This chapter provides brief descriptions of features that are new to the Tru64 UNIX operating system in this release or that have changed significantly from previous releases.
Tru64 UNIX Version 5.0A is a functional release that includes the following enhancements:
Enhanced support for TruCluster Server (Section 1.1)
Integration of the CAM layered components with the base operating system (Section 1.2)
This release also includes updates to the following functionality:
Collect (Section 1.3)
Event Manager (Section 1.4)
Interoperability between Tru64 UNIX and Windows NT
Support for the DE602-FA 100 Base FX Ethernet adapter (Section 1.5)
Additional enhancements to the operating system (Section 1.6)
1.1 Support for TruCluster Server
This version of the operating system supports the first general distribution of the Compaq TruCluster Server product, TruCluster Server Version 5.0A.
TruCluster Server Version 5.0A is a separately licensed product that ships on the Tru64 UNIX Associated Products Volume 2 CD-ROM It is a highly integrated synthesis of Tru64 UNIX software, Compaq AlphaServerTM systems, and storage devices that operate as a single system. A TruCluster Server cluster acts as a single virtual system, even though it is made up of multiple systems. Members of the cluster can share resources, data storage, and clusterwide file systems under a single security and management domain, yet they can boot or shut down independently without disrupting the cluster.
Like the TruCluster Available Server Software and Compaq TruCluster Production Server products available on the Version 4.0x stream of the operating system, TruCluster Server lets you deploy highly available services that can access their disk data from any member in the cluster. Any application that can run on Tru64 UNIX can run as a highly available single-instance application in a cluster. The application is automatically relocated (failed over) to another cluster member in the event that a required resource, or the current member itself, becomes unavailable.
Like the Compaq TruCluster Production Server Software product, TruCluster Server lets you run components of distributed applications in parallel, providing high availability while taking advantage of cluster-specific synchronization mechanisms and performance optimizations.
TruCluster Server Version 5.0A provides the following features:
A Cluster File System (CFS) that supports a single clusterwide namespace and uniform coherent access to all file systems in a cluster.
A device request dispatcher (DRD) facility that provides highly available clusterwide access to both character and block disk devices, as well as tape devices. The semantics of Logical Storage Manager (LSM) as shipped in the base operating system have also been extended to a cluster environment.
A connection manager that ensures that all cluster members communicate with each other in order to control the formation of a cluster.
A cluster application availability (CAA) facility that provides resource monitoring and application restart capabilities similar to those provided by user-defined services in the TruCluster Available Server Software and TruCluster Production Server Software products.
A cluster alias subsystem that lets TCP and UDP applications address the cluster as though it were a single system.
Out-of-the-box highly available NFS server capabilities.
The Memory Channel interconnect as a high-speed interconnect designed specifically for the needs of clusters. The Memory Channel interconnect provides both broadcast and point-to-point connections between cluster members.
A distributed lock manager (DLM) that provides specialized synchronization capabilities for cluster-aware applications.
Single system management capabilities.
The SysMan suite of
graphical management utilities provides an integrated view of the cluster
environment, letting you manage a single member or the entire cluster.
Because
a cluster uses CFS, there is a single copy of security administration files
such as
/etc/passwd
and
/etc/group.
A user authenticated on one member has access to all members.
Software infrastructure required to support rolling upgrades and patches. Customers who install TruCluster Server Version 5.0A will be able to perform a rolling upgrade to subsequent TruCluster Server releases, and roll patches onto a Version 5.0A cluster.
See the TruCluster Server
Technical Overview
for more information
on these features.
1.2 CAM Layered Components Integrated into the Base Operating System
The CAM Layered Components (CLC) kit has
been integrated into the base operating system.
The components formerly included
in the CLC kit were the optical driver, the changer driver, and the
mcutil
program to access the changer functionality.
The changer
driver and the
mcutil
program, along with any associated
files, have been integrated into the base operating system.
This version of
the operating system does not provide support for the optical driver.
1.3 Collect Data Collection Tool
Collect Version 2.0
is a Y2K-compliant tool that collects operating system and process
data under all supported versions of Tru64 UNIX.
Collect is designed
for high reliability and low system resource overhead.
Collect can run continuously
in historical mode, managing its own log files.
See the
collect(8)
reference page
for information about turning on continuous monitoring.
The Collect tool gathers and displays information for subsystems. You can set Collect to gather data for a single subsystem or any combination of the following:
process
lsm
tty
memory
network
filesystems
disk
cpu
message
queue
tape
Collect has two modes: collection and playback. In collection mode, it gathers operating system and process data and writes it to standard output, to a binary file with a compressed format, or to both.
In playback mode, Collect reads from a previously written binary file and writes to standard output. The format of the data when written to standard output is identical, whether during real-time collection or playback mode.
Collect installs with the
setld
utility, and kits
are also available from the following FTP sites:
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/DEC/collect
(US)
ftp://ftp.digital.de/pub/DEC/collect/
(Germany)
Event Manager (EVM) obtains the translation
of a binary error log (binlog) event by passing the event
to either DECevent or Compaq Analyze, depending on the type of system.
If
neither of these services is available, or if the translation of attempt fails
for any reason, the Translation section of EVM output shows a message indicating
the failure.
For configuration options and details of EVM's use of DECevent and Compaq
Analyze, refer to the Event Management information in the
System Administration
guide.
1.5 Support for DE602-FA
Support for the DE602-FA 100 Base FX Ethernet adapter
has been added to the Intel Ethernet adapter driver.
This adapter runs only
in 100 Base FX mode (i.e, no 10 Base FL).
The DE602-FA is a daughter card
that attaches to the DE60 2-AA dual 10/10 0 Ethernet adapter.
1.6 Additional Changes
The following sections provide brief descriptions of additional changes
included in Tru64 UNIX.
1.6.1 AlphaServer DS20E
In addition
to the systems listed in the Version 5.0A
Software Product Description
(SPD), this release provides support
for the AlphaServer DS20E.
1.6.2 Mail Servers Enhancements
The
sendmail, IMAP, and POP servers
have been updated in this release.
The
sendmail
Version
8 Server has been updated from Version 8.8.8 to Version 8.9.3.
The Cyrus IMAP
server has been updated from Version 1.5.2 to Version 1.5.19 and Qualcomm
POP server from Version 2.2 to Version 2.5.
The
sendmail
Version 8.9.3 Server provides advanced
features such as the following:
Masquerading
Virtual Domain Hosting
Restricted Relaying
These features can be configured using the web-based Mail Configuration Utility provided by Compaq's Open Source Software Collection, included with your kit.
For more information on
sendmail
Version 8, see the
reference pages and documentation provided with the operating system, as well
as
Sendmail
by Bryan Costales and Eric Allman, published
by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
1.6.3 Turning Off Security Checks for Sendmail Support Files
The
sendmail
utility checks the modes of its
support files (for example, the
aliases
file,
.forward
file, and help file) and the paths of the directories in
which they reside.
It does not read most files that are group-writable
or those that reside in directories that are group-writable.
If you are willing to compromise on this security feature or if you
have
sendmail
support files in group-writable directories,
you can turn this checking off by adding the
DontBlameSendmail
option in the
sendmail
configuration file (/var/adm/sendmail/sendmail.cf).
See the sendmail Installation and Operation Guide (Section 4.7.2, Turning Off Security Checks) for information on how to set this option.
If you update your
/var/adm/sendmail/sendmail.cf
file and then use the mail configuration utilities (/usr/sbin/mailconfig
or
/usr/sbin/mailsetup), the utilities return
a warning about being unable to recognize changes made to the
sendmail.cf
file.
In such cases, do the following:
Ignore the warning and continue to reconfigure mail using the configuration utility.
Edit the
/var/adm/sendmail/sendmail.cf
file and add the
DontBlameSendmail
option.
Restart the
sendmail
daemon (/sbin/init.d/sendmail restart).
1.6.4 Direct I/O Performance Improvements
Several changes have been made to improve the usability and performance of the direct I/O capability of AdvFS in this release.
Optimal direct I/O throughput is now obtained when the requested transfer is aligned on a disk sector boundary and the transfer size is an even multiple of the underlying sector size (currently 512 bytes). Previously, the best performance was achieved by direct I/O when the requested transfer was aligned on a file page boundary and the transfer size was evenly divisible into 8 KB pages. This restriction has been relaxed.
Another performance improvement has been to change the way
that the
file_lock
is seized.
This reduces contention among
threads that are doing direct I/O to the same file as long as the sectors
that they are referencing do not overlap.
1.6.5 UFS Delayed Metadata Mount Option
To maintain the file
system's consistency, UFS metadata (such as inode, directory, and indirect
blocks) is updated synchronously by default.
The new
delayed
mount option allows you to disable synchronous metadata writes on a specified
file system.
When enabled, all metadata writes are delayed (flushed later
by the
sync
daemon).
Metadata updates are typically performed synchronously to prevent file
system corruption after a crash.
The trade-off for this file system integrity,
however, is performance.
In some cases, such as a file system serving as
a cache, performance (faster metadata update) is more important than preserving
data consistency across a system crash, for example, files that
are under
/tmp
or web proxy servers.
Delayed metadata update means two things:
Multiple updates to one block become only one block write as opposed to multiple writes of the same block with traditional synchronous metadata update.
Metadata-intensive applications run much more responsively and faster because metadata writes do not go out to the disk immediately and users get their prompt back as soon as the metadata updates are queued.
Do not use the
delayed
option on the root,
/usr, or other file systems that need to survive across a system
crash.
Only use it on file systems that do not need to survive across a system
crash.
See the
mount(8)
reference page for details on using the
delayed
and other mount options.
1.6.6 New Mount Options
This
release provides the following new options for the
mount
command:
smsync2
-- This option enables the
alternate smooth sync policy, in which a modified page is not flushed to disk
until it has been idle for a set period of time for UFS and AdvFS file systems.
throttle
-- This option prevents excessive
asynchronous I/O from overloading the device queue for UFS file systems.
For more information, see the
mount(8)
reference page.
1.6.7 New vfs Subsystem Attributes
The vfs subsystem includes the following new attributes you can use to throttle UFS file systems:
io_throttle_maxmzthruput
io_throttle_shift
io_throttle_static
For more information, see the
sys_attrs_vfs(5)
reference
page.
1.6.8 New Options in SysMan Menu for NTP
When you use the SysMan Menu to configure your system as an NTP client, you will see two new options in the Add/Modify NTP Servers & Peers window. These options, Fudge factor and Stratum, allow you to configure reference clocks in special ways.
Selecting the Fudge factor check box adds a fudge line to the
ntp.conf
file, and selecting an integer in the Stratum
field allows you to override the default stratum assigned by the
xntpd
daemon.
You can add a fudge line only for a corresponding server (not a peer)
when that server has an address of the form
127.127.t.u.
You can enter a stratum value only if the Fudge factor check box is selected.
See the
ntp.conf(4)
reference page for more information about fudge
lines and stratum values.
1.6.9 ToolTalk Security Enhancement
To prevent unauthorized access to your machine, a new security
mechanism has been added to ToolTalk.
This security mechanism, which was jointly
developed by all companies shipping CDE, requires that a ToolTalk message
contain a valid cookie in order for the
ttsession
message
server to deliver the message to its recipients.
A different cookie is generated
by
ttsession
every time a user logs in using
dtlogin.
The cookie resides in a new file called
.TTauthority
under your home directory.
This permits you to send ToolTalk messages to
the local
ttsession
message server.
Any other user who
wants to send a ToolTalk message to
ttsession
must place
a copy of the cookie in his or her
.TTauthority
file.
See the
ttauth(1)
reference page for instructions on how to share a cookie with
other users.
For the special case of a root user sending messages to the local
ttsession, ToolTalk looks for the cookie in the
.TTauthority
file of the user who owns the
ttsession
process.
For messages being sent to a
ttsession
on a remote machine,
ToolTalk looks for the cookie in root user's
.TTauthority
file.
You can use the
TTAUTHORITY
environment variable
to specify an alternate authority file.
Requiring all ToolTalk messages to contain a valid cookie might cause
problems with some ToolTalk clients.
Therefore, you now have the ability to
start
ttsession
with either relaxed security, full security,
or no security.
Relaxed security is the default and requires a valid cookie only for
the ToolTalk messages used to start an application on a remote machine.
These
messages contain a handler
ptype, or have an operation
name that maps to a
ptype
in the
ptype
database.
Other message types are always delivered.
Relaxed security is
ideal for situations in which notification messages are constantly
being sent between ToolTalk clients.
To request full security, which requires that all messages contain a
valid cookie, start the
ttsession
with the
-F
flag.
You must use the
-F
flag in conjunction
with the
-a cookie
flag (set by default).
To request no security, start the
ttsession
with
the
-a none
flag.
With no security, all messages are delivered
without verification.
This is not recommended, because it leaves your machine
vulnerable to attack.
1.6.10 XEmacs
The
XEmacs
editor has been upgraded
from Version 20.4 to Version 21.1.7 in this release.
This new version of
XEmacs
is contained in the OSFEMACS505 runtime subset and the FSFEMACS505
source subset.
This new version of the
XEmacs
editor has also replaced
the
Emacs
editor.
The
XEmacs
editor
has an extensive graphical user interface when run in a window system, such
as X.
A symbolic link has been created from the
/usr/bin/emacs
to
XEmacs.
Although
Emacs
is no longer shipped on the
Operating System Volume 1
CD-ROM, it is available on the
Open Source Software Collection CD-ROM included
with your kit.
1.6.11 Netscape Communicator Version 4.7
This release of Tru64 UNIX contains Netscape Communicator Version 4.7. For information on using Netscape Communicator to display the online documentation, see the Installation Guide. To obtain the latest fixes to the Netscape Communicator problems described in Chapter 5 of these release notes, it is recommended that you download and install the latest version available of Netscape Communicator for Tru64 UNIX from the Netscape Netcenter's Download World Wide Web site at the following URL:
http://home.netscape.com/download/index.html#clients
1.6.12 Ladebug
The
Ladebug debugger has a new graphical user interface (GUI) that replaces the
old interface.
You invoked the old interface using the
dxladebug
command.
The new version of the GUI is not included with the kit. Instead, you download it from the Ladebug public web page at the following URL:
http://www.unix.digital.com/ladebug/
1.6.13 TruType Rasterizer Support
The X
server can display TrueType fonts.
The operating system currently supplies
only Chinese TrueType fonts, but you can add other TrueType fonts to your
system.
Then, you can use the new TrueType font rasterizer (or font renderer)
to display those fonts.
This rasterizer is available starting with this version
of the operating system.
For more information, see the
TruType(5X)
reference
page.
1.6.14 Intelligent ABC Input Method for Simplified Chinese
Starting with this release, the Intelligent ABC input method
is supported by the Simplified Chinese input method server (dxhanziim).
The Intelligent ABC input method allows you to quickly and efficiently
combine words, phrases, and short sentences in Simplified Chinese.
See the
dxhanziim
application's online help for information
about using the Intelligent ABC input method.
For general information about
Chinese input methods and the input method server, see the
Chinese(5)
and
dxhanziim(1X)
reference pages, respectively.
1.6.15 AlphaServer 8400/GS140 Power Supply Monitoring
This release adds support for reporting power supply and fan status, the current system temperature, and the maximum allowed system temperature for AlphaServer 8400/GS140 systems. This functionality is performed through the environmental monitoring subsystem, which you must enable prior to booting the system.
You can use the
/sbin/sysconfig
command to view the
system environment at any time.
When enabled, this feature prints warning
messages in the case of power supply failure or abnormality or extreme temperatures.
Error logs are logged in the
/var/adm/binary.errlog
log
file.
For more information, see the
System Administration
guide and
the
envconfig(8)
reference page.
1.6.16 MAXCLIENTS Attribute
The
maximum value of the MAXCLIENTS system attribute has been increased from 128
to 256.
1.6.17 New Base Operating System CD-ROM Format
The Tru64 UNIX Operating System Volume 1 CD-ROM is mastered in ISO 9660 format with Rock Ridge Interchange Protocol (RRIP) extensions to provide support for long and mixed-case file names on UNIX systems and Microsoft's Joliet extensions to provide the same support for 32-bit Windows systems.
Some documentation files on the CD-ROM are fully ISO 9660 Level-1 compliant and can be viewed on any system that supports the standard.
If you are using Tru64 UNIX Version 5.0 or higher, you can mount the Operating System Volume 1 CD-ROM using the following command:
#mount /dev/disk/cdromnc /mnt
For
versions of Tru64 UNIX earlier than Version 5.0, you can mount the CD-ROM
by specifying the
-t cdfs
and
-o rrip
options to the
mount
command, as follows:
#mount -r -t cdfs -o rrip /dev/rznc /mnt
1.6.18 Enhancements to the Documentation CD-ROM
The Documentation CD-ROM has been enhanced with the following new features:
The CD-ROM now includes a keyword search feature for
the reference pages.
This feature provides direct access to the HTML reference
pages by searching a local copy of the database that is used by the
apropos
command.
The search displays its results in
a hot-linked table like the one produced by the
webman
CGI script.
The HTML library pages have been redesigned for improved usability.
There is a send us mail button on each of the library pages. Compaq encourages users to return comments and suggestions to help us to improve our documentation.
See Section 8.1 for more information.