OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1 New Features and Documentation Overview

Document revision date: 15 July 2002

Order Number: AA--RSHYA--TE

June 2002

This manual describes the new features associated with the OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1 operating system and provides an overview of the documentation that supports the software.

Revision/Update Information: This is a new manual.

Software Version: OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1

Compaq Computer Corporation
Houston, Texas

Compaq, the Compaq logo, AlphaServer, OpenVMS, POLYCENTER, Tru64, VAX, VMS, and the DIGITAL logo are trademarks of Compaq Information Technologies Group, L.P. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

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All other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies.

Confidential computer software. Valid license from Compaq required for possession, use, or copying. Consistent with FAR 12.211 and 12.212, Commercial Computer Software, Computer Software Documentation, and Technical Data for Commercial Items are licensed to the U.S. Government under vendor's standard commercial license.

Compaq shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. The information in this document is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind and is subject to change without notice. The warranties for Compaq products are set forth in the express limited warranty statements accompanying such products. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty.

ZK6657

The Compaq OpenVMS documentation set is available on CD-ROM.

Contents Index

Preface

Intended Audience

This manual is intended for general users, system managers, and programmers who use the Compaq OpenVMS operating system.

This document describes the new features related to Version 7.3--1 of the OpenVMS Alpha operating system. For information about how some of the new features might affect your system, read the release notes before you install, upgrade, or use Version 7.3--1.

Document Structure

This manual contains the following parts and chapters:

Part I, OpenVMS Version 7.3--1 New Features
- Chapter 1 summarizes the new OpenVMS software features.
- Chapter 2 provides information about the e-Business technologies that are included in the Compaq OpenVMS e-Business Infrastructure Package.
- Chapter 3 describes new features of interest to general users of the OpenVMS Alpha operating system.
- Chapter 4 describes new features that are applicable to the tasks performed by system managers.
- Chapter 5 describes new features that support programming tasks.
- Chapter 6 describes significant layered product new features.
Part II, OpenVMS Documentation
- Chapter 7 describes the OpenVMS documentation changes from the previous version.
- Chapter 8 describes how the documentation is delivered.
- Chapter 9 describes each manual in the OpenVMS documentation set.

Reader's Comments

Compaq welcomes your comments on this manual. Please send comments to either of the following addresses:

Internet openvmsdoc@compaq.com

Mail Compaq Computer Corporation
OSSG Documentation Group, ZKO3-4/U08
110 Spit Brook Rd.
Nashua, NH 03062-2698

How to Order Additional Documentation

Visit the following World Wide Web address for information about how to order additional documentation:

http://www.openvms.compaq.com/

Conventions

The following conventions are used in this manual:

Ctrl/ x A sequence such as Ctrl/ x indicates that you must hold down the key labeled Ctrl while you press another key or a pointing device button.

PF1 x A sequence such as PF1 x indicates that you must first press and release the key labeled PF1 and then press and release another key or a pointing device button.

[Return] In examples, a key name enclosed in a box indicates that you press a key on the keyboard. (In text, a key name is not enclosed in a box.)
In the HTML version of this document, this convention appears as brackets, rather than a box.

... A horizontal ellipsis in examples indicates one of the following possibilities:

Additional optional arguments in a statement have been omitted.
The preceding item or items can be repeated one or more times.
Additional parameters, values, or other information can be entered.

.
.
. A vertical ellipsis indicates the omission of items from a code example or command format; the items are omitted because they are not important to the topic being discussed.

( ) In command format descriptions, parentheses indicate that you must enclose choices in parentheses if you specify more than one.

[ ] In command format descriptions, brackets indicate optional choices. You can choose one or more items or no items. Do not type the brackets on the command line. However, you must include the brackets in the syntax for OpenVMS directory specifications and for a substring specification in an assignment statement.

| In command format descriptions, vertical bars separate choices within brackets or braces. Within brackets, the choices are optional; within braces, at least one choice is required. Do not type the vertical bars on the command line.

{ } In command format descriptions, braces indicate required choices; you must choose at least one of the items listed. Do not type the braces on the command line.

bold text This typeface represents the introduction of a new term. It also represents the name of an argument, an attribute, or a reason.

italic text Italic text indicates important information, complete titles of manuals, or variables. Variables include information that varies in system output (Internal error number), in command lines (/PRODUCER= name), and in command parameters in text (where dd represents the predefined code for the device type).

UPPERCASE TEXT Uppercase text indicates a command, the name of a routine, the name of a file, or the abbreviation for a system privilege.

Monospace text Monospace type indicates code examples and interactive screen displays.
In the C programming language, monospace type in text identifies the following elements: keywords, the names of independently compiled external functions and files, syntax summaries, and references to variables or identifiers introduced in an example.

- A hyphen at the end of a command format description, command line, or code line indicates that the command or statement continues on the following line.

numbers All numbers in text are assumed to be decimal unless otherwise noted. Nondecimal radixes---binary, octal, or hexadecimal---are explicitly indicated.

Part 1
OpenVMS Version 7.3--1 New Features

Chapter 1
Summary of OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1 New Features

OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1 delivers the highest levels of availability, scalability, flexibility, performance, and security that are required for operating in a 24x365 environment. With more than 20 years of proven reliability, OpenVMS continues to enhance its availability and performance by including new technology in the base operating system and in the OpenVMS Cluster software environment.

OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1 focuses on expanding our OpenVMS Storage Area Network (SAN) offering, improving system availability, providing I/O and SMP performance improvements, and enhanced security. This release also includes enhancements that make it easier to port UNIX applications to OpenVMS.

1.1 Performance Features

OpenVMS Version 7.3--1 focuses on making operating system changes that improve system, SMP, and I/O performance, as well as system scaling, with the ultimate goal of improving customer application performance. OpenVMS Alpha V7.3--1 includes a number of performance enhancements across a range of areas:

I/O performance
SMP and general system performance
System scaling
OpenVMS Cluster performance
NUMA enhancements

Application performance is determined by the hardware, operating system, middleware, database, and the application itself. The benefit of the performance changes in the operating system on your application will vary depending on your application's use of the enhanced functions, but many applications will see significant performance benefits! OpenVMS engineers have been working directly with many OpenVMS ISVs and customers on enhancements that have shown substantial performance improvement.

In the Fibre Channel storage area, new features such as distributed interrupts, interrupt coalescing, and reductions in lock usage have improved I/O throughput on Fibre Channel by up to 100% over the previous release.

OpenVMS Alpha V7.3--1 makes low level kernel changes that improve the performance of large SMP systems. Application performance will vary, but many will see significant improvements!

The following information highlights some of the performance features in OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1.

AST Delivery

The AST queues associated with each process are now synchronized by a process-specific spinlock, instead of the SCHED spinlock. This allows AST delivery to occur in parallel on multiple CPUs and avoids heavy spinlock contention on the SCHED spinlock. Queuing an AST still requires SCHED. However, if the AST being queued is for the current process, you can avoid taking the SCHED spinlock.

MailBox I/O

Previous to OpenVMS Version 7.3--1, all devices used the static MAILBOX spinlock. Now each Mailbox device is synchronized by a mailbox specific spinlock for better performance.

Timer Queue Processing

The Timer Queue was previously a linked list of Timer Queue Entries (TQEs). If the number of TQEs on the Timer Queue became large and there was a heavy load of inserts and cancels, it could take a very long time to insert and remove items from the Timer Queue. The Timer Queue is now in a tree format and performance no longer degrades when the size of the list increases.

PEdriver Checksumming

The algorithm to perform PEdriver checksumming is now more efficient. PEdriver checksumming is performed only if the SYSGEN parameter PEX is set to X.

RMS Global Buffer Locking

Now RMS takes advantage of a change in the Lock Manager's fork lock interface. This interface previously required the IOLOCK8 spinlock to be held when the interface was called. Also, any callbacks by the lock manager were done with IOLOCK8 held. The interface now allows callers to indicate IOLOCK8 is not held and not needed on callbacks, thus avoiding the overhead and contention on IOLOCK8.

Faster SYS$GETJPI System Service

A new SYS$GETJPI system service obtains some data for the current process much more efficiently (in some cases without even a change to kernel mode).

Shadowing I/O Completion

I/O post processing for shadowing I/Os will now complete on the same CPU for which the device I/O completes, as opposed to always completing on the primary CPU. If the shadow set has Fast Path devices, I/O post processing will not get moved back to the primary CPU to avoid saturating the primary CPU.

Scaling

To improve system scaling, the following enhancements have been made in OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1:

Larger WSMAX or BALSETCNT
In V7.3--1, all of the preallocated FRED blocks are removed from S0S1 space. These are now allocated only if needed. This has freed up a vast amount of S0S1 space, which in turn allows the system to have either a larger WSMAX (maximum working set size) or BALSETCNT (number of balance set slots in the system page table). The freed up S0S1 space could also be used for larger nonpaged pool.
Replicated Data on NUMA Systems
A subset of OpenVMS read-only data is now replicated on NUMA platforms. This includes static system parameters and a subset of operating system cells such as MMG$GL_PAGESIZE.

Processor-Specific C RTL

The C RTL now provides an optimized copy of DECC$SHR (named DECC$SHR_EV56.EXE) that supports the ability of EV6 processors to schedule byte/word instructions. A second version of DECC$SHR, built in the usual way, is also provided for other Alpha processor types. The OpenVMS installation procedure checks the processor type and sets a logical to the appropriate DECC$SHR optimized for that processor type. Customizing DECC$SHR in this way optimizes performance on EV6 systems.

1.2 Security Features

The following security features in OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1 provide flexibility and simplified software development options for authentication and cryptography:

Common Data Security Architecture (CDSA)
Kerberos
Secure Sockets Library (OpenSSL)
Authentication and Credentials Management Extensions (ACME)

This manual provides an overview of each security feature as well as references for more information.

1.3 UNIX Portability Features

In addition to providing an Open Source Tools CD-ROM that contains software tools to help you port UNIX applications to OpenVMS Alpha, Version 7.3--1 of the operating system includes internal enhancements to support the porting process and multiplatform environments. Extended File Specifications now includes POSIX-compliant time stamps for file access and modification as well as support for hard links and case sensitivity, which are also supported in RMS, system services, and the Compaq C Run-Time Library. ODS-5 system disks are now supported in OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1. These features, along with the Open Source Tools for OpenVMS, provide a comprehensive porting environment for application developers and an open, flexible computing environment for users and system managers.

1.4 System Management Tools

System managers will be pleased with the new Graphical Configuration Manager (GCM) for viewing and controlling partitioned AlphaServers running OpenVMS. OpenVMS Cluster managers can now override automatic circuit and port selection to optimize performance and availability. Use either the SCACP utility or the Availability Manager to access this new feature.

1.5 Summary Table

OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1 includes all the capabilities of OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3 plus the new features added to the OpenVMS Alpha operating system. Table 1-1 summarizes each feature provided by OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1 and presents these features according to their functional component (e-Business, general user, system management, programming, and associated products).

Table 1-1 Summary of OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1 Software Features
Compaq OpenVMS e-Business Infrastructure Package for OpenVMS Alpha

Compaq OpenVMS e-Business The following e-Business technologies are included in the Compaq OpenVMS e-Business Infrastructure Package with OpenVMS Alpha:

Attunity Connect "On Platform" Package
Compaq BridgeWorks
COM for OpenVMS
Compaq Enterprise Directory for e-Business
NetBeans for OpenVMS
Reliable Transaction Router (RTR)
Compaq Secure Web Browser for OpenVMS Alpha
Compaq Secure Web Server for OpenVMS Alpha
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) Toolkit
Compaq Software Development Kit (SDK) for the OpenVMS Operating System, for the Java ^tm Platform
Compaq XML Technology

The Compaq OpenVMS e-Business Infrastructure Package provides key Internet and e-Business software technology that enhances the base OpenVMS Alpha operating system. These technologies are licensed with the OpenVMS Alpha operating system.

General User Features

Documentation Documentation updates are now available on the Internet.
Four new manuals are provided with this release.
The Guide to Extended File Specifications and the OpenVMS Master Index have been archived.

2D graphics support on 3Dlabs Oxygen VX1-AGP4X graphics module OpenVMS Alpha now provides support software for this module, including DMA support for both the PCI-based module and AGP-based versions of the VX1 module.

DCL commands and lexical functions Numerous enhancements have been added to DCL commands and lexical functions to support ODS-5 volumes, RAD functionality, security, and many other features.

WWPPS supports codeset GB18030 The new codeset GB18030-2000 supports simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese.

System Management Features

ACCOUNTING utility The new /WIDE qualifier changes the width of Buffered I/O and Direct I/O fields to accomodate larger numbers in a report.

AlphaServer DS25 With a processor speed of 1 GHz and support for the latest Gigabit Ethernet adaptor architecture, the new AlphaServer DS25 provides superior performance in a high-powered computing environment. The AlphaServer DS25 supports CD-R and CD-RW drives.

ANALYZE/DISK_STRUCTURE utility The new /LOCK_VOLUME qualifier lets you prevent file system activity on a volume while you are analyzing that volume.

Authentication and Credentials Management Extensions (ACME) ACME provides applications with a simple way to provide fully compliant OpenVMS authentication from a single API.

BACKUP utility /DENSITY qualifier New keywords let you specify the recording density on magnetic tape.

Batch job support for NUMA Resource Affinity Domains Updates have been made to the batch processing subsystem to support Resource Affinity Domains (RADs) in a NUMA environment.

DECram Version 3.1 DECram V3.1 provides performance improvements, a new command interface, and is supported on Galaxy.

DECram, Mailbox driver, and Volume Shadowing performance gains on multiprocessor systems DECram for OpenVMS Version 3.1 and Version 2.5, the Mailbox driver, and Volume Shadowing for OpenVMS have been modified to improve I/O performance on multiprocessor systems.

Fast Path performance improvements Fast Path capable devices have their hardware interrupts targeted to a specific Fast Path CPU, freeing up CPU cycles on the primary CPU.

File system enhancements POSIX-compliant timestamps, access dates, hard links, and preservation of case sensitivity create a more flexible, interoperable environment for UNIX and OpenVMS.

Graphical Configuration Manager (GCM) GCM provides a visual means of viewing and controlling the configuration of partitioned AlphaServer systems running OpenVMS.

Kerberos A full port of MIT's Kerberos 1.0.5 release is now integrated into the OpenVMS operating system. Previously, Kerberos was offered as a layered product.

LANCP New LANCP qualifers expand the functionality of the SET DEVICE and SHOW DEVICES commands.

LIBDECOMP.COM LIBDECOMP.COM can now both expand and reduce selected libraries; it also can list the size and status of all libraries known to the utility. The selection of libraries that ship in data-reduced format has been modified to maximize the benefits of the utility.

ODS-5 volume structure The legal character set for filenames has been extended to include the ISO Latin-1 Multinational character set (except * and ?).
An ODS-5 volume can now be a system disk.

OpenVMS Cluster performance improvements Many modules that are used to send messages and to transfer data in a cluster have been optimized for speed of execution for the Alpha architecture. Several major modules have been completely rewritten, routine by routine, for performance, correctness, and clarity.
Optimizations to the Fibre Channel driver software reduce I/O lock hold time by 3--6 microseconds per I/O, resulting in significant I/O performance improvements.
In Fibre Channel configurations, I/O completion interrupts in the host bus adapter are grouped together and then are transmitted as a group instead of being sent one at a time. This new implementation improves I/O performance in environments with a high I/O work load.
The limit of 512 devices that could be MSCP served has been increased to 1000. A single OpenVMS Alpha server can now serve up to 1000 disks. This gives system managers greater flexibility in configuring their OpenVMS Cluster storage.
Multipath failover to an MSCP-served path for disks is implemented in SCSI and Fibre Channel configurations.
Multipath balancing means that the selection of the current path to a multipath disk or tape device is now biased toward the connected path with the fewest devices using it.
Multipath tape support, including failover, is implemented for Fibre Channel configurations.
Now you can set priority levels for ports and circuits. In addition, PEdriver has been redesigned to update the load class value of its SCS circuits.

OpenVMS Registry Performance has been improved by indexing the Registry database. There are two performance enhancements to the Registry Control Program.

SHOW CLUSTER utility New fields have been added to the CIRCUITS class and to the LOCAL_PORTS class to display additional information about virtual circuits and the local system interface.

Subprocess performance improvement A new method for automatically naming spawned subprocesses reduces overhead.

SYSMAN utility New RESERVED_MEMORY commands and qualifiers have been added to support RAD functionality.

System parameters The new parameters DCL_CLTFLAGS, DELPRC_EXIT, MPDEV_AFB_INTVL, and RMS_SEQFILE_WBH support performance options in OpenVMS V7.3--1.

Systems Communications Architecture Control Program (SCACP) New capabilities that improve flexibility have been added to the SCACP utility that monitors and manages cluster communications.

Ultra3 SCSI Adapter with Fast Path support KZPEA, a new Ultra3 SCSI adapter, supports Fast Path.

XA capability added to DECdtm The X/Open Distributed Transaction Processing XA interface has been implemented for OpenVMS. This interface enables the OpenVMS DECdtm transaction manager to coordinate XA-compliant resource managers, and enables the XA-compliant transaction processing systems to coordinate DECdtm-compliant resource managers.

Programming Features

New Alpha processor performance information New white paper published on the Compaq Web site reveals how programmers can take advantage of the latest performance enhancements on Alpha.

ANALYZE Usage Summary The new /SHADOW_MEMBER qualifier lets you determine the shadow set member you want to contain the system dump file.

Compaq C Run-Time Library (CRTL) enhancements Support for files larger than 2-GB files.
C RTL features enabled at compile/link time.
Enhanced support for UNIX style file names.
POSIX root support.
32-bit group identifiers.

DECdtm Several system services for transaction processing used with DECdtm are now fully documented.

Common Data Security Architecture (CDSA) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) CDSA is an open-source, multiplatform industry standard security architecture. Including CDSA as part of OpenVMS simplifies software development by providing standards based crytopgraphic interfaces for developers. SSL provides a certificate tool for viewing and creating SSL certificates.

Compaq SSL for OpenVMS Alpha with LDAP Compaq SSL for OpenVMS Alpha can be established on an LDAP session on a server that supports LDAP.

New behavior of the floating-point registers and execution data block (FRED) The FRED block is now allocated on an as-needed basis to improve scaling and performance for applications using kernel threads.

Future architeccture-specific code changes Information pertaining to a future version of OpenVMS is provided for the convenience of application developers.

Support for image sections in Galaxy Write shared image sections can now be placed in Galaxy global sections to extend the application capabilities supported in Galaxy.

Mailbox buffer quotas increased $CREMBX system service supports larger mailbox buffer quotas to improve application scaling.

RMS enhancements An increase in default I/O transfer size reduces I/O for more efficient performance.
Support for POSIX-compliant timestamps added.
New RMS write-behind performance option enables overlapping I/O, which can be a big performance win for some applications.

System Dump Analyzer New commands and qualifiers have been added to improve performance, including new commands for analyzing the extended file cache (XFC).

SDA Spinlock Tracing utility Two new qualifiers, /RATES and /TOTALS, have been added to the SHOW TRACE and SHOW COLLECT commands to enhance your ability to monitor and tune spinlock activity.

System services Several system services have been added and updated.
Updates have been made to system services to support batch jobs for NUMA resource affinity domains (RADs).

Threads libraries supported on NUMA To improve application scaling and performance on GS Series Alpha (NUMA) systems, a threaded program can now utilize more than one RAD of a NUMA system.

Associated Products Features

Compaq Advanced Server for OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3 is supported on OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1.

Compaq C Run-Time Header Files Library The header files that contain library functions and macro definitions are provided on the OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1 Layered Products CD-ROM.

Compaq PATHWORKS for OpenVMS (Advanced Server) Version 6.1 is supported on OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1.

Compaq TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS Version 5.3 of this product is supported on OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1.

OpenVMS Management Station Version 3.2 OpenVMS Management Station Version 3.2 is included with OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1.

Powerstorm 300/350 Graphics support Version 2.0 includes new features for the OpenGL Utility Toolkit (GLUT).

UNIX Portability Features UNIX portability features are introduced for easier porting of UNIX applications to OpenVMS.

Open Source Tools for OpenVMS The Open Source Tools CD-ROM, included with OpenVMS Version 7.3--1, has a number of utilities and sources to expedite porting from UNIX to OpenVMS.

**Table 1-1 Summary of OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1 Software Features**
Compaq OpenVMS e-Business Infrastructure Package for OpenVMS Alpha
Compaq OpenVMS e-Business	The following e-Business technologies are included in the Compaq OpenVMS e-Business Infrastructure Package with OpenVMS Alpha: Attunity Connect "On Platform" Package Compaq BridgeWorks COM for OpenVMS Compaq Enterprise Directory for e-Business NetBeans for OpenVMS Reliable Transaction Router (RTR) Compaq Secure Web Browser for OpenVMS Alpha Compaq Secure Web Server for OpenVMS Alpha Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) Toolkit Compaq Software Development Kit (SDK) for the OpenVMS Operating System, for the Java ^tm Platform Compaq XML Technology The Compaq OpenVMS e-Business Infrastructure Package provides key Internet and e-Business software technology that enhances the base OpenVMS Alpha operating system. These technologies are licensed with the OpenVMS Alpha operating system.
General User Features
Documentation	Documentation updates are now available on the Internet. Four new manuals are provided with this release. The Guide to Extended File Specifications and the OpenVMS Master Index have been archived.
2D graphics support on 3Dlabs Oxygen VX1-AGP4X graphics module	OpenVMS Alpha now provides support software for this module, including DMA support for both the PCI-based module and AGP-based versions of the VX1 module.
DCL commands and lexical functions	Numerous enhancements have been added to DCL commands and lexical functions to support ODS-5 volumes, RAD functionality, security, and many other features.
WWPPS supports codeset GB18030	The new codeset GB18030-2000 supports simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese.
System Management Features
ACCOUNTING utility	The new /WIDE qualifier changes the width of Buffered I/O and Direct I/O fields to accomodate larger numbers in a report.
AlphaServer DS25	With a processor speed of 1 GHz and support for the latest Gigabit Ethernet adaptor architecture, the new AlphaServer DS25 provides superior performance in a high-powered computing environment. The AlphaServer DS25 supports CD-R and CD-RW drives.
ANALYZE/DISK_STRUCTURE utility	The new /LOCK_VOLUME qualifier lets you prevent file system activity on a volume while you are analyzing that volume.
Authentication and Credentials Management Extensions (ACME)	ACME provides applications with a simple way to provide fully compliant OpenVMS authentication from a single API.
BACKUP utility /DENSITY qualifier	New keywords let you specify the recording density on magnetic tape.
Batch job support for NUMA Resource Affinity Domains	Updates have been made to the batch processing subsystem to support Resource Affinity Domains (RADs) in a NUMA environment.
DECram Version 3.1	DECram V3.1 provides performance improvements, a new command interface, and is supported on Galaxy.
DECram, Mailbox driver, and Volume Shadowing performance gains on multiprocessor systems	DECram for OpenVMS Version 3.1 and Version 2.5, the Mailbox driver, and Volume Shadowing for OpenVMS have been modified to improve I/O performance on multiprocessor systems.
Fast Path performance improvements	Fast Path capable devices have their hardware interrupts targeted to a specific Fast Path CPU, freeing up CPU cycles on the primary CPU.
File system enhancements	POSIX-compliant timestamps, access dates, hard links, and preservation of case sensitivity create a more flexible, interoperable environment for UNIX and OpenVMS.
Graphical Configuration Manager (GCM)	GCM provides a visual means of viewing and controlling the configuration of partitioned AlphaServer systems running OpenVMS.
Kerberos	A full port of MIT's Kerberos 1.0.5 release is now integrated into the OpenVMS operating system. Previously, Kerberos was offered as a layered product.
LANCP	New LANCP qualifers expand the functionality of the SET DEVICE and SHOW DEVICES commands.
LIBDECOMP.COM	LIBDECOMP.COM can now both expand and reduce selected libraries; it also can list the size and status of all libraries known to the utility. The selection of libraries that ship in data-reduced format has been modified to maximize the benefits of the utility.
ODS-5 volume structure	The legal character set for filenames has been extended to include the ISO Latin-1 Multinational character set (except * and ?). An ODS-5 volume can now be a system disk.
OpenVMS Cluster performance improvements	Many modules that are used to send messages and to transfer data in a cluster have been optimized for speed of execution for the Alpha architecture. Several major modules have been completely rewritten, routine by routine, for performance, correctness, and clarity. Optimizations to the Fibre Channel driver software reduce I/O lock hold time by 3--6 microseconds per I/O, resulting in significant I/O performance improvements. In Fibre Channel configurations, I/O completion interrupts in the host bus adapter are grouped together and then are transmitted as a group instead of being sent one at a time. This new implementation improves I/O performance in environments with a high I/O work load. The limit of 512 devices that could be MSCP served has been increased to 1000. A single OpenVMS Alpha server can now serve up to 1000 disks. This gives system managers greater flexibility in configuring their OpenVMS Cluster storage. Multipath failover to an MSCP-served path for disks is implemented in SCSI and Fibre Channel configurations. Multipath balancing means that the selection of the current path to a multipath disk or tape device is now biased toward the connected path with the fewest devices using it. Multipath tape support, including failover, is implemented for Fibre Channel configurations. Now you can set priority levels for ports and circuits. In addition, PEdriver has been redesigned to update the load class value of its SCS circuits.
OpenVMS Registry	Performance has been improved by indexing the Registry database. There are two performance enhancements to the Registry Control Program.
SHOW CLUSTER utility	New fields have been added to the CIRCUITS class and to the LOCAL_PORTS class to display additional information about virtual circuits and the local system interface.
Subprocess performance improvement	A new method for automatically naming spawned subprocesses reduces overhead.
SYSMAN utility	New RESERVED_MEMORY commands and qualifiers have been added to support RAD functionality.
System parameters	The new parameters DCL_CLTFLAGS, DELPRC_EXIT, MPDEV_AFB_INTVL, and RMS_SEQFILE_WBH support performance options in OpenVMS V7.3--1.
Systems Communications Architecture Control Program (SCACP)	New capabilities that improve flexibility have been added to the SCACP utility that monitors and manages cluster communications.
Ultra3 SCSI Adapter with Fast Path support	KZPEA, a new Ultra3 SCSI adapter, supports Fast Path.
XA capability added to DECdtm	The X/Open Distributed Transaction Processing XA interface has been implemented for OpenVMS. This interface enables the OpenVMS DECdtm transaction manager to coordinate XA-compliant resource managers, and enables the XA-compliant transaction processing systems to coordinate DECdtm-compliant resource managers.
Programming Features
New Alpha processor performance information	New white paper published on the Compaq Web site reveals how programmers can take advantage of the latest performance enhancements on Alpha.
ANALYZE Usage Summary	The new /SHADOW_MEMBER qualifier lets you determine the shadow set member you want to contain the system dump file.
Compaq C Run-Time Library (CRTL) enhancements	Support for files larger than 2-GB files. C RTL features enabled at compile/link time. Enhanced support for UNIX style file names. POSIX root support. 32-bit group identifiers.
DECdtm	Several system services for transaction processing used with DECdtm are now fully documented.
Common Data Security Architecture (CDSA) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)	CDSA is an open-source, multiplatform industry standard security architecture. Including CDSA as part of OpenVMS simplifies software development by providing standards based crytopgraphic interfaces for developers. SSL provides a certificate tool for viewing and creating SSL certificates.
Compaq SSL for OpenVMS Alpha with LDAP	Compaq SSL for OpenVMS Alpha can be established on an LDAP session on a server that supports LDAP.
New behavior of the floating-point registers and execution data block (FRED)	The FRED block is now allocated on an as-needed basis to improve scaling and performance for applications using kernel threads.
Future architeccture-specific code changes	Information pertaining to a future version of OpenVMS is provided for the convenience of application developers.
Support for image sections in Galaxy	Write shared image sections can now be placed in Galaxy global sections to extend the application capabilities supported in Galaxy.
Mailbox buffer quotas increased	$CREMBX system service supports larger mailbox buffer quotas to improve application scaling.
RMS enhancements	An increase in default I/O transfer size reduces I/O for more efficient performance. Support for POSIX-compliant timestamps added. New RMS write-behind performance option enables overlapping I/O, which can be a big performance win for some applications.
System Dump Analyzer	New commands and qualifiers have been added to improve performance, including new commands for analyzing the extended file cache (XFC).
SDA Spinlock Tracing utility	Two new qualifiers, /RATES and /TOTALS, have been added to the SHOW TRACE and SHOW COLLECT commands to enhance your ability to monitor and tune spinlock activity.
System services	Several system services have been added and updated. Updates have been made to system services to support batch jobs for NUMA resource affinity domains (RADs).
Threads libraries supported on NUMA	To improve application scaling and performance on GS Series Alpha (NUMA) systems, a threaded program can now utilize more than one RAD of a NUMA system.
Associated Products Features
Compaq Advanced Server for OpenVMS Alpha	Version 7.3 is supported on OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1.
Compaq C Run-Time Header Files Library	The header files that contain library functions and macro definitions are provided on the OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1 Layered Products CD-ROM.
Compaq PATHWORKS for OpenVMS (Advanced Server)	Version 6.1 is supported on OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1.
Compaq TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS	Version 5.3 of this product is supported on OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1.
OpenVMS Management Station Version 3.2	OpenVMS Management Station Version 3.2 is included with OpenVMS Alpha Version 7.3--1.
Powerstorm 300/350 Graphics support	Version 2.0 includes new features for the OpenGL Utility Toolkit (GLUT).
UNIX Portability Features	UNIX portability features are introduced for easier porting of UNIX applications to OpenVMS.
Open Source Tools for OpenVMS	The Open Source Tools CD-ROM, included with OpenVMS Version 7.3--1, has a number of utilities and sources to expedite porting from UNIX to OpenVMS.

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Ctrl/ x	A sequence such as Ctrl/ x indicates that you must hold down the key labeled Ctrl while you press another key or a pointing device button.
PF1 x	A sequence such as PF1 x indicates that you must first press and release the key labeled PF1 and then press and release another key or a pointing device button.
`[Return]`	In examples, a key name enclosed in a box indicates that you press a key on the keyboard. (In text, a key name is not enclosed in a box.) In the HTML version of this document, this convention appears as brackets, rather than a box.
...	A horizontal ellipsis in examples indicates one of the following possibilities: Additional optional arguments in a statement have been omitted. The preceding item or items can be repeated one or more times. Additional parameters, values, or other information can be entered.
. . .	A vertical ellipsis indicates the omission of items from a code example or command format; the items are omitted because they are not important to the topic being discussed.
( )	In command format descriptions, parentheses indicate that you must enclose choices in parentheses if you specify more than one.
[ ]	In command format descriptions, brackets indicate optional choices. You can choose one or more items or no items. Do not type the brackets on the command line. However, you must include the brackets in the syntax for OpenVMS directory specifications and for a substring specification in an assignment statement.
\|	In command format descriptions, vertical bars separate choices within brackets or braces. Within brackets, the choices are optional; within braces, at least one choice is required. Do not type the vertical bars on the command line.
{ }	In command format descriptions, braces indicate required choices; you must choose at least one of the items listed. Do not type the braces on the command line.
bold text	This typeface represents the introduction of a new term. It also represents the name of an argument, an attribute, or a reason.
italic text	Italic text indicates important information, complete titles of manuals, or variables. Variables include information that varies in system output (Internal error number), in command lines (/PRODUCER= name), and in command parameters in text (where dd represents the predefined code for the device type).
UPPERCASE TEXT	Uppercase text indicates a command, the name of a routine, the name of a file, or the abbreviation for a system privilege.
`Monospace text`	Monospace type indicates code examples and interactive screen displays. In the C programming language, monospace type in text identifies the following elements: keywords, the names of independently compiled external functions and files, syntax summaries, and references to variables or identifiers introduced in an example.
-	A hyphen at the end of a command format description, command line, or code line indicates that the command or statement continues on the following line.
numbers	All numbers in text are assumed to be decimal unless otherwise noted. Nondecimal radixes---binary, octal, or hexadecimal---are explicitly indicated.