Meaning of Autogen "Concern" messages

[Joe Gadsby]

My manager insists on a precise definition of the following from the AUTOGEN REPORT file -

"** Note ** - Multiple MIN values found for MIN_GBLSECTIONS.
Using VMS value (1000) which is superseding MODPARAMS value (900)"

** Note ** - Multiple ADD values for ADD_GBLSECTIONS found.
VMS value (600) combining with MODPARAMS value (300)


Even though "ADD" and "MIN" appear once in modparams.dat.
! Set by Factory Installed Software on 5-FEB-2010
SCSSYSTEMID=1052
SCSNODE="PROMB4"
VAXCLUSTER=0
WINDOW_SYSTEM = 1
MIN_GBLSECTIONS = 900
ADD_GBLSECTIONS = 300
! End of Factory Installed Software settings
!
(Brand new integrity server !)

Thanks !
-jg-

[Steve Reece_3 · Accepted solution]

The Factory Installed Software on your system has started with a minimum value of Global sections of 900. this means that the number is, as it suggests, the minimum that the parameter can be.
The FIS has also decided that 900 isn't enough and it is adding 300 to the value.
You can simplify this by putting MIN_GBLSECTIONS=1200 and getting rid of the ADD_GBLSECTIONS line.

VMS, as delivered, tries to be a "one size fits all" but, as with most things, this is difficult to achieve.

The ADD_GBLSECTIONS has probably been included because, for some odd reason, the VMS default value is 1000 and 1000 is greater than the VMS supplied value of 900.

Usual advice is to run AUTOGEN after the system has been running its normal workload for a few days to a week and at any time that the workload substantially changes.

Steve

[RBrown_1]

I see the same kind of problem on my alpha running VMS 7.1.

Search sys$system:*.dat for "_gblsections". On my system, in addition to my MODPARAMS.DAT, it was also found in clu$params.dat. The comments at the top say it is a MODPARAMS.DAT file for decwindows.

So I guess AUTOGEN.COM reads both files. According to the info printed by AUTOGEN, it appears to do the right thing.

So the precise definition is:

Both CLU$PARAMS.DAT and MODPARAMS.DAT specify certain parameter requirements. AUTOGEN merges these the two lists, and tells you that in two cases the two lists refer to the same parameter.

hth

[Hoff]

OpenVMS is coded to expect 1000 from another source of parameters within the AUTOGEN system. Other sources of settings include CLU$PARAMS.DAT and AGEN$FEEDBACK.DAT, and mayhap one or two other files on the system. (IIRC, there's a data file where DECwindows has its minimal requests registered.)

There's little reason not to set GBLSECTIONS or GBLPAGES to comparatively large values on modern servers; they're cheap, and those limits make less sense with larger-memory systems; analogous make-it-bigger changes were made to the default VIRTUALPAGECNT settings.

Resources:

http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/461

@sys$update:autogen HELP

And for your manager, there's: http://hbr.org

[John Gillings]

Joe,

AUTOGEN allows for "include" files of parameter definitions. It's a good idea to use this feature in a cluster to ensure consistency for parameters which should be the same across all nodes.

The syntax is:

AGEN$INCLUDE_PARAMS more-params.dat

For example, in your MODPARAMS.DAT for each node, write:

AGEN$INCLUDE_PARAMS COMMON_DISK:[COMMON_FILES]COMMON_PARAMS.DAT

(where COMMON_PARAMS.DAT contains things like quorum disk definition & votes, expected votes, interconnects and anything else which is common to all nodes).

As well as any explicit included files defined by you, there may be several implicit included files, provided by OpenVMS or layered products such as those named by Hoff and RBrown.

The message is simply telling you that in the combined set of autogen definitions, AUTOGEN has found mode than one MIN_GBLSECTIONS definition (in which case the highest value will be used) and more than one ADD_GBLSECTIONS definition (in which case all are summed).

This is not a cause for concern, as long as the resulting value is acceptable.

[Joe Gadsby]

Thanks ! (especially for the managers link !)