ACMS ACMSDI_V5504023 ACMS V2.3/OpenVMS VAX V5.5 ECO Summary

TITLE: ACMS ACMSDI_V5504023 ACMS V2.3/OpenVMS VAX V5.5 ECO Summary
 
Modification Date:  15-JUL-98
Modification Type:  DOCUMENTATION:  Technical
                      1)  Minor modifications/corrections made. 
                      2)  This kit only applies to OpenVMS VAX V5.5.


NOTE:  An OpenVMS saveset or PCSI installation file is stored
       on the Internet in a self-expanding compressed file.
       The name of the compressed file will be kit_name-dcx_vaxexe
       for OpenVMS VAX or kit_name-dcx_axpexe for OpenVMS Alpha.
 
       Once the file is copied to your system, it can be expanded
       by typing RUN compressed_file.  The resultant file will
       be the OpenVMS saveset or PCSI installation file which
       can be used to install the ECO.
  
Copyright (c) Digital Equipment Corporation 1998.  All rights reserved.

PRODUCT:    ACMS Desktop for OpenVMS VAX

OP/SYS:     DIGITAL OpenVMS VAX

COMPONENT:  DIGITAL TP Desktop Connector for ACMS

SOURCE:     Digital Equipment Corporation

ECO INFORMATION:

     ECO Kit Name:  ACMSDI_V5504023
     ECO Kits Superseded by This ECO Kit:  None 
     ECO Kit Approximate Size:  630
     Kit Applies To:  ACMS Desktop for OpenVMS VAX V2.3
                      OpenVMS VAX V5.5
     System/Cluster Reboot Necessary:  No
     Installation Rating:  Information not Available

     Kit Dependencies:

       The following remedial kit(s) must be installed BEFORE
       installation of this kit:

         None 

       In order to receive all the corrections listed in this
       kit, the following remedial kits should also be installed:

         None 


ECO KIT SUMMARY:

An ECO kit exists for ACMS V2.3 on OpenVMS VAX V5.5.  

  o  This ECO fixes a problem with VMS authentication on OpenVMS V5.5.
     Clients were unable to sign in to ACMS unless they were ACMS agent 
     accounts.

     This behavior occurred as result of the ACMSDI$SERVER detached
     process's username switching during signin.  This behavior has
     been resolved with a customized authentication library.

     New Requirements:

     As a result of using the revised library the ACMSDI$SERVER account 
     must contain SECURITY privilege.  Client accounts will not be 
     required to be ACMS agent accounts; however, the ACMSDI$SERVER 
     account must be an ACMS agent account as originally required.

  o  There is a problem if a version 2.0 or earlier 
     SHOW_DESKTOP_USERS.EXE is run against a V2.2 or V2.3 ACMS Desktop 
     server. It will corrupt the memory of the server process. There 
     will not necessarily be an indication of a problem at the time 
     that the older SHOW_DESKTOP_USERS is run.  Some time later after 
     additional system activity it will result in a process crash. The 
     symptom of the crash will vary depending upon the state of the 
     process when the corruption occurred.

     Solution:

     Additional checks have been added to the ACMS Desktop server to 
     protect its memory from the effect of a V2.0 or earlier 
     SHOW_DESKTOP_USERS.EXE.

     If an older version of SHOW_DESKTOP_USERS is run against the ACMS 
     Desktop server with this ECO4 installed, the server will log a 
     marshalling error to the software event log. The server will ignore 
     the request and the older client SHOW_DESKTOP_USERS will fail to 
     complete.

     In order to obtain a SHOW_DESKTOP_USERS report, a version that 
     matches the version of the ACMS Desktop server should be used.

  o  There is a problem with the ACMS Desktop server at times 
     incorrectly managing its virtual memory. To date the problem 
     has only been seen on Alpha 8400 machines running VMS 7.1. 
     However, the logic error is in the ACMS Desktop code and it 
     would seem that the problem could occur on other machine types 
     and operating system versions. This can at times result in an 
     access violation. At other times it results in the generation 
     of a message similar to the one below:

        "%ACMSDI-E-INTERNAL, Internal ACMSDI RPC error
         Unable to allocate virtual memory and create a server_bind_id"

     When such messages are generated it causes the active client thread
     to be dropped.

     Solution:

     This ECO adds additional cross checking of internal data
     structures prior to using their pointer references. It also
     corrects the way that memory is probed to determine if it
     is safe to be accessed.

  o  This ECO adds additional cross checking of internal data
     structures prior to using their pointer references. It also
     corrects the way that memory is probed to determine if it
     is safe to be accessed.

     Data compression, when activated, will not compress any workspace
     longer than 32K bytes.  ACMSDI$DCM lists these workspaces as
     uncompressable even though they should have been compressed.

     Solution:

     The compress program is using an unsigned 16-bit integer to keep
     track of the number of bytes remaining to be compressed. Therefore
     values greater than 32K appeared to be negative.  The program,
     thinking that there were no bytes left to compress and that no
     bytes had been compressed, considered the workspace uncompressable.
     A fix was applied to change the 16-bit integer to a 32-bit integer.


INSTALLATION NOTES:

The system does not need to be rebooted after this kit is installed.
However, if the system is a member of a VMScluster, the other cluster
members should be rebooted or this kit should be installed on each 
system in order to make use of the new image(s). 

Files on this server are as follows:

»acmsdi_v5504023.README
»acmsdi_v5504023.CHKSUM
»acmsdi_v5504023.CVRLET_TXT
»acmsdi_v5504023.a-dcx_vaxexe