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SPEAR.DOC - - SPEAR V1(44) 31 May 83

COPYRIGHT (C) 1982 BY DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION, MAYNARD, MASS.

THIS SOFTWARE IS FURNISHED UNDER A LICENSE AND MAY BE  USED  AND  COPIED
ONLY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TERMS OF SUCH LICENSE AND WITH THE INCLUSION
OF THE ABOVE COPYRIGHT  NOTICE.   THIS  SOFTWARE  OR  ANY  OTHER  COPIES
THEREOF  MAY  NOT  BE  PROVIDED OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE TO ANY OTHER
PERSON.   NO  TITLE  TO  AND  OWNERSHIP  OF  THE  SOFTWARE   IS   HEREBY
TRANSFERRED.

THE INFORMATION IN THIS SOFTWARE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE AND
SHOULD   NOT   BE   CONSTRUED  AS  A  COMMITMENT  BY  DIGITAL  EQUIPMENT
CORPORATION.

DIGITAL ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE  USE  OR  RELIABILITY  OF  ITS
SOFTWARE ON EQUIPMENT WHICH IS NOT SUPPLIED BY DIGITAL.
SPEAR.DOC - - SPEAR  V1(44) 31 May 83                             Page 2


*****************************NOTICE************************************

        This release of SPEAR is only a maintenamce release.  All
fixes promised for the "next" release will be in the next version
level release of SPEAR.

*****************************NOTICE************************************
SPEAR.DOC - - SPEAR  V1(44) 31 May 83                             Page 3


1.0  SUMMARY

SPEAR is a package of  programs  which  enable  the  field  service  and
operations  staffs  to  quickly isolate and correct problem areas in the
system hardware or software.  It is divided into two different packages,
basic  and  extended.   The  basic  package is composed of the RETRIEVE,
SUMMARIZE, and KLSTAT features and is shipped  with  the  monitor.   The
extended  package  is distributed separately, depending on the site, and
includes the basic features plus  the  ANALYZE,  COMPUTE,  and  INSTRUCT
functionality.   INSTRUCT  is a computer aided instruction (CAI) package
that, when used in conjunction with the SPEAR manual will  allow  anyone
interested  in  using  the  package  to  learn  at his own pace, without
depending on anyone else.

SPEAR version 1(44) is written in BLISS and supports  DECnet  Phase  III
under TOPS-10 v702, and TOPS-20 v5.1.  SPEAR runs in native mode on both
systems.



2.0  EXTERNAL CHANGES


     1.  The SUMMARY report now  reports  the  right  slave  numbers  on
         TM02/03's.

     2.  There are no command interface changes.




3.0  KNOWN BUGS AND DEFICIENCIES

3.1  Bugs


     1.  In the SUMMARIZE outputs, the serial numbers for TU71 and  TU72
         tape drives are output in hex instead of in decimal.  All other
         SPEAR functions output them in decimal.

     2.  The MEAN RUN TIME in the COMPUT.RPT  may  be  incorrect.   This
         will not affect the system availability figures.

     3.  COMPUT.RPT sometimes gives incorrect reload  totals  under  the
         monitor name headers.

     4.  The Front End CD20 reports contain  incorrect  values  for  the
         four  device  registers.   This  causes the translation for the
         CD11ST register to be incorrect.  The CD20 configuration report
         is also incorrect.

     5.  ANALYZE outputs the incorrect device names for magtape  entries
         created  by the TOPS-20 RELEASE 5 monitor.  It outputs names in
         the form MTxzz instead of the form MTxyz.
SPEAR.DOC - - SPEAR  V1(44) 31 May 83                             Page 4


3.2  Restrictions


     1.  Some numeric values in various output reports are limited to  a
         specific  field width.  When this field width is exceeded (i.e.
         the value is too large for the field), the field will be filled
         with asterisks.

     2.  When the event file has too many entries, ANALYZE will  give  a
         dynamic memory allocation error of the type:

              ? dynamic memory allocation error
              -    insufficient dynamic memory

         One of the SUMMARIZE outputs is a table which enables the  user
         to see the number of entries broken down by major class and the
         hour of the day.  If ANALYZE runs out of  dynamic  memory,  you
         can  use this summary output to adjust your analysis time frame
         to a smaller window.

     3.  When two users are running SPEAR from the same directory, there
         is  a low probability of their temporary command files becoming
         confused.  This situation should be avoided.

     4.  The SPEAR package should not be put in a directory that  begins
         with a number, as the top level program will not be able to see
         the lower level programs necessary for the running of SPEAR.




4.0  ERROR FILE INFORMATION


     1.  When SPEAR outputs the following message:

         %SPEAR  Event file error detected in module RDFILE -- 
                Routine GET__VALID_HEADER
         -  CHECK - Event file corruption detected - Attempting to RESYNC

         it indicates that a portion of the event file being read is not
         in  the  expected  format  (ie  the  data  in the file has been
         corrupted).  In some cases, this may be caused  by  a  lack  of
         disc  space  on  PS:.   Since  the  event  file is written in a
         special manner, it does not have all of the facilities  of  the
         normal  monitor  file  handler available.  Although the file is
         corrupted, both the file format and SPEAR have been designed to
         recover  from this problem and SPEAR will discard the bad block
         and attempt to resynchronize itself in the next file block.
SPEAR.DOC - - SPEAR  V1(44) 31 May 83                             Page 5


5.0  INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

5.1  Documentation Files For The Extended Package:


      o  SPEAR.DOC - SPEAR installation document.

      o  DEFINE.LIS - Event file documentation.

      o  ANSWER.TXT - Answer sheet for INSTRUCT questions.

      o  DAILY.CTL - Sample automatic daily batch control file.

      o  WEEKLY.CTL - Sample automatic weekly batch control file.




5.2  Files Needed To Run The Extended Package:


      o  INTRO.SPE - Intro file for INSTRUCT package.

      o  SPEAR.SPE - Help file used during user interface.

      o  SPEAR.EXE - User interface and main control routines.

      o  SPRMSG.SPE - Text file for overall summary in analysis.

      o  DSKMSG.SPE - Text file for disk analysis reports.

      o  TPEMSG.SPE - Text file for tape analysis reports.

      o  KLMSG.SPE - Text file for KL CPU summary reports.

      o  NETMSG.SPE - Text file for NET/COMM summary reports.

      o  SPRANL.EXE - Error analysis package (ANALYZE).

      o  SPRRET.SPE - Text file for RETRIEVE package.

      o  SPRRET.EXE - Error file manipulation  and  translation  package
         (RETRIEVE).

      o  SPRSUM.SPE - Text file for SUMMARIZE package.

      o  SPRSUM.EXE - Device summarization package (SUMMARIZE).

      o  LOGGER.EXE - JOB0 program to create new statistics entries  for
         COMPUTE.

      o  SPRCOM.SPE - Text file for the COMPUTE package.
SPEAR.DOC - - SPEAR  V1(44) 31 May 83                             Page 6


      o  SPRCOM.EXE - System availability reporting package (COMPUTE).

      o  SPRINS.EXE - Computer Aided Instruction package (INSTRUCT).




5.3  Documentation Files For Basic Package:


      o  SPEAR.DOC - SPEAR installation document.

      o  DEFINE.LIS - Event file documentation.




5.4  Files Needed To Run The Basic Package:


      o  SPEAR.SPE - Help file used during user interface.

      o  SPEAR.EXE - User interface and main control routines.

      o  SPRRET.SPE - Text file for RETRIEVE package.

      o  SPRRET.EXE - Error file manipulation  and  translation  package
         (RETRIEVE).

      o  SPRSUM.SPE - Text file for SUMMARIZE package.

      o  SPRSUM.EXE - Device summarization package (SUMMARIZE).




5.5  Loading And Installing The Basic SPEAR Package


     1.  The Basic SPEAR executable package is  found  in  the  <SUBSYS>
         area of the installation tape.

     2.  The documentation for Basic SPEAR is found in the documentation
         saveset of the distribution tape.




5.6  Loading And Installing The Extended SPEAR Package

Mount the  tape  labeled  Distribution  Tape  on  MTAx:   and  type  the
following commands:

     DUMPER
     TAPE MTAx:
SPEAR.DOC - - SPEAR  V1(44) 31 May 83                             Page 7


     SUPERCEDE ALWAYS
     FILES
     RESTORE <*>*.*.* (TO) <Doc-Area>*.*.*
     RESTORE <*>*.*.* (TO) <Sys-Area>*.*.*
     EXIT

 Edit SYSJOB.RUN and SYSJOB.DEBUG to include the following:

     RUN <Sys-Area>LOGGER

This will cause LOGGER to run under JOB 0 at the next  reload.   If  you
want to start it imediately type the following commands.

    ESPEAK
     RUN <Sys-Area>LOGGER
    Z




5.7  Basic Package Special Considerations

All the files listed in section 5.4 must exist in the same directory for
SPEAR to operate properly.




5.8  Extended Package Special Considerations

All the files listed in section 5.2 with the  exception  of  LOGGER.EXE,
must exist in the same directory for SPEAR to operate properly.

LOGGER.EXE must exist on the PS:  structure.



6.0  INTERNAL CHANGES


     1.  The only internal changes in version 1(44)  of  SPEAR  are  the
         support of the DECnet Phase III events.

     2.  There are no command interface changes.




7.0  SUGGESTIONS

The suggested method of using the extended package is to run the ANALYZE
function  on a weekly basis against the error file of the previous week,
and supplement this report with daily runs for the last 24  hours.   See
DAILY.CTL,  and  WEEKLY.CTL  for examples of the control files to do the
daily and weekly runs automatically.
SPEAR.DOC - - SPEAR  V1(44) 31 May 83                             Page 8


ANALYZE has to assume that the system has been maintained in a 'standard
fashion'.   If  you forgot to reformat disk packs after a realignment of
the drive,  for  example,  you  can  expect  ANALYZE  to  generate  many
different "theories" on the read errors that will occur.

This release of SPEAR does not analyze  above  the  "unit"  level.   You
might  see  ANALYZE indicting two or three units on one controller when,
in fact, the controller is at fault.

Since the ANALYZE function is new, SPEAR keeps pointers  to  each  error
file  entry  used to produce a conclusive statement.  These pointers are
kept in a "packet file" which is one of the outputs of ANALYZE.  If  you
don't  believe  that  a conclusive statement is accurate or if you think
you have a better theory, you can specify this packet file as  input  to
RETRIEVE, and get the same detailed (or brief) entry report you got from
SYSERR.

[End of SPEAR.DOC]