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Further reading

Overview
1984
JanuaryMarchMayJulySeptemberNovember
1985
JanuaryMarchMayJulySeptemberNovember
1986
JanuaryMarchMayJulySeptemberNovember
1987
JanuaryMarchMayJulySeptemberNovember
1988
JanuaryMarchMayJulySeptemberNovember
Index of issues
Index

July/August 1987

Editorial

This issue contains an important item of news for users of MVS. Please read it carefully. No irrevocable decisions have yet been made and we look forward to hearing your views at the various user meetings in the Autumn.

The article on tapes reflects a constant problem we have in attributing tapes to users when an account dies. Hopefully this will be resolved in the Tape Management System currently being written - of which more later. In the meantime please take seriously the threat to dispose of these 5000 tapes at the end of the year.

While on the subject of tapes, do you use yours at more than one site? If you do, have you ever looked at them? Many HEP tapes coming from CERN over the last year have arrived in a dreadful condition. Some are badly wound, others extremely dirty and few are packed properly. Management of tapes off the site is something over which we have no control. The extra load placed on operations staff cleaning these tapes and the drives which they have contaminated is becoming significant and we are looking at the possibility of recharging this work. If your data is important, please look after your tapes. Do check, too, whether your tapes are usable at the density at which you want to record data. Some are not and some of the old tapes we are seeing should have been scrapped years ago.

The message is simple: take care of your data, it cost money to collect.

Paul Thompson, Head of User Support and Marketing, Central Computing Division

Do We Really Need MVS?

For some time now we have been looking at ways in which we might simplify the rather complicated operating system software which we run on the 3081 and Atlas 10. Users will be aware that we now have two ways of running batch jobs - under MVS and under SLAC Batch. We note that CERN has announced that all batch work will be moved from MVS to SLAC Batch with a view to closing the MVS service at the end of 1988. The obvious question is should we do the same thing at RAL?

Our initial investigations lead us to believe that there is no reason why the scientific computing that we now handle under MVS could not be done under SLAC Batch. If this is true then we could progress towards a unified system in which both batch and interactive work could be handled by VM. This would be easier to run, support and document and it would be cheaper in terms of software rentals.

The purpose of this article is to air this possibility and to seek reaction and comment. We propose to make this topic a major item for the next Central Computer Representatives Meeting to determine whether there is any substantial reason why we should not move in this direction. The timescale of such a move is not determined at this stage and will clearly depend on user reaction.

In preparation for taking this step we have set up a SLAC Batch service and new users will, where feasible, be recommended to use it in preference to MVS. Existing users are encouraged to explore the facilities of SLAC Batch to establish the feasibility of running their work under this system. Please discuss with User Support any difficulties which become apparent during evaluation or which arise in using SLAC Batch.

Three documents offering help are available from the Documentation Officer:

These are also available on line and can be accessed using the FIND command. In addition User Support will be introducing short courses to cover SLAC batch.

Changes in progress at the time of writing mean that, by the time this issue is published, SLAC Batch should be accessible from the network as well as from CMS. Jobs may be submitted by FTP, JTMP or RSCS and documentation is being updated to reflect this fact.

Scheduling of jobs in SLAC Batch and charging are being kept under constant review to ensure that the service is comparable with MVS. Resource Management are exercising flexibility in allowing users to transfer AUs between the two services.

We believe that there are real benefits to be gained from a unified system, but recognise that, for some users, conversion to SLAC Batch could pose special difficulties. Such users are asked to contact John Gordon or me. Users generally are invited to submit comment, both for and against the proposal, by writing to FORUM or by contacting me directly.

Paul Thompson, Head of User Support and Marketing, Central Computing Division

Removal of 3330 Disks

The central IBM service has several types of disk drive only one of which, the model 3330, is demountable. These 3330s are expensive to maintain and use a lot of electricity and floor space for the amount of data they hold. For this reason it is planned to remove these drives from service at the end of 1987.

Long ago, when disk space was scarcer at RAL than it is today (it is still scarce now!), groups of users were given their own 3330 disk packs and they managed the space thereon themselves. Over the years, as users have come and gone, we have lost track of who is responsible for these packs so we cannot guarantee to contact all users and warn them personally that any data they have on 3330 disks will be lost after the end of 1987. In general, the use of 3330 disks has been very low but still finite for the last couple of years.

If you or anyone in your group still has data on a model 3330 diskpack on MVS at Rutherford Appleton Lab that you wish to keep then you should make arrangements to move it either onto a general MVS user disk or to a CMS minidisk. We will provide an easy means of moving data so if you decide you still want some of the data then contact the Program Advisory Office.

John Gordon, User Support and Marketing Group

Report of EARN membership meeting

The meeting was held at University College, London on 27 May. The main business of the meeting was the future of EARN in the UK and its funding.

It is well known that the funding for the EARN international lines from IBM ceases at the end of 1987. EARN has now decided that the UK will have to find the cost of the international line to CERN and a percentage of the line from Montpellier to the USA, totalling £41K.

The UK community has been concerned to bring the various gateways from JANET into some sort of order and is proposing that JANET takes a management interest in the gateways and that funding is provided by the various major groups. To this end RAL has been invited to estimate the UK EARN running costs apart from the line costs and these come to £30K making a grand total of £71K. This is the amount RAL will have to recover from the community.

The meeting gave the matter careful consideration and eventually felt that other funding options would be risky and asked RAL to proceed along the lines proposed by the JNT. They also made a number of recommendations on the operation of the service which they felt important. They expect a detailed proposal to be provided for their Autumn meeting when they will take a final decision on the future. If the proposal succeeds then the EARN membership meeting will become a special interest group under the Network Advisory Committee and will cease to have management powers.

Full details are in the minutes of the meeting and accompanying papers which are available from me (PEB@UK.AC.RL.IB).

The network has continued to provide a satisfactory service and has had a period of stability with no major changes. The volume of traffic has increased and during one month topped 1000 Mbytes. The network itself continues to grow and has 400 nodes in Europe and 1700 world wide.

EARN is planning to make a transition to use ISO protocols and planning documents are now becoming available. This transition is likely to start sometime in 1988. There are still many details to resolve but it appears that EARN will be running an international private X.25 network over which it will operate the current popular protocols. The ISO high level protocols will be introduced as suitable products become available. The main aim is to maintain and possibly improve the current level of service.

Paul Bryant - Head of Development Group Central Computing Division

VAX (VMS) User Group Meeting

The fifteenth SERC VAX/VMS User Group meeting was held in London on 4 June. The meeting was well attended and there was lively discussion on a number of topics. The matters discussed included:

  1. Reports on plans for and experiences with the installation of Ethernets on various sites. Speakers were from Rutherford Laboratory, Kings College London and Manchester University Physics Department.
  2. Reports of recent meetings of the VAX/VMS Network User Group (VVNUG), and the Computer Board System Group and Application Group.

    The role of SSMP in the VAX VMS community was mentioned and Mike Waters at RAL (MWW@RL.VE) will compile a list of utilities for which people required network access. The need for cluster wide networking queues was mentioned by several groups.

    The applications group were interested in ORACLE and a discount for the PAFEC CAD package had been arranged.

  3. Great interest was expressed by many members in the VMS Network/3270 software. This software enables a DEC terminal to emulate an IBM 3270 when accessing a remote IBM computer via network 3270 protocols.

    Note added after meeting: this software was released, currently on an unsupported basis, on 24 June. For information on obtaining it please contact Mike Waters.

  4. Mrs Crennell asked members with non-DEC peripherals connected to MicroVax Us to contact her (OPER@RL.VJ).
  5. It is hoped to get some DECUS tapes online centrally. To this end a necessary disk drive has been ordered.
Richard Ansorge - Cambridge VUG Chairman
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