No. 39 (Update of Volume 4, Issue 9)

Welcome to our 39th edition of Online Extra -- the e-mail update of our articles in recent issues of the 3000 NewsWire, plus items that have surfaced since we mailed our previous First Class issue (May). We e-mail subscribers this file between the First Class issues you receive by mail, updating the stories you've read and adding articles that have developed between issues.

Ron Seybold
Editor In Chief

IN THIS MONTH'S EXTRA

HP puts new printer options online
Data warehousing becomes a 3000 line item
HP 3000 gets new cabinets
Web Console can work with Predictive Support
Smith-Gardner details its XML initiative for WebOrder
TurboStore struggling with jumbo datasets
Newest MPE/iX seems to need older DDS firmware
Cognos rolls out manuals on CD
Ways to compare new 3000's performance in charts
Putting Quiz and MANMAN reports on a Web browser
HP readies 997 corruption patch

HP puts new printer options online

The month of May brought a new trade-up program for HP 3000 owners of the 256X series of line printers. HP is offering return credits when owners of these printers replace the devices with the new CS3200 line printers, the third generation of HP line impact printers. Owners of the 2562C, 2563A/B/C, 2564B/C, C2354A, 2566A/B/C or 2567B/C printers qualify for the return credits. HP is referring to the CS3200 line of printers as LP500, LPQ500, LPQ1000 and LPQ1500 models. A power stacker is also available for the LPQ1500 that handles a full box of paper in a single load. HP said the products are priced an average of 6 percent lower than previous LP Series models, and average speeds are approximately 9 percent faster across the product line.

The new peripherals were first announced in April, and range in performance from 500 to 1500 lines per minute. HP included mention of them in its early May introduction of the HP 3000 e-services campaign. The new devices support the Euro monetary symbol and include two quietized versions for operation in office environments. The LP Series devices are being positioned as replacements for the 256X family, units which are in regular use with HP 3000 applications at manufacturing and warehousing facilities. The new printers support PCL Level 2 for compatibility with applications designed to output to the older 256X devices.

The new devices include page recovery when used with MPE/iX 5.5 or later, to give sites a way to easily restart jobs after interruptions at the same point printing ceased. Monthly duty cycles on the printers range from 130,000 pages to 390,000 pages. As with any impact printer, ribbons cut costs for printing to less than 10 percent of the per page costs for laser printing.

Data warehousing becomes a 3000 line item

In years past HP considered a data warehouse to be a fruit which was best picked from the Oracle/Unix tree, but now a new bloom can be found in the HP 3000 orchard. One of the secondary announcements of the May 3000 rollout was notice that data warehousing is available for all-3000 customers who don't use Oracle.

This is a solution that HP has been talking about for well over a year, but now the combination of software appears to be out of the experimental pricing stage. The HP 3000 Data Warehouse touted by HP in its rollout consists of the IMAGE/SQL database included on most HP 3000s, Bridgeware from Taurus Software and Quest, DISC's query optimization software StarSchema and BrioQuery client software.

The bundle is not the first offered for HP 3000 customers who want to build data warehouses. In the fall of 1997 DISC joined Robelle and Adager to offer a bundle that would provide data warehouses to HP 3000 sites using TurboIMAGE as well as IMAGE/SQL. DISC's piece of both bundles. Is an its Omnidex search engine that has been enhance to fully optimize queries directed at a star schema warehouse through ODBC tools. Customers install Omnidex multidimensional indexes on top of TurboIMAGE databases which have Star Schemas enabled.

HP's notice of the all-3000 solution (well, the BrioQuery client requires a Windows solution, but that's something nearly all 3000 sites have on hand) shows another new trick being taught to the crafty old dog of the HP 3000. Data warehouses are by nature fairly costly investments -- but offering them on known, stable hardware like 3000s goes a long way toward keeping the costs reasonable. Both bundles are available from any of the solution suppliers in them.

HP 3000 gets new cabinets

While it was probably the lowest-tech part of that May rollout, new cabinets were announced that support heavier loads and are more expandable. HP discontinued the sale of old HP 3000 cabinets last month. The new units have been available since February.

The 1.6-meter cabinet is 19 inches wide and costs $1,820. The 1.96M cabinet is also 19 inches wide and costs $1,935. Installation is an additional $850. There are also deductions and additions to remove side panels and add rear door. Adding a rear door is $400, and removing side panels is $235.

Web Console can work with Predictive Support

The HP Secure Web Console, rolled out for use with the HP 3000 in May, can have some configuration issues with HP's Predictive Support if the Console is connected to the remote console port. You can get around these problems by configuring Predictive to use a DTC modem port and a second modem, or it can be set to request operator confirmation before dialling out (from MANAGER.SYS, execute PSCONFIG.PRED).

European HP Support Center personnel with Web Console experience on HP 9000s say that the Console runs a built-in Web server with a small Java application. The Console can be configured for up to four users to connect to it and share the console at once.

Goetz Neumann of the German Response Center said "The configuration of the network parameters is a bit tricky, best done on a PC with a crossover LAN cable. The font is very small, but you can 'float' the window to the 'outside' of the browser, which increases the display to a bearable format. The newest firmware is capable of DHCP. It is not too fast (feels like a 4800 baud modem.)"

Smith-Gardner details its XML initiative for WebOrder

Some customers who took note of the forthcoming XML capability for the WebOrder catalog application were concerned that XML isn't recognized by many browsers yet. The powerful markup language that ties databases to Web sites -- some call it the next generation of Web languages, a step beyond HTML -- is offered as a tool to tie Enabled applications to databases, not as a way to communicate directly to browsers, according to Smith-Gardner officials.

Rich Smith, the technical lead for Smith-Gardner's Internet Technologies, said that "The development of our XML product is not about sending the XML directly to a Web browser; it is about compatibility and integration. XML is an emerging standard for data communication and transfer. While it can be used with XSL-type technologies, we feel the bigger benefit is integration into other commercial packages."

"We have customers that would like a more "robust" system than what WebOrder has to offer with its standard CGIs. Some would like to use third party front-ends like Broadvision, and some would like to integrate into a more relational database like Oracle."

"Our XML package will facilitate such integrations, and many more. Every week more companies are announcing XML integration into their products. Our CGIs will still be available for our customers comfortable with that level of integration, with the XML engine being available for custom integrations. This does not mean we are abandoning our CGIs, either. They will continue to be enhanced as the product grows, to include new functionality and features."

TurboStore struggling with jumbo datasets

Customers are reporting a known problem with restoring jumbo datasets after TurboStore's "online backup," with the time-stamps for the chunks being "out of sync". The HP SR number is 1653-284398.

Adager's Ken Paul said that Adager "will automatically correct this condition during the "Consistency Check" if Adager can get exclusive access to the database. There is also a JCW which may bypass the check within DBOPEN depending upon which version of IMAGE you are on. The JCW is MFDDEBUG set to a value of 1024. I'm checking to see which version of TurboIMAGE this applies to, and also if there is a version of TurboIMAGE which will also re-sync the time-stamps on the DBOPEN.

ORBIT's Backup doesn't suffer from the problem, which stems from the shadow logging used by TurboStore. ORBIT uses its own logging technology.

Adager's Paul also noted another TurboStore-jumbo problem, this one flagged with SR number 5003-465989. Paul said that "if you store a database (which has jumbo datasets) to tape and then try to restore the database on top of a copy of the database (which does not have jumbo datasets), you will receive an FSERR 45 Privilege File Violation and your restored database will have both the original MPE dataset and the jumbo chunk files, and IMAGE will only see the MPE dataset."

"You need to purge your database (which does not have jumbo datasets) first before doing the restore. This problem can happen when a user tries to move their production database (which has jumbo datasets) into their test environment. You would probably get a similar problem if you restored a non-jumbo database on top of a jumbo database."

Newest MPE/iX seems to need older DDS firmware

Some HP 3000 sites are reporting problems with installing the latest version of the MPE/iX operating system, trouble that appears to revolve around firmware in the HP 3000's tape drives.

Mel Rees of HP 3000 application provider CMT confirmed that the latest version of the operating system seems to want less than current firmware. Rees said, "The firmware version that is needed by MPE is 10.7. Newer drives handle some tape buffering dsçÄ

Rees adds that "the way to check your tape firmware is to use DDS Diagnostics, which are not available without a password as of MPE 5.5." HP provides the passwords on a six-month basis to customers with current support contracts.

Cognos rolls out manuals on CD

Conrad Whitehall, the marketing manager for Cognos' application development tools group including PowerHouse, checked in to say that manuals for the Cognos products are now available electronically, both on the Web and on a CD ROM"

"The PowerHouse 4GL 8.1x documentation comes in Adobe Acrobat PDF files on CD-ROM. The latest version, covering MPE/iX, OpenVMS and UNIX, is currently being shipped to all supported MPE/iX customers."

"You can also download entire PowerHouse 4GL documentation set contained on the CD-ROM from the public area of the Cognos web site, along with the documentation for Axiant 4GL 2.03 and PowerHouse Web. These are all available from the same page: http://www.cognos.com/powerhouse/download.html

Ways to compare new 3000's performance in charts

In the months following new 3000 introductions, customers can find themselves trying to compare performance of older systems to those that are newest. HP's newest 989/x50 systems, introduced in May but now delayed until the MPE/iX 6.0 Express 1 release ships in late July, show performance numbers compared to their 989/x00 predecessors as follows:

Older Newer
989/100 9.1 989/150 11.1 22% increase
989/200 17.2 989/250 21.3 23.8% increase
989/400 28.7 989/450 35.2 22.6% increase
989/600 33.2 989/650 41.7 25.6% increase

These numbers are the new HP 3000 Performance Units, approximately 30 percent higher than the old "Series 918=1" units used by HP until last summer.

The 989/x50 numbers aren't part of their presentations, but two Web sites outside of HP offer good performance charts on the entire HP 3000 product lineup, from Classic (pre-RISC) systems through the 989/x00. AICS Research offers a Web page with all systems clocked on the older 918=1 numbers. Computer Solutions, Inc also has a chart with numbers in both old and new HP units of measure at its Web site. It's a PDF file (one you view with Adobe's Acrobat) that you download at http://www.internetcsi.co m/special/oltp3000.pdf

Putting Quiz and MANMAN reports on a Web browser

HP 3000 sites that are relying on MANMAN frequently use the bundled Quiz reporting tool from Cognos to relay information to users in their organizations. With the rise of the Web browser as an interface, site managers are looking for ways to get the Quiz reports displayed in browsers. We've spotted two, one from Cognos and another from MiniSoft.

The Cognos solution suggests that sites embed HTML commands in their Quiz reports. You have to be a supported Cognos customer to see it, but a technical note describes how to do this on the Cognos Web site. Marketing manager Conrad Whitehall reported over the Internet:

"The article is available on-line in the Supportlink archive at: http://www.cognos.co m/htsup/supportlink/v8n1p38.html

"If your reports are mainly scheduled production reports, you can easily set up a "home" page (or a series of pages, depending on how many reports you have and how you want to categorize them) with links to the HTML files that you have generated through QUIZ. Then as the reports are generated overnight, you are "refreshing" the HTML report files, and your users can pick up the new report via their browser when they arrive in the morning.

Ad-hoc reports could be handled in a similar way, although you will have to create each report with a unique name (or perhaps just the name of the user requesting it) and give the user the URL to follow in order for them to pick up the completed report."

MiniSoft's solution is more direct and provides functionality to put nearly everything from a 3000 into a Web browser: the company's Javelin product, which uses Java to put HP 3000 screens up in browsers. Doug Greenup of the company noted in an Internet posting:

"Javelin, being a complete port of our HP terminal program for Windows, would allow for any Quiz report or MANMAN application (report or screen display) to be run or executed from within Netscape or Internet Explorer without any modification. So if someone used Reflection or MiniSoft 92 now, anything they did with these products could be accomplished within a browser with Javelin. Javelin supports slaved local printing, 132- to 200- column screen display, and file uploads or downloads.

Greenup went on to note that "our product would allow you to display MANMAN reports from within a browser over Intranets or Internet WITHOUT any redesign or re-engineering. If all you want is Quiz in a browser, Javelin can accomplish this today."

HP readies 997 corruption patch

A few customers have reported that their Series 997 systems are experiencing database corruption under extremely heavy loads. "We have a 997 5- way HP3000 running one of our main applications," one customer said. "Back in February we began to experience IMAGE database corruption problems intermittently.

"As this occurred again, HP became involved and made various suggestions to correct the problem, including disabling DDX. They also suggested that we enable IMAGE logging. We did that, but even when it did re-occur, HP was unable to identify from the logfiles that caused the corruption."

HP has identified that the problem is unique to the Series 997 systems and is quite rare:

"The recently reported corruption problem occurring on the 997 has been duplicated in the lab and a patch will be created to remedy this situation. The patch is MPEKXT6 version A for 5.5 and version B for 6.0." HP said the patch is not ready for general release as of mid-May, but it "will complete the patch as quickly as possible. It will need to go through a beta testing phase before general release, and we hope that this will progress quickly."

HP went on to note, "The problem is extremely rare and quite difficult to reproduce as indicated by our internal tests. There are only two known cases of this problem, and exhaustive searches of our support databases have shown that no other similar cases have been reported in the life of the S/997.

HP described the problem by saying that "At periods of particularly high CPU utilization, it is possible for a 64-byte cache area to not flush correctly. This problem is unique to the Series 997 architecture."