Document revision date: 31 July 2002

V7.3-1

This section contains release notes that apply to the Compaq OpenVMS Graphical Configuration Manager (GCM).

V7.3-1

The Compaq OpenVMS Graphical Configuration Manager client installation kit installs its own copy of the Java JRE Version 1.2.2-3 and Fast VM Version 1.2.2-1 to ensure that you have the correct version of Java installed. Before you perform the installation, you must make sure that all prerequisite OpenVMS patch kits have been installed. You can find the list of prerequisite patch kits at the following location:

http://www.compaq.com/java/download/jdk_ovms/vmspatches.html

4.5.2 DNS Name Server Required to Resolve TCP/IP Addresses

V7.3-1

To resolve TCP/IP addresses, GCM servers require that a DNS name server be on the network. If there is no DNS name server on the network, the GCM server appears to hang for an extended period of time before returning an error.

To avoid this error, define the addresses in the system's local host database.

4.5.3 Shutdown Sequence

V7.3-1

If you select multiple instances as targets for a system shutdown command, GCM may shut down the instance hosting the client that issues the command before the shutdown command has been sent to all other instances. To avoid this problem, shut down the instance hosting the client with a separate, subsequent command.

This problem will be corrected in a future release.

4.5.4 Resequencing of Admin System Records

V7.3-1

If a user with admin privilege modifies an existing system record in an active association by adding or removing a system record, the resulting list of associated servers may differ from the active association, preventing you from maintaining the active association. To work around this problem, after you add, remove, or modify a system record, you should restart all servers in the association.

This problem will be corrected in a future release.

4.5.5 Saved Models Do Not Include the Full Association

V7.3-1

The Save Model and Load Model functions apply only to the CPU assignments of the system hosting the client session, and do not include all systems in the association.

This problem will be corrected in a future release.

4.5.6 Inaccessible Attributes in Nonclustered Soft Partitions

V7.3-1

When soft partitions are not clustered, a small number of instance parameters are unavailable, such as Operating System Version, Galaxy Membership State, and Galaxy Member Join Time.

This problem will be corrected in a future release.

4.5.7 Apparent Hang in the OpenVMS GCM Client

V7.3-1

It is possible to induce an apparent hang on the OpenVMS Graphical Configuration Manager (GCM) Client if you attempt to discover a nonexistent server and then click anywhere on the GCM Window or Discovery dialog box. The GCM client appears to be hung and beeps when you click any of the buttons in the Discovery dialog box.

This occurs because the error message that indicates that no connection was made is buried beneath the GCM client window.

You can expose the error message by pressing Alt+F3 to lower the GCM client window. You can then dismiss the error message by clicking OK.

This problem occurs on the OpenVMS client only.

4.5.8 Windows Client Java Restriction

V7.3-1

The Microsoft Windows GCM client will install only on systems that have Java Version 1.2.2 to Version 1.3.

4.5.9 No Multimonitor Support

V7.3-1

Version 1.0 of the Graphical Configuration Manager does not support Microsoft Windows 2000 multimonitor configurations. This is because the Graphical Configuration Manager uses Java Version 1.2.2, while multimonitor support requires Java Version 1.3 or higher. Compaq expects to remove this restriction in later versions of the Graphical Configuration Manager.

4.5.10 Start OpenVMS Client in Installation Directory

V7.3-1

You should start the OpenVMS Graphical Configuration Manager client from the same directory from which you installed the client. You should do this every time you start the client. This ensures that any preferences that you set within the client are carried over between sessions.

4.5.11 Set-Up Needed for Location of Browser on OpenVMS

V7.3-1

The File menu's Open Library feature requires that a browser be installed on the client system in order to display documents from active instances. On OpenVMS, the file GCM_BROWSER.COM in the installed Client directory, SYS$COMMON:[GCM_CLIENT], must be edited so that the browser's logical name is assigned the fully qualified path and executable image name used to invoke the browser. For example,

BROWSER := SYS$COMMON:[NETSCAPE.ALPHA]NETSCAPE-JAVA.EXE

4.5.12 Incorrect OpenVMS File Display on Windows Client

V7.3-1

Certain OpenVMS file types may not display correctly on Microsoft Windows Clients because of the Windows default application used to process that file type. When adding .COM, .LOG and .TXT files on the Library tab of Edit Admin Database, set the Process As property to TEXT and not to DEFAULT. Additionally, change the default application for displaying .TXT files from Notepad to WordPad. Using WordPad ensures proper new line handling for .TXT and .LOG files, and treats .COM files as displayable files, not executable files.

4.6 Reduced Cluster Performance with CI-LAN Switching

V7.3-1

In rare cases, in an OpenVMS Cluster configuration with both CI and multiple FDDI, 100mb/s or Gb/s Ethernet-based CIRCUITs, it can be observed that SCS connections are moving between CI and LAN circuits at intervals of a few seconds. This frequent circuit switching can result in reduced cluster performance.

PEdriver can detect and respond to LAN congestion that persists for a few seconds. When it detects a significant delay increase or packet losses on a LAN path, it will remove it from use. When it detects that the path has improved, it will begin using it again.

Under marginal conditions, it can happen that the additional load on a LAN path due to its use for cluster traffic is enough to cause its delay or packet losses to increase beyond acceptable limits. When this is detected and the cluster load is removed, the path might appear to have been sufficiently improved so that it will again come into use.

If a marginal LAN path's contribution to the LAN circuit's load class is enough to increase the circuit's load class above the CI's load class value of 140 when the marginal path is included, and conversely decrease the LAN circuit's load class below 140 when the path is excluded, SCS connections will move between CI and LAN circuits.

You can observe connections moving between LAN and CI circuits by using SHOW CLUSTER with the CONNECTION and CIRCUITS classes added.

Workarounds

If excessively frequent connection moves are observed, you can use one of the following workarounds:

• You can use SCACP or AM to assign a higher priority to the circuit, or the port you wish to be used, thus overriding automatic connection assignment and moving.
  Examples of SCACP commands are:

  $ MC SCACP SCACP> SET PORT PNA0 /PRIORITY=2 ! This will cause circuits from local ! CI port PNA0 to be chosen over ! lower priority circuits. SCACP> SET PORT PEA0 /PRIORITY=2 ! This will cause LAN circuits to be ! chosen over lower priority circuits.

• Alternatively, you can use the SCACP SHOW CHANNEL commands to determine which channels are being switched into/out of use. Then you can use SCACP to explicitly exclude a specific channel by assigning it a lower priority value than the desired channels. For example:

  SCACP> SET CHANNEL LARRY /LOCAL=EWB/REMOTE=EWB /PRIORITY=-2

  
  Note that CHANNEL and LAN device priority values in the range of max, max-1 are considered equivalent; that is, they are treated as if they both had the maximum priority value. A difference of >=2 in priority values is necessary to exclude a channel or LAN device from use.

V7.3-1

When you use the new SCACP SET or SHOW PORT or CIRCUIT commands on GALAXY systems, the command executes properly, but it might also report a device offline error for a PBAn (SMCI) device. The reason for the report is that the PBA device is a "template" from which the actual PBA devices are "cloned". Unfortunately, the PBA device in the template does not report itself as a PBA device to the I/O subsystem. Therefore, SCACP finds it and issues management requests to it. These requests fail with device offline status.

A sample of this behavior follows:

SCACP> SHOW CIRCUIT LARRY/PORT=PBA0 %SCACP-E-DEV_OFFLINE, Port PBA0 is offline SCACP> SHOW CIRCUIT MOE Circuit data for CURLY at 03-MAY 11:30:26.39 Remote LPort Circuit Priority Load RPort RPort Node Name State Cur Mgt Class Number Type -------- -------- -------- ---- ---- -------- ------------ -------- MOE PEA0 Open 0 0 30000 DD NI MOE PNA0 Open 0 0 140 19 CIPCA MOE PBA1 Open 0 0 32767 SMCI %SCACP-E-DEV_OFFLINE, Port PBA0 is offline

This device offline error will be fixed in the next release of OpenVMS.

4.8 Single Architecture per System Disk

V7.3-1

Only one architecture is supported per system disk and per system disk boot block. Although it is currently possible to have certain combinations of bootstrap pointers coresident in a disk boot block, having the OpenVMS operating system binaries for multiple architectures both coresident and bootable on a single system disk is not supported.

4.9 Firmware Revision and Booting Alpha Station XP1000

V7.3-1

During boot of the Alpha Station XP1000, SYSBOOT displays the following warning:

%SYSBOOT-W-FIRMREV, Firmware rev. 5.9 is below the recommended minimum of 6.2. Please update your firmware to the recommended revision, which can be found on the firmware CD labeled: Alpha AXP Systems Firmware Update 6.2.

Please ignore this warning message. Firmware rev. 5.9 is the last released firmware for this system. There is no rev. 6.2 firmware contained on the Version 6.2 Firmware Update CD.

4.10 DECdtm Services

This section describes known problems and restrictions associated with using DECdtm services.

4.10.1 DECdtm/XA with Oracle 8i and 9i (Alpha Only)

V7.3-1

With the new DECdtm/XA capability to write applications conforming to the XOpen/XA Specification, resource managers (RMs) must be bound to the XA interface. Oracle dynamic registration (XA switch xaoswd ) does not work with Oracle shared libraries (Oracle 8i and 9i). Static registration (XA switch xaosw ) should be used. The XA Gateway available with DECdtm V2.0 and included in OpenVMS release is single-node only.

4.10.2 IPC-E-BCKTRNSFAIL Error Message

V7.3

This note pertains to ACMS users, possibly Rdb users, and anyone else running a user-written application that calls DECdtm to participate in a distributed transaction with a remote system having these characteristics:

• The network connection is Compaq DECnet-Plus for OpenVMS over TCP/IP
• The nodes are connected using only an IP router

Users may see the following error returned by DECnet:

IPC-E-BCKTRNSFAIL, failure on the back translate address request

This error is displayed upon a logical connection failure when the remote node name cannot be translated by DECnet-Plus. The error can be triggered when the DECnet-Plus node name for the remote system is not defined in the local DECnet-Plus database and is defined only as ALIAS in the TCP/IP name server for the remote node. For example, node XXYZZY may be defined as follows:

20.43.136.54 XXYZZY.ABC.DEF.COM, XXYZZY

To avoid this situation, either define the node name in the local DECnet-Plus database or define the logical SYS$DECDTM_NODE_NAME to be equivalent to one of the following:

• The value of the system parameter SCSNODE
• The DECnet-Plus simple name
• The TCP/IP alias (that is, a six-character node name string such as XXYZZY, as shown in the preceding example)

For other requirements and restrictions, refer to the section about managing DECdtm Services in the OpenVMS System Manager's Manual.

4.11 ECP Data Collector and Performance Analyzer V5.4B

V7.3-1

Version 5.4B is the minimum version of Enterprise Capacity and Performance (ECP) for OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3-1. Both the ECP Data Collector and the ECP Performance Analyzer are backward compatible with OpenVMS Version 6.2 and higher.

4.12 VMS$COMMON.DIR File: Restore Problems

V7.3-1

On an OpenVMS system disk, the file [SYSx]SYSCOMMON.DIR is an alias directory of the file [000000]VMS$COMMON.DIR. This means that both files point to the same file header. Prior to OpenVMS VAX Version 5.5-2 and OpenVMS Alpha Version 1.5, because it operated on files in alphabetic order, BACKUP did not properly restore the relationship between the VMS$COMMON.DIR file and the [SYSx]SYSCOMMON.DIR alias. Although this does not affect the system disk, it can produce errors with DIGITAL Command Language (DCL) lexical functions.

OpenVMS VAX Version 5.5-2 and OpenVMS Alpha Version 1.5 corrected this problem. However, if you restore image backups that were created with an older version of OpenVMS, the problem can recur.

You can check both the save set and the system disk to determine whether either has an incorrect relationship between the VMS$COMMON.DIR file and the [SYSx]SYSCOMMON.DIR alias.

Checking the Save Set

To determine if a save set has an incorrect relationship between the VMS$COMMON.DIR file and the [SYSx]SYSCOMMON.DIR alias, enter a BACKUP/LIST command to display information about the files contained in the VMS$COMMON directory in the save set. For example, here is the relevant portion of the output of the BACKUP/LIST command:

. . . [000000]VOLSET.SYS;1 0 24-SEP-1994 19:31 []000000.DIR;1 1 24-SEP-1994 19:31 []SYSCOMMON.DIR;1 2 24-SEP-1994 19:31 []SYSLIB.DIR;1 18 24-SEP-1994 19:31 []SYSTEST.DIR;1 1 24-SEP-1994 19:31 []SYSMAINT.DIR;1 1 24-SEP-1994 19:31 []SYSMGR.DIR;1 6 24-SEP-1994 19:31 []SYSHLP.DIR;1 6 24-SEP-1994 19:31 []EXAMPLES.DIR;1 1 24-SEP-1994 19:31 []SYSUPD.DIR;1 4 24-SEP-1994 19:31 []SYSMSG.DIR;1 3 24-SEP-1994 19:31 . . . []SECURITY_AUDIT.AUDIT 2 3-FEB-1995 15:23 []SECURITY_AUDIT.AUDIT 11 3-FEB-1995 15:23 []BACKUP.EXE;33 273 4-FEB-1995 09:37 []STABACKUP.EXE;9 486 4-FEB-1995 09:38

If the display lists lost files in the VMS$COMMON directory, as indicated by an empty directory specification ([]), the system disk information in this save set is affected by this problem. Whenever you perform a system restore using this save set you must subsequently perform the procedure described in Correcting the Problem to correct it.

If you have access to the system from which the save set was created, perform the procedure described in Checking the System Disk to determine whether that system still has the problem. If so, perform the procedure described in Correcting the Problem.

Checking the System Disk

To check the relationship between the VMS$COMMON.DIR file and the [SYSx]SYSCOMMON.DIR alias on the system disk, enter a DIRECTORY/HEADER command. For example:

$ DUMP/HEAD/BLOCK=COUNT:0 DR301:[000000]VMS$COMMON.DIR;1 Dump of file $4$DKA301:[000000]VMS$COMMON.DIR;1 on 14-FEB-2002 09:59:14.94 File ID (15,1,0) End of file block 3 / Allocated 9 File Header Header area Identification area offset: 40 . . . Identification area File name: VMS$COMMON.DIR;1 . . .

If the name displayed in the File name: field is VMS$COMMON.DIR;1 as above, the relationship is correct, and you need take no further action.

However, if the name displayed in the File name: field is SYSCOMMON.DIR;1 the relationship is not correct, and you must perform the procedure described in Correcting the Problem to correct it.

Correcting the Problem

To restore VMS$COMMON to its proper state, enter the following commands:

$ SET DEFAULT DISK:[000000] $ SET FILE/ENTER=SYSCOMMON.DIR VMS$COMMON.DIR $ SET FILE/REMOVE VMS$COMMON.DIR; $ RENAME SYSCOMMON.DIR VMS$COMMON.DIR

4.13 Kerberos

This section describes known problems and restrictions associated with using Kerberos.

4.13.1 Kerberos and Lowercase Usernames

V7.3-1

When Kerberos obtains a user name from the system's user authorization file (UAF), by default it does not modify the case of the user name. OpenVMS user names are in uppercase.

To accommodate the use of lowercase user names (UNIX user names are usually lowercase), you can define the logical KRB$LOWERCASE_UAF_USERNAME. This logical causes a user name retrieved from the UAF file to be lowercased. If you do not define this logical, the case of the user name remains unchanged.

4.13.2 Kerberos Not Cluster Aware

V7.3-1

Kerberos Version 1.0 for OpenVMS is not cluster aware. Kerberos tickets are encoded with the originating node name as a security feature. A ticket-granting ticket (TGT), obtained from one node in a cluster, is valid only on the node from which the request was made. Further requests for tickets must originate from the same node where the ticket-granting-ticket request originated. Although the ticket cache is visible from other nodes in the cluster, the Kerberos KDC does not allow nodes other than the node encoded in the ticket to use the TGT.

4.13.3 Kerberos Online Help

V7.3-1

OpenVMS Kerberos is an authentication security product that allows authentication for a wide range of security products, such as RLOGIN, TELNET, and FTP.

Kerberos formerly shipped as a layered product but is now integrated into the Version 7.3-1 operating system. If you had Kerberos installed on your system prior to upgrading to Version 7.3-1, you will have online help for Kerberos. However, the help file erroneously documents a /USER qualifier. No such qualifier is supported or required; you will automatically activate the Kerberos user utility when you enter the KERBEROS command, unless you specify the /ADMIN qualifier.

First-time users of Kerberos will not find online help on the operating system for this release. Please refer to the following command and qualifier descriptions. The command format is:

KERBEROS [qualifers]

By default, when you enter the KERBEROS command, you will activate the Kerberos user utility at the Kerberos> prompt. To activate the Kerberos administration utility, you must specify the /ADMIN qualifier.

Descriptions of the two optional qualifiers are as follows:

• /ADMIN
  Activates the Kerberos administration utility. You will get a KerberosAdmin> prompt, but you must log in to the Kerberos utility before you can execute any commands.

• /INTERFACE
  Activates the requested display interface, if available. The two possible values are:

  /INTERFACE=CHARACTER_CELL (default)
  /INTERFACE=DECWINDOWS

  
  Unless you specify /INTERFACE=DECWINDOWS, the default display is a character-cell terminal.

For detailed help about using the Kerberos utility, enter HELP at the Kerberos> or KerberosAdmin> prompt. You can also find the Kerberos for OpenVMS Release Notes on the Documentation CD-ROM. The documentation includes links to several other Kerberos manuals.

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