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AVAIL.DOC -- V2(30)
February 1980






























COPYRIGHT (C) 1980 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.

AVL2.DOC                                                        Page 2


AVAIL.DOC -- V2(30)
February 1980



1.0  SUMMARY

This is the first  release  of  the  availability  subset  of  SYSERR.
AVAIL.CBL  is  a  COBOL program which generates an availability report
similar to the CRASH AND UPTIME REPORT.

The report data base is a file written by DAEMON in the same format as
ERROR.SYS.   File entries consist of reload information, device status
change data,  date/time  changes,  and  other  pertinent  information.
AVAIL  reads this file by calling a MACRO sub-program which translates
the binary records into an understandable (to COBOL) format.

The report considers system statistics, device  outages,  and  monitor
failures.   Since DAEMON creates a new AVAIL file every week, the user
can select which week or weeks to be reported  by  doing  a  directory
search for SYS:AVAIL.*.



2.0  EXTERNAL CHANGES

Users of earlier versions (prior to edit  30)  will  notice  that  the
default  input  file  specification  has  been  changed from AVAIL.SYS
(current week) to AVAIL.AXX (where XX represents  last  week's  file).
Reporting  the  current  week  is  still  possible  but is discouraged
because it would not represent a full operating cycle.



3.0  KNOWN BUGS AND DEFICIENCIES

The accuracy of this  program  depends  heavily  on  correct  operator
responses  to  the "why reload" question and accurate insertion of the
time of day.  If "other" is selected  as  reason  for  reloading,  the
preceding down-time is not counted against availability.

An incorrect reload time should be fixed before another reload  occurs
to  avoid  negative  down-times  or  run-times.   Since  all date/time
changes are logged in the  AVAIL.SYS  file,  the  report  program  can
adjust  times as necessary by simply adding up the changes until a new
reload entry is seen.

Device status change entries occurring after the last reload entry  in
a  file  do  not  get  moved to the next week's file.  This means that
single-week reports will ignore some  device  outage  data.   Edit  30
fixes this problem if DAEMON provides beginning and ending time-stamps
in the AVAIL file.

Also, device outage accuracy depends on  operator  action.   A  device
outage  is  the  time difference between a DETACH/ATTACH sequence.  If

AVL2.DOC                                                        Page 3


one occurs without the other, the missing time-stamp will be filled in
from the operational-cycle beginning or end.

Total runtime and downtime figures  are  not  precise.   DAEMON  keeps
track of time by updating the availability file every six minutes.  If
a crash/reload sequence is  immediately  followed  by  another,  these
times  may  not  be correctly updated.  The report program compensates
for this by assuming the system  did  not  resume  service  after  the
previous reload (nobody had time to do any work anyway).



4.0  INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

See the AVAIL.CTL file.  AVAIL.EXE is formed by loading AVAIL.REL with
REDERR.REL.   AVAIL.REL  is  formed by compiling AVAIL.CBL with COBOL.
REDERR.REL is compiled from REDERR.MAC which searches  ERRUNV.UNV  and
SYRUNV.UNV.



5.0  INTERNAL CHANGES

                           REVISION HISTORY
                           -------- -------

EDIT #                        COMMENT

1       FIX RIGHT-MOVE WHEN WORD IS EXACTLY SIX CHARACTERS
2       SAVE-NEW-REL INCORRECTLY ALTERING CRASH TIME
3       CHANGE REDERR TO KEEP SIGN ON DATE/TIME CHANGE
4       REWRITE DEVICE STATUS CHANGE TO CONSIDER DATE/TIME CHANGES
5       ADD RESPONSE TO HELP
6       CLEAN UP LISTING, USE LOWER CASE, ALIGN DECIMAL POINTS
7       ADD DETAILED LISTING FOR RELOAD AND DEVICE CHANGES
10      ACCUMULATE TIMES TO 3 DECIMAL PLACES
11      ADD CHECKS FOR BACKWARDS TIMES
12      DON'T TELL USER TO SUPPLY OUTPUT DEVICE. ALLOW DSK TO BE ONE
13      CLEAN UP OUTPUT -- DO BETTER PAGING IN MAIN REPORT
14      REDERR NOT IGNORING FIRST FIVE BLOCKS OF AVAIL FILE!
15      ADD MULTI-WEEK, MULTI-REPORT WITH NEW DIALOG (INCLUDING HELP)
16      EFFECTIVENESS FIGURES TOO PESSIMISTIC -- ALLOW 100%
17      MINIMUM TIMES NOT WORKING IF NEW TIME IS ZERO
20      MAKE NAMES MORE MEANINGFUL AND USE STRUCTURED TECHNIQUES
        (FOR VERSION 2)
21      REDERR UNIVERSAL TIME CONVERSION OFF BY 7 MINUTES
22      FIX WARNING MESSAGES
23      FIX REDERR BUG WHEN AVAIL IS TWOSEG
24      INCREASE DEVICE STATUS CHANGE STORAGE
25      ADHERE TO ANSI STANDARDS ON 88 VALUES
26      CHANGE ERROR MESSAGE AT LINE 1094 TO READ 'DAY MUST BE 1 TO
31'
27      IF DEVICE NOT SPECIFIED BUT PPN IS, USE 'DSK' FOR DEFAULT
30      ADD ABILITY TO RECEIVE BEGIN OR END OF OPERATING CYCLE

AVL2.DOC                                                        Page 4


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