topic Re: collect info in Operating System - OpenVMS

collect info

bouazzaoui — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:00:50 GMT

hello,
I was hired into a company who have a cluster based on 2X GS1280 alphaserver model 16 running OpenVMS 7.2-2 and ORACLE database
I want to collect as much info as I can for this config so from where do you suggest me to start?

thanks!

Re: collect info

Hakan Zanderau ( Anders — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:31:01 GMT

I'm sorry, but......you are hired to do what ?

Please supply more information.....

There is no magic commmand to use if you don't know what to look for......

regards,

Hakan Zanderau

Re: collect info

bouazzaoui — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:38:05 GMT

thanks for your reply

i'm supposed to work as System admins and
my concerns is collect all kind of infos (patches level, firmware, network configuration, san topology...)
regards,

Re: collect info

Jan van den Ende — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:40:04 GMT

Reda,

without knowing any more than you gave here, try
$ HELP SHOW.
... and try all options.

Then
$ mc sysgen help sys_params
and
$ mc sysgen show /all
$ mc sysgen show /special

Is Oracle all that is running, or are there other things?

Try
$ type sys$manager:sysstartup_vms.com

and look at what all activated components are doing

Same for
MC SYSMAN SHOW STARTUP.

Someone versed in Pracle should be able to point you into WHAT Oracle is doing.

This is by no means exhaustive, but should be a baseline that shows you the strings to pull for further investigation.

If that leads to more specific questions, come back with them, and we might be able to give more specific answers.

hth

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

Re: collect info

Hakan Zanderau ( Anders — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:17:22 GMT

Reda,

I'm sorry again.....it feels like I'm being rude, but that's not my intent.

I/we need to know more......
Have all VMS-personal died ? ;-) Are you the only one working as system manager on this site ?

What is your background ? Are you a system manager ? Have you ANY OpenVMS experience ?
Who is watching your back ?

I have more questions, but I/we need to know what we are up against.

don't take this the wrong way.....

Hakan Zanderau

Re: collect info

Robert Gezelter — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:30:36 GMT

Reda,

First, let me welcome you to the ITRC OpenVMS Forum.

I concur with Hakan's questions. There is a large amount of potential information here. What is the depth of your experience on OpenVMS?

If your background is *IX or Windows, there is a significant amount of reading that should be done before doing anything. There are many concepts from other systems that are not relevant on OpenVMS, and more than a few that are unique to OpenVMS.

Your site should have a copy of the complete documentation kit on CDROM. Online, the manuals back to 7.3 are available from the HP OpenVMS www site at http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/os73_index.html .

If a general overview is in order, I can recommend the article I authored for OSNEWS.COM, entitled "OpenVMS -- A System of Structure" (at http://www.osnews.com/story/15222/OpenVMS_-_a_System_of_Structure ).

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

Re: collect info

Jan van den Ende — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:37:20 GMT

Reda,

Please _DO_ take Hakan's remark serious!

I noticed most of your previous forums activity is in *UX's.

First thing to do on VMS is to FORGET about the root/noroot difference on those.

Do _NOT_ work as SYSTEM, until and insofar as you really KNOW and UNDERSTAND what you are doing. Get yourself an account with privs AUTHORIZED (you need them for this kind of work), but NOT have them as DEFAULT

VMS is fine-grained on privileges. First, begin to see them as enhanced-risk-factors.
That should give you the incentive to work with a username, that by default only holds NETMBX and TMPMBX.

Now, if you are doing the SHOW commands I stated before, many of them _DO_ require one or some extra privileges. Switch those on as needed, and only for as long as needed.

It is REALLY much more pleasant to look at a refusal to do a command by lack pf priv every once in a while, compared to trying to repair the damage done by inexperience or typo!

hth

Proost.

Have one on me.

jpe

Re: collect info

Peter Elliott — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:42:47 GMT

Reda,
At the risk of breaching any sort of copyrights - EMC have a very useful procedure which they ask customers to run to collect information when diagnosing storage issues.
This procedure creates a number of logfiles with contain numerous useful bits of information about your configuration, storage, licences, network config etc.
That said - I totally agree with what Hakan's saying.
Regards,

Peter.

Re: collect info

Wim Van den Wyngaert — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:57:05 GMT

If you have an http server or browser on it : try http://search.hp.com/redirect.html?type=REG&qt=vms_check&url=http%3A//h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/journal/v7/vms_check_tool.pdf%3Fjumpid%3Dreg_R1002_USEN&pos=1 (at the end is the download address).

If you don't have http you can transfer the directory to PC and watch it on there.

Example enclosed (only main page).

Wim

Re: collect info

bouazzaoui — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:14:03 GMT

impressive! I receive many answer in so short time!
thanks all for your replies guys!this is my day one in this company and I only want feedback from you before I get start my job and discuss with other Admins wish are deadalive :)
I'll get back to this wonderful place after testing the suggestions you provide

wish you the best

Re: collect info

Hakan Zanderau ( Anders — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 15:33:05 GMT

Hmmmm....I wonder what I did to deserve 7 points ? I didn't get ANY answers to my questions.

Seek and you will find........ ;-)

Hakan Zanderau

Re: collect info

Peter Zeiszler — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:12:41 GMT

Definitely listen to the things posted (is that read them). Anyway - DO NOT start with privs turned on. Its too easy to accidently do something and if you are new to VMS, you probably won't be able to recover easily.

Do you have an HP support contract?
If you have specific levels then you can run the RCM tool and that captures tons of data on the alpha.

If you are running GS1280 systems then are they partitions? Do the current admins have a layout of the configuration? Are there standards guides to hardware, processes, and procedures that the current (or old) admins used? If any of that is not documented I would suggest that you start doing the documentation as you discover it.

Another tool to help collect data is:
http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/journal/v7/vms_check_tool.html

Re: collect info

Wim Van den Wyngaert — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:23:46 GMT

Peter,

VMS_check is the link I posted too.

Wim

Re: collect info

Peter Zeiszler — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:44:56 GMT

I have to laugh at the difference between the two links :D
Peter

Re: collect info

Peter Zeiszler — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 16:47:29 GMT

http://h18000.www1.hp.com/support/svctools/
RCM link is in the left hand column.

Re: collect info

bouazzaoui — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:41:55 GMT

sorry if I didn't get back to you guys, before.
talked to HP contract and I asked for an HP representative for a visit on site in order to do an assesment with some magical tools!

again thanks for your help

regards

Re: collect info

Hakan Zanderau ( Anders — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:10:16 GMT

Reda,

Wise decision.
Use the advised tools when you are ready.

regards,

Hakan Zanderau