Hidden Value details commands and procedures in MPE that can improve your productivity with HP 3000 systems. Get a free NewsWire HP 3000 cap — submit your tip directly to us here at the NewsWire. To get your hat, send your tips to editor@3000newswire.com, or fax them to 512.331.3807.

Edited by John Burke

How is the maximum number of jobs or sessions set by the LIMIT command related to the user license limit?

Duane Percox replies:
The maximum value you can use in the LIMIT command for number of jobs and number of sessions is set in SYSGEN’s MISC. It has no direct relationship to the user license. In fact, not only can you set, for example, the limit on sessions to a value greater than the user license limit, under some circumstances you need to do just that. If you use RPM to create sessions, these will show up in SHOWJOB under sessions and be subject to the value set by the LIMIT command but do not count against the user license. Think of the job and session limits set by the LIMIT command as examples of resource management.

How can I give some Super Users access to spooler commands without giving them OP or SM capability?

Tom Brandt replies:
ALLOW User.Account;commands=<command> allows User.Account to use the specified command, but only if User.Account is logged on when the ALLOW is issued. Once the user logs off, the permission evaporates. ALLOW @.@ grants permission to all users whether they are logged on or not.

I noticed there is a parallel port on one of my cards in my HP e3000. How do I configure it to work?

Steve Dirickson replies:
You can’t. If you try to configure it into SYSGEN you’ll get an LLIO error (6, I vaguely recall) during startup. Which doesn’t cause any problems; it’s just an indication that the system can’t find anything to talk to the configured device. For no obvious reason, HP e3000 no speak parallel.

I will be doing a system INSTALL replacing all disk drives. The system has three user volumes. The system will be backed up using the following store command:

STORE /SYS/, / - /SYS/;*DDS;DIRECTORY;ONVS=MPEXL_SYSTEM_VOLUME_SET,APPL1,APPL2,APPL3

If I restore using RESTORE *T;@.@.@-log####.pub.sys;directory; olddate;keep;show=offline, will all of the user volume directory information be restored as well? Is it necessary to do a restore of only directory first?

Gilles Schipper replies:
Your command should work, but I would restore the directory first and separately, as in :restore *t;;directory;show.Then, check it out using :REPORT n.@;onvs=APPLn

I would also add “;create;partialdb” to your restore command and use the Posix syntax to ensure all your posix structures get restored. So, the second restore should look as follows:

RESTORE *T;/ - /SYS/PUB/LOG####;olddate;keep;show=offline;
create;partialdb

Now, all of this assumes that you will have first re-created your user volume environment using VOLUTIL and the appropriate NEWSET and NEWVOL commands therein.

[Editor’s note: this has been answered several times before, but it keeps getting asked...]
Please let me know how I can reset my spoolfile numbers. Right now I am on o1066970. Can I start it from 1 without rebooting the system?

Ron Horner replies:
The MPE setcounter command will do the job. Just set your limit to the desired value and the system does the rest. In your case enter the following:
setcounter counter=outsp;max=<desired max spool number>;base=1

If I have used the newlink command and at a later date I want to verify that I did the command, how can I see it? I tried showlink and that does not seem to exist.

Donna Garverick replies:
Use listfile fileset;seleq=[object=symlink] to list symbolic links.

Harry Morris adds:
If you want to see the target of the link, use listfile linkname,7

Editor’s note: The figure below shows an example:

How do I reset the HP 3000’s internal support modem without rebooting?

Gilles Schipper replies:
You can do it with SYSDIAG, but the module within sysdiag, CONSOLAN, requires a suplicense code to run. Assuming you have it, the command required is:

consolan pdev=56/56 section=16

Your pdev number varies according to your model of HP3000. 56/56 would apply to 9x8 models. I believe the appropriate 9x9 pdev is 10/4/0.

[Editor’s note: if you have a hardware support agreement, you can get the suplicense code online from HP’s support group at http://us-support.external.hp.com/]

We have a database that has a field that is stored as a J2. In the Query manual J2 is described as an integer value but it doesn’t explain how it is stored in the database. Is a J2 item packed, ASCII, or something else?

Wirt Atmar replies:
A J2 data item is identical in format to an I2 integer, the only difference is that the range is limited to an “even” decimal series (the largest power of 10 that will fit under 2**31). However, IMAGE doesn’t enforce that rule. In fact, IMAGE enforces virtually no rules at all about how data is stored in the database. It’s essentially up to the application to enforce any language (COBOL for example)-specified artificial range restriction.

I’ve got a database message that’s puzzling me. What does this mean and how can I correct it?

TURBOIMAGE RESULT AT $0168a654; RETURN STATUS = 42
DBUPDATE, MODE 1, ON LINE-CONTENT OF ??????????????
DBUPDATE WILL NOT ALTER A READ-ONLY DATA ITEM

Dennis Heidner replies:
The password used to open up the database does not give you write access to all fields. Your program has used DBGET to retrieve a record, then modify an item (which the password says you can view), and then DBUPDATE was called to update the entry (perhaps with @; as the item list).
Correct the problem by:

1. Using different password OR

2. Fix program logic not to modify the read only field in the programs copy of the data OR

3. Change program to use a list of only the fields that truly need to be updated.

We use mirrored disks for our non-system data. Last night I had the first hiccup since they were installed. One of the disks went into a “disabled” state. I put in a hardware call and began reading the User’s Guide. It instructed me to do a REPLACEMIRRVOL and call a CE if the problem persisted. It worked. At least for now. What would cause a mirrored disk to flip to a disabled state?

Chris Bartram replies:
It’s been my experience that Mirror/iX is very aggressive in flagging discs “bad” (and un-mirroring them). Since all our drives are under contract (and we keep a hot spare on site) when it drops one, we pull it and swap it, then have HP come out and replace our spare (don’t like to take chances with them). [Note: All our mirrored drives are in hot-swappable Jamaica enclosures.]

The few times we have just enabled the drives back, we usually found that it would get dropped again later.

We did have one continuing episode of drives being dropped off frequently that turned out to be because the original engineer that installed several of our discs had put several instances of both discs (of a pair) on the same controller. Under heavy loads the controller got overloaded and would drop one of the mirrored discs. Also, beware running sysinfo, as it is known to interfere with mirroring and can cause drives to drop off.

Bob Johnson adds:
Timing problems arise on busy systems with Mirror/iX if interrupts are allowed to delay writes between the mirrored drives. Placing the pairs on adjacent interfaces greatly reduces dropping good discs.

Is there a way to get the MAC (hardware) address of the NIC in a PC running an emulator connected (NS/VT or telnet) to an HP e3000 from the HP e3000 side?

[Editor’s note: many people replied, but I’m going to use my editor’s prerogative and use my answer.]

If the PC is on the same subnet as the HP e3000, then the program “nettool.net.sys” will show you the MAC address. That is, assuming it has had any communication with the 3000 (a ping is sufficient to put the value in the table). nettool.net.sys “name;map;map;quit” will list a table of IP addresses and MAC addresses. If the PC is on the same subnet, then the MAC address is that of the PC. If the PC is not on the same subnet, then the MAC address is that of the router.

I do not know of any way to find the MAC address of a PC on another subnet.

Where can I find a free utility that would build scripts to restore my IMAGE/SQL configuration after a detach?

Denys Beauchemin replies:
The utility name is called DBTune/SQL (DBTSQL) and you can download it free from our Web page at or directly at www.hicomp.com/dbtune.htm. CSY’s Jazz Web server also has a link to the above.

We have a system failure each day when a “cleanup” job hits a certain spoolfile. fscheck dutifully indicates corruption in the file label, and the “;FIX” option seems to have no effect. And, yes, purging the file via fscheck also crashes the system. How do I fix this?

Goetz Neumann replies:
If you are on Response Center support, a knowing engineer can dial-in and mark the file labels as unused/free and then run FSCHECK to delete the relating directory entry. Another reboot and all should be okay. The disadvantage of this method is that you will ‘lose’ the disc space that the extents of this file used. How bad that is compared to rebuilding a volume set depends on your own judgment.