TOPS-20 system. Such a project
could be a pair of programs which provide terminal to
terminal communication (11M TLK/LSN), a pair of programs
which provide simple file transfer, or a pair of programs
which provide simple remote file access.
3. Implement task-to-task programs on a non TOPS-20 node which
communicate with a TOPS-20 node. Choose from the examples
listed above.
To: Jared Aaronson Page 6
DECNET-20 INSTALLATION AND NETWORK MANAGEMENT SKILLS TRAINING
3.0 DECNET-20 INSTALLATION AND NETWORK MANAGEMENT SKILLS TRAINING
1. Read chapters 6, 9, and 10 of the TOPS-20 DECnet-20
Programmer's Guide and Operations Manual.
2. Attend the Ed Services course Communications Fundamentals.
3. Install DECnet-20 on a TOPS-20 system. If possible do an
installation first on a KS processor, then on a KL.
Installation is not complete until the network can be used.
Play with your installed network. Display the status and
counts for all lines. Bring lines up and down, and
loopback some lines. Reload the front end, restart Netcon
and Fal.
4. Learn how to extract the DECnet related SYSERR entries from
ERROR.SYS. Be sure you understand the content of each
entry.
5. Become familiar with modems, multiplexers, modem
eliminators and carrier facilities (I'm not yet sure what
the best resources are for this study). Design and
determine the cost of two different configurations for
connecting DECsystem-20s. One configuration should be
local, the other remote. Include the line units you
choose, the modems, and the carrier facility. Write the
Network Profile which describes each network and have it
reviewed by your local DECnet coordinator.
To: Jared Aaronson Page 7
DECNET-20 MAINTENANCE AND CONSULTING TRAINING PLAN
4.0 DECNET-20 MAINTENANCE AND CONSULTING TRAINING PLAN
The first three skill levels include all topics. Network
performance analysis, debugging and consulting also require high
skill levels in all topics, but it may not be possible to train an
employee in all topics equally well. The following training items
are listed by topic to allow choice in topic concentration.
4.1 DECnet-20 Mainframe Training
1. Attend the Ed Services Monitor Internals Course for
TOPS-20.
2. Study the listings or fiche of NFT/FAL/GALAXY, NETCON,
DTESRV, NSPSRV, AND KDPSRV.
3. Become familiar with the data structures used within the
monitor to perform network functions, the logical link
block tree, the message queues, the node name table, the
JFN block, and any others which strike your fancy. This
can be done without boredom by writting a utility program
which dumps the data structures from a dump or a running
system and formats the information.
4. Become familiar with debugging techniques and maintenance
utilities. Practice running NFT, FAL, and NETCON wit DDT.
Study the output from SYSDPY DN. Practice running a
private galaxy system for DN200 support. Try looking at
DECnet data structures with MDDT. Review the monitor and
DECnet-20 SWSKITS, especially DTR/DTS for testing and
performance measurement, and DNSEND/DNREAD for NSP message
tracing.
4.2 DECnet-20 Front End Training
The DECnet-20 front end is a PDP11/34 running a modified RSX11S
DECnet system. Complete support of this software requires thorough
knowledge of the RSX11M system and RSX11M DECnet. At a minimum a
TOPS-20 DECnet support person must know at least enough to work with
an RSX11M specialist to resolve a problem together. All of the
following steps which don't deal directly with the MCB could be
accomplished by taking two courses from ED SERVICES: RSX11M
Support, and RSX11M DECnet. Taking the courses is prefered to
working in the office.
1. Become an experienced RSX11M user. Start by reading the
utilities and operator procedures manuals from the RSX11M
manual set. Get an account on an M system and try all the
To: Jared Aaronson Page 8
DECNET-20 MAINTENANCE AND CONSULTING TRAINING PLAN
commands.
2. Become an RSX11M macro programmer. Read RSX11M Executive
Calls, MACRO-11, Task Builder, Guide to Writting an IO
Driver. Write both unprivledged and privledged macro
programs.
3. Become an RSX11M system programmer. Do a sysgen. Cause a
crash and use CDA to print a dump. Explain from the dump
how the crash occured.
4. Become a DECnet/M user. Play with NFT, RMT, NTDEMO, and
NCP. Write a task-to-task user mode program. Read the
DECnet/M System Manager's Guide, Programmer's Reference,
and User' Guide.
5. Finally, study the MCB internals. Since the MCB is based
on both RSX11S and DECnet/M, you should be already familiar
with its structure. Use MCBDA to analyze some dumps. Try
the patching technique outlined in the DECnet SWSKIT
(change the system name, then check it with NCP). Finally,
some problems may not be patchable, and may require
replacement object files. Learn how to rebuild the MCB
from sources. Try adding some code to continuously compute
the ratio between data messages and all messages for the
entire node. Build the system and make sure it works.
4.3 DECnet-20 Communication Interfaces Training
1. Attend the ED SERVICES course: Communications Interfaces
and Modems Workshop.
2. Study KDPSRV and the MCB driver modules from fiche or
listings. Study the data structures used in the driver
modules.
3. Become familiar with the differences between EIA 232C, EIA
449, BELL 303, and CCITT V35 circuits.
4.4 DECnet-20 Modem And Modem Device Training
1. Read the DECnet SWSKIT article on modems and modem
strapping.
To: Jared Aaronson Page 9
DECNET-20 MAINTENANCE AND CONSULTING TRAINING PLAN
2. Find the owner's manual for one of the modems in the lab
and learn how to do all the different types of loopback
tests.
4.5 DECnet-20 Carrier Services Training
Somehow review all the different carrier services available.
You should known how to refer a customer to the service with the
right price and the right capabilities. Find out what services are
incompatible with DECnet.
4.6 DECnet-20 Protocol Training
Order the DNA architecture specifications from the SDC and read
them. If these manuals are too confusing or difficult at first
start with the DNA SPI course.
4.7 Communications Hardware Support Tool Training
Practice using a break out box, a noise generating modem, a
data pattern generator, and a data scope.
4.8 Familiarity With Other DECnet Products
The solution of a communications problem requires a very
precise and careful description of the symptoms. In many cases this
process alone solves the problem. When a problem involves different
systems some familiarity with the foreign system is required. One
should not attempt to solve the problem without talking with a
specialist familiar with the foreign system, but you need a common
vocabulary and set of concepts in order to solve the problem
together. For this reason it is good to try to gain a user level
understanding of each foreign system which supports DECnet. Based
on current and projected sales volumes start with RSX11M, then VAX.
And don't forget RSTS, RT, and IAS.