Love the updates...thanks...but what was served for lunch?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ted Ashton [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 12:09 AM
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Subject:      HPWorld Report 2
>
> Well the time has come to gather up my views of Wednesday.  I spent 8:00
> to 10:00 revelling in Alfredo's "Always On (topic)" session.  And Alfredo,
> despite all your stated concern, I think you have little to worry about.
> There
> are always last-minute adjustments to the topics presented at the
> conference
> and we don't mind if you make those adjustments continuously throughout
> the
> session :-).  Besides, Alfredo had a (hidden) agenda (which he showed us
> briefly).
>
> Then I skipped out on Ann Livermore and did some programming, so I missed
> the
> amazing Ann-mentioned-the-3000 incident.  Perhaps someone who was there
> could
> report in more detail.  11:30 saw the start of SIGSysMan.  We heard from
> Walter McCullough on some cool new stuff (I think that's a technical
> term).
> I don't spend much time in the HA world, but what I gathered was that we
> can
> no hook the HP to fiberchannel and to SAN fabric (someone correct me if I
> have
> something wrong here).  After that, we heard from Jon Diercks, there to
> give us
> the latest word about the _MPE/iX_System_Administration_Handbook_
> (see http://diercks.net/mpe/ for more information).  Looks like it should
> be
> well worth getting.  Jon says that the intended audience includes everyone
> from
> those new to the box to experienced MPE admins.
>
> Jeff Vance arrived and rather than let him eat, we made him get up and
> talk. He
> reported on the many SIG items which HP has finished and a number which
> are
> either under way or planned.  Jeff, I don't trust myself to get the list
> right,
> could you give it us a quick rundown here?
>
> Donna then thanked HP for the many things they've accomplished for us--in
> particular for the "enhanced" ping which Lars Appel put on Jazz, the
> improved
> Patch/iX and that the instructions which come with a patch tape now
> included
> Patch/iX as an installation method.
>
> We then went through the various things which are candidates for the next
> SIB.
> System CI variables came up quite a bit--both there and in SIGMPE.  Just
> in
> case anyone has missed it, there is an alternative option.  There is a set
> of
> UDCs on Jazz which very nearly implement all that this item is asking.
> Jeff
> said that using the file system to implement them is essentially what CSY
> would
> do, so if you're interested in global CI vars, give the UDCs a try.
>
> There was a quick report on the System Software Update manual.  While
> there is
> concern that the process needs improvement, there is one point of
> immediate
> trouble and that is that the Instant Information version of the manual
> which
> came with 6.5 has numbering problems--II evidently decided to do its own
> numbering, so the section numbers you are sent to don't match II's numbers
> for
> the section.  If you need the manual, use the pdf version instead.
> Likewise
> for the version on docs.hp.com--go with the pdf version.
>
> I missed out on some of SIGMPE and don't have a copy of the 28 items we
> discussed there, so I'll leave that report for someone else to give.  Just
> a
> quick note regarding space--I don't know if much could have been done
> about
> space, but both of those SIGs were pretty crowded, as was Kevin Cooper's
> talk
> on MPE/iX Performace Updates.  Regarding the latter, I only got in at the
> tail end as it was across the second hour of Alfredo's talk.
>
> From the part I saw, there are two patches which may improve performance
> on
> 6.5 or 7.0.  MPELXH8 provides a "make_absent" option (call?) so that
> priv-mode
> processes can explicitly free memory pages they no longer need, saving the
> trouble of Memory Manager having to figure that out itself.  It also
> reduces
> how often Memory Manager sets out to make free pages and how many it tries
> to
> make free at a time.  Evidently on very large-memory systems, Memory
> Manager
> was getting a bit carried away.  It also reduces the overhead of mapping
> closed
> files out of memory and tells Memory Manager to relax a bit in flushing
> dirty
> pages when the I/O system is busy.  The example he gave was that everyone
> shows
> up to work in the morning and allocates a whole bunch of memory, much of
> which
> they don't use (loaded libraries, seldom-used parts of code, stack) and
> then,
> when it comes time to flush those on the big system, Memory Manager just
> plugged right ahead, doing its thing even if the I/O subsystem was already
> swamped.
>
> If you've got a big system with lots of memory, MPELXH8 is probably a good
> idea.  MPELXH3 is the TurboStore performance patch and makes use of the
> new
> "make_absent" option to immediately free up all the pages of memory its
> done
> with and no longer needs.
>
> After SIGMPE, I headed upstairs to Mark Bixby's "Open Source Development
> on
> MPE", which was basically Porting 101.  He talked through the process,
> gave
> advice on how to make it go smoothly and recommended 3000-L for questions
> (which recommendation one hears in many of the sessions).  After that, I
> got
> down to the Expo floor for a bit.  Picked up a DLT car, two magnetic
> stuffed
> platypi (hey, when you have two kids, you have to think about these
> things),
> a Mickey Mouse, a stuffed cheetah, a triangular highlighter (three colors)
> and
> a keychain surfboard.
>
> The platypi came from Platypus Technology.  They have a very cool outfit
> there.
> It has dual diskdrive/memory/battery setup.  The unit functions as a disk
> drive, but the actual storage is in solid-state, so data travels very
> quickly.
> In the case of a power failure, the batteries keep the unit running long
> enough
> to write all the memory to disk.  Slick setup.  No MPE driver yet, but I
> told
> them that they should consider it.  After all, the 3000 folks believe in
> processing data!
>
> Anywho.  I need to try for a bit of sleep before morning is upon us, so
> I'll
> close for now.
>
> Ted
> --
> Ted Ashton ([log in to unmask]), Info Sys, Southern Adventist University
>           ==========================================================
> Mathematics is the only instructional material that can be presented in an
> entirely undogmatic way.
>                                         -- Dehn, Max
>           ==========================================================
>          Deep thought to be found at http://www.southern.edu/~ashted
>
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