Predictive Support Changes in MPE/iX 7.5

The Predictive version is B.75.01. Predictive runs on 9x8, 9x9, 99x, A400, A500 and N4000 systems. (including the new PA8700 A and N class systems)

Autoraid disk devices (such as the model 12H, XP256, XP512, etc.) are not covered by Predictive on MPE/iX.

The Predictive Support MONitor (PSMON) changes from PSMON.PRED.SYS to PSMOND.PRED.SYS. The Predictive code from the HP-UX version of Predictive was leveraged to create the new version of Predictive. When HP-UX Predictive was ported from sysdiag to STM, PSMON was changed to PSMOND. This was carried forward into MPE/iX 7.5. The new PSMOND monitor utilizes both the posix and MPE/iX environments.

The PSMOND monitor uses network sockets to communicate with the STM diagnostic monitor diagmond. This requires the addition of an entry in the SERVICES.NET.SYS file for psmond. The installation job for Predictive attempts to add a psmond entry as socket number 1788, as follows:

psmond      1788/tcp   # Predictive to STM diags

If there is already a psmond entry, the installation job does not attempt to add another one. If there is another service using socket number 1788, the installation job adds 10 to the service number (1798) and checks if that service exists. The installation job tries incrementing the service number by 10 up to 50 times (service numbers 1788,1798,1808 through 2278). If the install job is unable to find an unused number, an install error 201 occurs, and the operator needs to manually add a psmond entry to SERVICES.NET.SYS before the installation can continue.

The Predictive SCSI disk scanner (SCSISCNP.PRED.SYS) has been changed to improve the accuracy of disk failure detection. The SCSISCAN scanner on the STM version of Predictive is able to look at the logs residing on both HP and OEM manufactured (Seagate, Quantum, IBM, etc.) disks. This enables more accurate problem detection. Both the standard SCSI log pages and Growing Defect List are looked at.

The Predictive Support Monitor (PSMOND.PRED.SYS) startup model has changed. The JPSMON.PRED.SYSjob has been modified to start PSMOND. To have Predictive monitor your system, JPSMON.PRED.SYS must always be running. We chose not to change the name of the job from JPSMON.PRED.SYS to JPSMOND.PRED.SYS so that customers would not have to change their existing environment. The sysstart.pub.sys file does not need to be modified, and if the JPSMON.PRED.SYS job is already incorporated into existing processes for starting and stopping the network, etc., they do not need to be changed.

A noticeable change is that the logon changes from:

  PSMON,MANAGER.SYS  

or

  PSMON,PREDMON.SYS

to:

  PSMOND,PREDMON.SYS

	WARNING! If JPSMON.PRED.SYS is not running, Predictive will not perform the scheduled daily run to monitor your system.

To determine if JPSMON is running, you can use the MPE/iX SHOWJOB command, as follows:

:SHOWJOB JOB=PSMOND,PREDMON.SYS

You should see one active job.

The installation job for Predictive Support attempts to place a "STREAM JPSMON.PRED.SYS" command in the system startup file (SYSSTART.PUB.SYS), after the STREAMS command. If this fails, then you should manually add a line to SYSSTART.PUB.SYS to stream the JPSMON.PRED.SYS job.

	NOTE: NOTE: The sysstart must have a creator of MANAGER.SYS in order to be automatically executed during system startup. Additionally, the first line of sysstart should be the STARTUP directive.

You should ensure that there is a "OPENQ LP" and a "STREAMS 10" command before the "STREAM JPSMON.PRED.SYS" command in the sysstart file. Also recognize that for your system, the line printer might have a different class name than "LP", and your streams device might have a logical device number other than 10.

Here is an example of what the lines in sysstart.pub.sys might look like:

Startup        limit 20,60        jobfence 7        openq LP        streams 10        stream jstrtlan.sysmaint.sys        stream jpsmon.pred.sys        **

The logon for the job PSMON.PRED.SYS was changed to the user PREDMON.SYS, which does not have AM, SM or PM capability, for enhanced security.

This was done because a job being streamed from the sysstart file must have existing passwords for user, account and group embedded.

The original logon was MANAGER.SYS, and it was perceived as a security violation to embed the MANAGER.SYS passwords. The install job creates the PREDMON user with OP,ND,SF,BA capabilities. The PREDMON.SYS user is NOT created with IA capability. Also, the JPSMON.PRED.SYS has access restricted to (L,X:AC), so only the creator of the file (MANAGER.SYS), or a user with SM or AM (within the SYS account) could read the file and see the embedded passwords.

A warning message was added if JPSMON.PRED.SYS is not running when the PSCONFIG.PRED.SYS program is run. PSCONFIG uses the JOBINFO intrinsic to detect if a job is logged on as either "PSMOND,PREDMON.SYS" or "PSMOND,MANAGER.SYS". If there is not a job matching either of these names running, the following is displayed on the system console, and the users terminal:

****************************************
  * WARNING: JPSMON.PRED.SYS IS NOT      *
  *          RUNNING.  PREDICTIVE CAN NOT* 
  *          MONITOR THE SYSTEM WITHOUT  * 
  *          JPSMON.PRED.SYS RUNNING.    * 
  *                                      * 
  * To enable PREDICTIVE monitoring on   * 
  * this system, :STREAM JPSMON.PRED.SYS * 
  ****************************************