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spear.doc
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SPEAR.DOC -- V1(36)
JUNE 1982
COPYRIGHT (C) 1981,1982 BY DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION, MAYNARD,
MASS.
THIS SOFTWARE IS FURNISHED UNDER A LICENSE AND MAY BE USED AND COPIED
ONLY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS OF SUCH LICENSE AND WITH THE
INCLUSION OF THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICE. THIS SOFTWARE OR ANY OTHER
COPIES THEREOF MAY NOT BE PROVIDED OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE TO ANY
OTHER PERSON. NO TITLE TO AND OWNERSHIP OF THE SOFTWARE IS HEREBY
TRANSFERRED.
THE INFORMATION IN THIS SOFTWARE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE
AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS A COMMITMENT BY DIGITAL EQUIPMENT
CORPORATION.
DIGITAL ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE USE OR RELIABILITY OF ITS
SOFTWARE ON EQUIPMENT WHICH IS NOT SUPPLIED BY DIGITAL.
SPR1.DOC Page 2
SPEAR.DOC -- V1(36)
JUNE 1982
1.0 SUMMARY
SPEAR is a package of programs which enable the field service and
operations staff to quickly isolate and correct problem areas in the
system hardware or software. The SPEAR package contains a computer
aided instruction (CAI) program called INSTRUCT. This program in
conjunction with the SPEAR manual will allow anyone interested in
using the package to learn at his own pace, without depending on
anyone else.
SPEAR version 1(36) is written in BLISS and operates in native mode on
TOPS-10 version 7.01.
2.0 EXTERNAL CHANGES
1. Version 1(36) is the first release of SPEAR for TOPS-10.
3.0 KNOWN BUGS AND DEFICIENCIES
3.1 Bugs
1. Drive Timing Errors are summarized as unsafes in the disk
error summary. This is incorrect, as they do not set the
Unsafe bit in error register 1. The theory about DTEs is
unaffected by this bug.
2. In the SUMMARIZE outputs, the serial numbers for TU71 and
TU72 tape drives are output in hex instead of in decimal.
All other SPEAR functions output them in decimal.
3. The MEAN RUN TIME in the COMPUT.RPT may be incorrect. This
will not affect the system availability figures.
4. COMPUT.RPT sometimes gives incorrect reload totals under the
monitor name headers.
5. The Front End CD20 reports contain incorrect values for the
four device registers. This causes the translation for the
CD11ST register to be incorrect. The CD20 configuration
report is also incorrect.
SPR1.DOC Page 3
6. RETRIEVE transposes TU70 and TU71 drive types in DX20
reports, identifying a TU70 as a TU71 and vice versa.
3.2 Restrictions
1. Some numeric values in various output reports are limited to
a specific field width. When this field width is exceeded
(i.e. the value is too large for the field), the field will
be filled with asterisks.
2. When the event file has too many entries, ANALYZE will give a
dynamic memory allocation error of the type:
? dynamic memory allocation error
- insufficient dynamic memory
One of the SUMMARIZE outputs is a table which enables the
user to see the number of entries broken down by major class
and the hour of the day. If ANALYZE runs out of dynamic
memory, you can use this summary output to adjust your
analysis time frame to a smaller window.
3. SPEAR currently uses SCAN to translate user-specified dates
and times. This means that some special features of SCAN are
available (TODAY, YESTERDAY, etc.). These features are not
guaranteed to work correctly nor will they remain in SPEAR
forever. For this reason, they are not documented in the
SPEAR manual.
4. When two users are running SPEAR from the same directory,
there is a low probability of their temporary command files
becoming confused. This situation should be avoided.
5. There is a probability of version skew messages appearing if
a monitor update with a different basic SPEAR version is put
up after installation of the extended package. This should
be ignored as it does not affect the running of SPEAR.
3.2.1 Minimum Core Requirements - All SPEAR programs grow to meet the
demands of the data file. Since it was expected that SPEAR would run
on virtual machines only, no effort went into meeting any core limits.
This was in the project plan.
The following will give you some idea of how much core (virtual or
physical) is required to run SPEAR on TOPS-10. The numbers are in
pages.
* ESTIMATED
FUNCTION | SPEAR | SYSERR * SPEAR | SYSERR * SPEAR
| AT START | AT START * DURING RUN | DURING RUN * REQUIREMENTS
SPR1.DOC Page 4
----------|----------|----------*------------|------------*-------------
Retrieve | 156 | 66 * 172 | 152 * 250
Summarize | 72 | 66 * 108 | 152 * 200
Compute | 64 | 76 * 70 | 88 * 150
----------|----------|----------*------------|------------*-------------
Analyze | 128 | -- * 252 | --- * 512
Instruct | 311 | -- * 311 | --- * 311
This means that a system running basic SPEAR needs 250 pages of user
memory available. A system running full SPEAR needs 512 pages
available. Again these numbers are based on a test of one week's data
(with many entries).
Since Analyze has been known to run out of virtual memory, we know it
needs the full amount.
4.0 INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
4.1 Documentation Files:
1. SPEAR.DOC - Installation document.
2. DEFINE.LIS - Event file documentation.
3. ANSWER.TXT - Answer sheet for INSTRUCT questions.
4. DAIL10.CTL - Sample automatic daily batch control file.
5. WEEK10.CTL - Sample automatic weekly batch control file.
4.2 Files Needed To Run This Package:
1. INTRO.SPE - Intro file for INSTRUCT package.
2. SPEAR.SPE - Help file used during user interface.
3. SPEAR.EXE - User interface and main control routines.
4. SPRMSG.SPE - Text file for overall summary in analysis.
5. DSKMSG.SPE - Text file for disk analysis reports.
6. TPEMSG.SPE - Text file for tape analysis reports.
7. KLMSG.SPE - Text file for KL CPU summary reports.
8. NETMSG.SPE - Text file for NET/COMM summary reports.
SPR1.DOC Page 5
9. SPRANL.EXE - Error analysis package (ANALYZE).
10. SPRRET.SPE - Text file for RETRIEVE package.
11. SPRRET.EXE - Error file manipulation and translation package
(RETRIEVE).
12. SPRSUM.SPE - Text file for SUMMARIZE package.
13. SPRSUM.EXE - Device summarization package (SUMMARIZE).
14. SPRCOM.SPE - Text file for the COMPUTE package.
15. SPRCOM.EXE - System availability reporting package (COMPUTE).
16. SPRINS.EXE - Computer Aided Instruction package (INSTRUCT).
4.3 Loading And Installing The SPEAR Package
Define the area where you want the files to go as SRC: through the
PATH command and then do the following:
Mount the distribution tape for Backup and then run BACKUP with the
following commands:
R BACKUP
/TAPE (logical tape name)
/REW
/FILES
/INTERCHANGE
/RESTORE SRC:*.*=*.*
/EXIT
.K
4.4 Special Considerations
All the files listed in section 4.2 must exist in the same directory
for SPEAR to operate properly.
5.0 INTERNAL CHANGES
SPEAR VERSION 1(36) is the first release for TOPS-10.
SPR1.DOC Page 6
6.0 SUGGESTIONS
The suggested method of using this product is to run the ANALYZE
function on a weekly basis against the error file of the previous
week, and supplement this report with daily runs for the last 24
hours. See DAIL10.CTL, and WEEK10.CTL for examples of the control
files to do the daily and weekly runs automatically.
ANALYZE has to assume that the system has been maintained in a
'standard fashion'. If you forgEt to reformat disk packs after a
realignment of the drive, you can expect ANALYZE to generate many
different "theories" on the read errors that will occur.
This release of SPEAR does not analyze above the "unit" level. You
might see ANALYZE indicting two or three units on one controller when,
in fact, the controller is at fault.
Since the ANALYZE function is new, SPEAR keeps pointers to each error
file entry used to produce a conclusive statement. These pointers are
kept in a "packet file" which is one of the outputs of ANALYZE. If
you don't believe that a conclusive statement is accurate or if you
think you have a better theory, you can specify this packet file as
input to RETRIEVE, and get the same detailed (or brief) entry report
you got from SYSERR.
[End of SPR1.DOC]