IBM's mainline batch operating system, became the production batch operating system at RAL on Monday 22 April. There have been no major problems with the changeover from MVT, partly due to the fact that the Operations staff and the users have for some time been able to use the MVS Trial Service in order to gain experience and overcome problems.
Now that MVS is carrying the production workload we shall begin a tuning exercise on the system. Data management, using ASM2, will start in June. Details of the functions of ASM2 can be found in the RAL MVS Conversion Guide, Users are reminded that their data sets must be catalogued.
MVT will be shut down as soon as possible after a full Graphics service is available under MVS.
MVS went into production on 22 April.
The restrictions on CMS logon passwords have been increased. New passwords are now subject to the following constraints:
You ought to change your password regularly and if it is still the same as your userid you should change it immediately. Do this by issuing the command 'DIRM PW' and replying to the prompts.
It may not be widely known that there is a version of the PROLOG language available in CMS, This is a product from the University of Waterloo in Canada and is executed via a PROLOG EXEC, HELP PROLOG gives some details but the full manual is in PROLOG LISTING on USDOC 193. A new version of PROLOG (14) has just arrived and will be installed by the time you read this.
The NEWS EXEC has been changed so that NEWS (LATEST records the time as well as date of the last news seen. However, since according to one well known reader of FORUM very few people read the news, this may not be of much interest. Why not try putting
EXEC NEWS ( SUMMARY LATEST
into your PROFILE EXEC and watch it do wonders for your knowledge of the system?
Here is a selection of other recent changes to CMS:
The Central Computing Representatives Meeting on April 22nd was attended by 36 people. It was a lively and useful meeting and this report covers some of the questions raised and provides the considered answers.
We are still concerned that the attendance is low compared with the number of invitations sent out. If we are missing something which you feel would improve the meeting please contact either Dr P J Negus (Chairman) or Dr R Maybury (Secretary).
The morning session consisted of a short report from the chairman followed by talks from four members of Central Computing Division.
This report covered the following subjects:
The finance falls short of that expected when planning for the coming year in the autumn of 1984. At that time items were marked as essential or desirable and it was expected that the funding would cover all the essential items. The current position is that the following items, all marked essential are covered.
However one essential item is not covered.
The trends over the last year which stood out most strongly were:
The bids we have for the use of the computer this year leave us short of the income agreed as necessary to run the computer and provide the capital necessary for upgrades. Therefore there can be no question of free time when the bids are exhausted. Instead boards will need to purchase extra time if they wish to continue to use the central computers. If such purchases bring us up to the level of income agreed we will be able to reconsider our strategy.
It is proposed that we change the way we provide documentation. At present we have large manuals, which are very hard to update when they get out-of-date. The proposal is briefly as follows.
Documents produced at RAL wil1 be short, will cover one topic and will be issued independently. Each document will be kept online and this version will be kept up-to-date. An online system on CMS will enable users to browse the Index of documents by topic or keyword, browse any document and print it (either locally, or centrally on a high quality laser printer). We would also like to provide the ability for non-CMS users to issue enquiries to this system via FTP/MAIL
New users will be given a binder, a basic set of documents and information on all documents available and how to obtain copies of them. Documents (apart from the basic set for new users) will not be issued to users: the onus will be on the users to obtain copies of the documents they want, via the online system or through the documentation office. They will be able to build up a tailor-made manual to suit their own requirements. An index, with a summary for each document, will be sent regularly (annual1y) to all users. A suggested list of documents (including suppliers' manuals) for various app1ications will be available on-line and wil1 be sent out with the index. New and updated documents will be advertised in FORUM and in NEWS.
Each document will have a standard layout and will fit into an overall scheme, and because consistency between the documents is so important, one editor will have overall charge of the system and the final decision on what documents are provided.
Three categories of terminals can be connected to the IBM via the X25 network: (1) ASCII (2) 3270 (3) Emulated 3270.
Category (2) can be connected only from a VM system which runs CMS-PAD. The others can be connected via any network PAD (Packet Assembler Disassembler). An emulated 3270 is essentially an ASCII terminal which can be switched automatically into 3270 mode after call set-up.
A Job-status facility for jobs running in the RAL MVS system is available at network address RUCS. TSO is accessible at address RUC or RUCP.
There continue to be serious hardware problems on the link between the IBM and the network via the Memorex 1270. These are believed to be responsible for most losses of contact and for some of the periods of poor response.
The CIFER-3270 terminal is reliable and provides all the full-screen functionality needed by most users. Its main deficiencies are its limited speed and the fact that a network break can leave it hanging in 3270 mode, from which the user must then extricate it manually.
This was a general outline of the Name Registration Scheme. Individual sites will he responsible for their own conventions within the framework of the scheme. At RAL the current scheme will be carried over into the short form of the name with the addition of a dot after RL. For example RUB will become RL.IB.
This is a small sample of the issues raised In the afternoon meeting.
The meeting was as usual well attended with 15 sites represented. Much discussion centred on the status of the X25 networking software distributed by DEC. The meeting welcomed the news that the JNT was to organise a joint meeting of users and suppliers of the software. (This meeting is reported elsewhere in this issue. Ed.) All sites present at the meeting had received VAXCVMS) Version 4.0 and most had received PS1 3.0. DEC reported a delay in the distribution of FTP Version 4.0 due to unavailability of manuals.
Paul Kummer gave a useful introduction to the subject of ETHERNET and John Barlow gave a very interesting presentation on 370 emulators connected to VAX hosts.
A joint meeting of VAX (VMS) networking users from all sections of the academic community together with manufacturers' representatives was held on Thursday 28 March, 1985, at ULCC. The holding of this meeting had been prompted by general concern within the user community over the support and development of the JNT-sponsored coloured book software and had been intended to be a one-off event. However, the absence of any representatives from the software development teams and delays with the latest release of the software meant that the original terms of reference of the meeting, to resolve the current problems and to make firm recommendations regarding future development, could not be met.
It had been decided, despite these restrictions, to hold a meeting in order to establish contact among the different groups concerned and to hold a further meeting at a later date after users had had an opportunity to try out the new software release.
The meeting was chaired by Brian Leigh of the JNT. He outlined the meeting's terms of reference. It was decided to include all VAX (VMS) networking products committed to international standard protocols in addition to the coloured book' software.
The DEC representatives reported on the current status of the VAX 'X25' software products i.e. PSI ('X25') from DEC and the 'coloured book' software written by UWIST St Andrews and now distributed and supported by DEC. The latest version of PSI to run with VMS version 4 had now been delivered and the next version had already been sent for field testing! Nobody had yet received the new release of the 'coloured book' software. DEC explained that this software had been field tested and sent for distribution in February. There had been problems within DEC with the preparation of the documentation for the 'coloured book' software which accounted for the delay.
Concern was expressed that PSI had not been run in field test with the coloured book software to check interworking with non VAX (VMS) (e.g. IBM) systems. Past experiences had demonstrated that many problems came to light when these products were run under heavy load and when interworking with other network software implementations. It was clear from the limited testing that had so far been possible at RAL, using a special pre-release copy of the coloured book software, that this new software release would be no exception.
It had been hoped that DEC would have designated one of the VAX systems at RAL as a field test site. For some reason that had not been possible for this release. DEC were encouraged to make arrangements as soon as possible with RAL to set up a field test system to check networking between VAX (VMS) and other systems on the JANET network.
User reaction to the new software release was limited to the results of preliminary testing at RAL where it was apparent that some serious and several minor problems existed with the new software. Other user comments were limited to the previous versions of the software but it was clear that many were still applicable to the new release.
Support for software outside the UK was discussed. DEC said that their subsidiaries in each country were independent organisations and were separately responsible for software support. DEC UK were unable to help with support problems in places such as CERN and DESY.
JTMP, the Job Transfer and Manipulation Protocol software, will be available with the next release of the 'coloured book' software in the late summer. JTMP will be marketed by DEC as a separate product incurring extra licence and support fees for those sites which want it.
The current status of Cambridge Ring developments was presented by the JNT and CAMTEC. The problems which had delayed the MACE project had now been overcome and the project was due for completion by the end of March. The MACE is a system front-end interface for connecting to Cambridge Rings. CAMTEC described their Unibus and Q-bus Ring interfaces for VAX and micro-VAX systems. Although the CAMTEC hardware may be available earlier it was clear that software at the user interface would not be available for general use before the end of this year.
The meeting concluded by making recommendations for the immediate future development of the VAX networking software. Firstly, support for VAX-cluster systems must be included; secondly, full NRS support should be provided; thirdly, PSI should move to the X25(1984) protocol; fourthly, support for a system as a TS29 host would be desirable and. fifthly, any future enhancements to network mail, apart from fixing bugs, should be undertaken using the international ('X400') mail protocol when that is finally adopted as a standard.
The Meeting, held at RAL, was attended by 11 managers. The main points of interest were:-
This was the first meeting which attempted to combine the previous Managers and User Meetings. Business for Managers only, including their "private " meeting was dealt with on the afternoon of the 17th and the General Meeting, attended by 38 people, was all day on the 18th. The main points to arise from the General Meeting were:-
