Hi all,
In Jan 2004 I gave an update on our SIB '04 progress. See
http://raven.utc.edu/cgi-bin/WA.EXE?A2=ind0501B&L=hp3000-l&P=R12868 for
the full report.
Part of the reason for that update was to gauge customer interest in
having a formal SIB '05. As a result, we have decided not to do a SIB
in 2005. That's not to say we won't be doing any more MPE enhancements,
just that we won't be following the more formal SIB process. (See
http://raven.utc.edu/cgi-bin/WA.EXE?A2=ind0503D&L=hp3000-l&P=R1011 for
the details).
This email is to update you on the progress of our SIB '04 activities.
As you'll read below, we've been able to incorporate three prospective
SIB '05 enhancements into our current SIB '04 projects. The label
"UPDATE #1" marks the text from my January message. The label "UPDATE
#2" is today's update.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. "Network printing to work with non-HP printers ..."
UPDATE #1: The investigation is complete and coding has begun. We intend
to have a patch available by Spring '05.
UPDATE #2: The patch ID is MPEMXU1 for 7.5. The team is trying to lease
non-HP printers for testing. So far we have been unsuccessful locating
non-HP printers (HP seems to have the market tied up in Bangalore). We
are pursuing other alternatives and would also appreciate hearing from
anyone interested in doing alpha level testing. The two requirements are
having one or more non-HP network printers, and being on release 7.5. We
are targeting this enhancement to be ready for customer beta testing in
June '05, pending the results and speed of alpha testing.
2. "Request that MPE's FTP server be enabled to support 'ftpusers'
(users not allowed access to the FTP server) and 'ftpaccess' (files not
allowed to be retrieved)..."
UPDATE #1: ftpuser is done [code] and system level testing is pending.
ftpaccess noretrieve is also done [code] waiting for system level
testing. We are coding a subset of the other ftpaccess features,
including logging ftp commands and file transfers, the command deny
feature, and possibly a few more. As with NW printing, we intend to be
finish the FTP work in the Spring '05 timeframe.
UPDATE #2: The 7.5 patch, FTPHDE4, is now available for Beta Testing
(BT)*. It contains:
. logon security, /etc/ftpusers
. file access security, /etc/ftpaccess
. log all file transfers & commands functions
. /etc/ftpaccess logon banner
. FTPSRVR site chmod & site chown
NOTE: site chmod and site chown were SIB '05 requests which we've been
able to pull into our SIB '04 FTP work.
We have plans for FTP Phase II, which does not yet have a delivery date.
It includes:
. Provide FTPACCESS deny delete, overwrite, rename like FTP HP-UX
. Provide chroot limiting file "cd dir" access like FTP HP-UX
. FTP file NETRC should be able to exclude read access to help with
SAR-OX.
Note: the NETRC file item was also a SIB '05 request which we are adding
to our SIB '04 FTP work.
* give us a day or so to get the binaries uploaded to ITRC and to update
Jazz...
4. "Enable FWSCSI card firmware level reporting and update
immediately..."
UPDATE #1: we have created a tool to report this firmware information.
This tool is available on Jazz at: http://jazz.external.hp.com/src/
(scroll down to the FWSCSI link), and may later be distributed in the
TELESUP account. It only reports firmware revisions for NIO F/W SCSI,
thus it is not intended for A- and N-class systems. Recommended
firmware 3728 or 3944, contact your support provider for updates. Below
is a sample output:
NIO Fast/Wide SCSI device adapter card firmware versions:
Path Device Active Inactive
10/16/4 HP28696A 3728 3543
10/16/12 HP28696A 3728 3543
10/4/4 HP28696A 3543 3543
10/4/24 A2372-60003-FWSCSI 3524 ffff
UPDATE #2. nothing new to add.
5. "Make future I&I open source products (Apache, Samba, Sendmail,
etc...) include the source trees ..."
UPDATE #1: We are doing this as seen in our latest releases of Sendmail,
Samba, and Apache. We plan on updating BIND later this year and that
release will also include source code.
UPDATE #2: The most recent GR versions of Apache, Samba, and Sendmail
all include the source code. BIND was updated internally within vCSY to
support the latest version of MPE Sendmail. We have not released this
new version of BIND yet, but we plan to release it in the future along
with the source code. Older Perl source has been available from jazz
for quite some time. Invent3k has newer Perl source on it. A porting
white paper is still "in the works" pending Mark getting some free time.
Mark and others in vCSY strongly encourage YOU to try porting one of
these freeware products TODAY, while the MPE porting expertise is still
strong.
8. "Enhance MPE/iX to allow applications to send SCSI commands directly
to SCSI devices..."
UPDATE #1: We have completed the investigation and are evaluating the
results to determine whether we will staff the project. We intend to
make that decision by the end of Feb '05.
UPDATE #2: We decided to pursue this project, and are now awaiting
staffing. The solution would provide an HP-UX like interface to perform
I/O reliably to "foreign" SCSI devices. This will not be a rich set of
features. This item is on our short list of projects to be prioritized
for future staffing.
11. "CI functions (spoolinfo, devinfo, volinfo)..."
UPDATE #1: I'd like to refer to the above three new functions
collectively as "CI Functions", that's our internal name anyway. This
project is staffed and we are close to sharing the individual pieces of
information each function will return to its caller in order to get
feedback. After that it's just a simple matter of coding. We intend to
be done by Spring '05.
UPDATE #2: We've solicited feedback on the externals for these 3 new
functions from 3000-L and from OpenMPE. For the most part the external
specs are complete. Coding is close to done for volinfo. Devinfo is more
work than originally estimated. Spoolinfo (so far) seems consistent with
our expectations. Our revised schedule is Aug '05.
Lastly, there was a SIB '03 request for MPE to be able to mount very
large disks.
This is now completed. The 7.5 patches are (prefixed with "MPE"):
. MXT1, FSCHECK syncaccounting/totalextents
. MXT2, [NEW|ALT|LIST][GROUP|ACCT] CI changes for large
accounts/groups.
. MXT7, DISCFREE changes for disc space totals.
. MXT3, SCSI Disk limits to 1/2 TB for disks
. MXT4, SSM fixes for Large Disks
. MXU3, adds FORMAT=LONG to :REPORT command to allow printing of
larger
numbers where "**" appears today.
Note: MXT2, above, enhances the LISTGROUP command by supporting
FORMAT=detail, which was also a SIB' 05 suggestion.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Regards,
Jeff Vance, vCSY
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