Hi there,

I hope the following information will help those people who use
PowerHouse and is going to upgrade MPE/iX to 5.5.

Regards,
Gloria
Cognos Software Specialist

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=
PowerHouse / Operating System 5.5 Issues


1. This is from the Support Link newsletter (Vol. 6 No. 5, page 17).

During our testing of PowerHouse 729 against MPE/iX 5.5, a problem was
uncovered when attempting to run the PowerHouse components.  Users are
required to enter two carriage returns in order to get into the
products.  Issue 135912 has been logged and is currently under
investigation.

To get around the issue, a very simple solution can be implemented.  For
users who currently use a PowerHouse Resource file (PHRS), nothing needs
to change.  However, for those clients who do not use one, a resource
file will need to be created.  This file will contain only one record,
and that record will have the word QUIT specified.

(QUIT or EXIT can be used interchangeably.  According to the
documentation, QUIT or EXIT must be specified as the last line in any
resource file.  It is for this reason that customers making use of
resource files will not need to change a thing.)

Creating the Resource File

Go into EDIT/3000 (or an editor of your choice).  Add a single line to
this file.  Enter the word QUIT on this line.  Keep the file and exit.
Add a file equation to the SETPOWERHOUSE  UDC that will point to this
newly created file:

                :FILE PHRS=<filename>.<group>.<account>

For consistency, add the equivalent reset statement to the
RESETPOWERHOUSE UDC:

                :RESET PHRS


2. Setting "INTERBASE=YES" program parameter causes code traps and fatal
errors when attempting to start a PowerHouse component.

This program parameter is recommended if InterBase is used with
PowerHouse,

* Using "INTERBASE=YES" forces calls through an external library called
PHPROCXL. It is that library which should be replaced with the version
available in PH729C8. Replacing the library works for 7.29 and 7.09.


3. Calling HPCI commands from PowerHouse returns garbage and "Invalid
command name".

The exact cause of this problem is not yet determined; however, it is
related to external libraries called when setting the program parm
"INTERBASE=YES". This customer is not capable of running MPE/iX command
from PowerHouse components but PowerHouse and InterBase, per se, are
running normally.


4. Customers who are presently using PH Client on HPIX and upgrade the
operating system to 5.5 will encounter a problem if they are using
external libraries.  Problem 136452 has been logged.  Here is the
description:

Bug 136452       HPIX 5.5 & NPXLLIST

Using the SETVAR NPXLLIST, "XL.PUB.DISC301" setting in the NETDSTRM file
on HPIX with operating system 5.5, causes "Error 17 Program not found"
when attempting to run PowerHouse Client.  This happens when attempting
to do a REMOTE or RUN the application.  This is when using the
Subprocess method.  The XL above is just an example.  The problems
occurs when any XL is specified.

To work around the problem:

You must remove the SETVAR NPXLLIST statement, in the NETDSTRM file.
This is the job which is used to stream the NETD.

You must link the desired XLs to the PHSRVN12 executable using LINKEDIT.
 To do this, you must logon as MANAGER.COGNOS,NETBIN.  Then type in the
following:

LINKEDIT ALTPROG PHSRVN12;XL=XL.CC.DISC301,XL.PUB.DISC301

The XLs specified are the one required for Omnidex, others can also be
included.

The problems appears to be with the variable NPXLLIST.  In the sub
process method is causes error 17, program not found.  In the stream
method, it is ignored.


5. A number of consecutive passes of a report contain the same types of
commands: CHOOSE PARM followed by a number of DEFINE = PARMs.  When the
fourth pass was executed, the spacing of the parameter prompting is
incorrect.  The CHOOSE PARM prompting happens on the same line,
overwriting the last prompt.  The defines are single spaced instead of
double spaced.  The customer experiencing this problem called back to
say the problem didn?t occur anymore.  Their system manager had
installed some operating system patches over the weekend:

BBRJXC2 A
BSIJXA4 A
DICJXE3 B
LNKJX67 B
MPEJX89 C
MPEJX99 A
MPEJXD2 B
MPEJXB4 A


6. In a QUIZ report in version 609D, a CHOOSE PARM is broken onto 2
lines, for example:

        > CHOOSE keyname PARM &
        >        PROMPT "Enter keyname"

The CHOOSE statement is ignored.  Putting the CHOOSE statement all on
one line solves the problem.


7. With QUICK 729C2 and MPE/iX Version 5.5.C.05.08, the message "The
QKECHO file is full." Is displayed when too many characters are entered
in a field.  It happens whether the user is in the first screen or 10
levels deep.  The user should be getting the message "Too many
characters were entered...".  This has not been reproduced, so no
problem has been submitted.


8. File opens.
QUICK and COBOL cannot share opens, so instead of 900 opens plus 31
extra for each jumbo dataset, there are 1800 opens plus 62 extra opens
per jumbo dataset for each Image database.  There were a lot of jumbo
datasets.  Also, TPI was turned on, and QUEST Software's distributed
database tools opened the Image databases twice more.  The folks at HP
had never seen anything like it.


9. Checkpointing.
When Image does a checkpoint, the locks on the 996-1200 queue up for
minutes at a time.  This is probably related to the opens.


10. If you are using BLOCKMODE or are calling PowerHouse modules from
QEDIT or some other BLOCKMODE or VPlus application you may be
experiencing a terminal hang from time to time.

This manifests itself when you have some switching between character
(Vplus or BLOCKMODE ) modes. The symptom is the inability get a
satisfactory terminal status read.

HP has a patch id: MPEJXB4 which is now available.
 for 7.29 and 7.09.


>----------
>From:  [log in to unmask][SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
>Sent:  Saturday, April 05, 1997 12:19
>To:    [log in to unmask]
>Subject:       Re: Cognos / MPE ix 5.0 Problems
>
>     I'm about to upgrade to 5.0 and was told by Cognos that we needed
>     version PH709E3 at least.
>
>
>______________________________ Reply Separator
>_________________________________
>Subject: Cognos / MPE ix 5.0 Problems
>Author:  [log in to unmask] at HMS-Internet
>Date:    4/4/97 9:18 AM
>
>
>My client just upgraded to MPEix 5.0. We are going thru our first
>month-end close under 5.0. We use Cognos, QUIZ versions 5.03, 6.19 an
>some 7.??. Over the month-end the QUIZ 5.03 reports running against our
>GL picked up about 10% of the records which the COBOL programs reported.
>We are quickly trying to upgrade all QUIZ to the latest version of QUIZ,
>but we don't know if that will help.
>
>I went thru the 4. upgrade to 5. upgrade a year ago with a different
>client. That upgrade only had one issue. That was an incompatiblity
>issue in a couple of COBOL programs.
>
>This is potentially much more serious.
>
>Has anyone heard about this problem? Any clues? Thanks for any help!
>
>I'll be out of touch until the evening. I'll pick up my e-mail then.
>
>
>=============================== Sig =================================
>Bill Perry                             Contractor / Consultant
>[log in to unmask]                      Messages: 1(800) 946-2166
>http://www.mcweb.net/wlperry
>