INSTALLING AND USING T4

TECHNICAL AND INFORMATIONAL

VERSION 1.01

INSTALLING AND USING T4

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Installing and Using T4

BN-00011-01 (14-JUL-2017)

© 2017 AVT/Vere

vtAlpha and vtVAX are marketed jointly by AVT and Vere Technologies LLC

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 4

2. Installing T4 ......................................................................................................................... 4 2.1. The classic method ................................................................................................... 4 2.2. The disk method ........................................................................................................ 5 2.3. The saveset method .................................................................................................. 6

3. Installing TLViz ................................................................................................................... 7 3.1. Download and installing ............................................................................................ 7

4. Collecting T4 data ............................................................................................................... 7 4.1. Start collecting ........................................................................................................... 7 4.2. Stop collecting ........................................................................................................... 8

5. Viewing and analysing data ............................................................................................... 8 5.1. Copy and unzip the collected data ............................................................................ 9 5.2. Use TLViz .................................................................................................................. 9 5.3. Examples and tips ..................................................................................................... 9

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1. Introduction

This document is about installing and using T4. And what is T4? Here’s an explanatory snippet from the official HPE website:

“T4 stands for Total Timeline Tracking Tool. It runs on HP OpenVMS systems with the purpose of capturing

and consolidating important OpenVMS performance statistics. Pulling from several (currently seven) independent yet cooperating sources, T4 lets you create a relatively compact composite timeline view of the

day-to-day performance of each important OpenVMS node.”

The collected T4 data can be viewed with TLViz (Time Line Visualizer), a graphical viewer for the Microsoft Windows platform.

We made this document to make it easier for users to gain insight into the behavior of their OpenVMS systems, and to possibly relieve performance bottlenecks.

NOTE: All mentioned software is free to use and can be downloaded via the HPE website (see the links in the next chapters).

2. Installing T4

In this chapter, we describe several ways to install T4 on your OpenVMS system(s). The first, “the classic way”, is the standard way software on OpenVMS Alpha is installed. The software is downloaded from a vendor, and installed via the “$product” command. It’s fast, easy and reliable.

We added two more easy, fast and just as reliable options. The second way is connecting a “ready-to-go” disk with T4 already installed. The third is restoring a backup saveset which “installs” the T4 without using the “product” command. These two alternative options provide you with a way to create an isolated (and possibly temporary) T4 environment in a very quick and easy way.

All three options have the same end result. Depending on your company policies or technical limitations, you can choose an installation method that suits you best.

NOTE: The “disk” and “saveset” method create a specific batch queue (T4$BATCH) where the T4 procedure will run.

2.1. The classic method

The standard method of installing software products on OpenVMS via the “product” command.

The downside is that, during the installation, you specifically have to input an installation disk (otherwise it will default to the system disk). And you have to setup your system so the collected data isn’t stored on the system disk. These are not complex tasks for an experienced systems manager, but the other two methods are just as easy to install, without the need to modify the T4 setup. And these installations are very easy to “remove” from your system.

Here are the instructions for this installation method.

Download the package (for free) from the HP site (ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/openvms/t4/T4_T44_KIT.ZIP). The installation is a standard “product” install on OpenVMS.

1. Unzip the file (on Windows or OpenVMS), and copy the extracted files to an OpenVMS

disk.

2. If necessary, fix the file-attribute settings of the PCSI file with this command

a. $ set file/att=(rfm:fix,lrl:512,mrs:512,org:seq,rat:none) HP-VMS-T4-T0404--

1.PCSI$COMPRESSED

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3. Go to the location where the extracted files are located and execute the product

command

a. $ product install T4 It will install to SYS$SYSDEVICE:[VMS$COMMON.T4$SYS]

Or

b. $ product install T4/DESTINATION=disk$somewhere:[dir.tree]

4. Now create a storage area where the T4 collected data will be stored. Make sure you have

sufficient free disk space (at least 500 MB). And do not point to a location on your system

disk!

a. $ create/dir disk$somewhere:[T4DATA]

5. Create the necessary logicals.

a. $ DEFINE /SYSTEM /EXEC T4$SYS SYS$SYSDEVICE:[VMS$COMMON.T4$SYS]

b. $ DEFINE /SYSTEM /EXEC T4$DATA disk$somewhere:[ T4DATA]

and make sure to place these commands in one of your startup files!

2.2. The disk method

This method involves connecting the “ready-to-go” disk where T4 is already installed.. On this disk, two versions of T4 are available. Version 4.0 for OpenVMS 7.3-1, and version 4.4 from OpenVMS 7.3-2 and higher.

The main advantage this installation offers is that no files are copied to the system disk or any other disk on your system (unless you explicitly tell T4 to do so). The T4DISK contains all the necessary files and all the data it collects will be placed on this disk. So there will be no “contamination” of your system. Simply adding or removing the T4DISK from your “mount-procedure” adds or removes T4 from the system.

The disadvantage of this method is that you need to restart the emulator to connect the T4DISK. Use the “saveset” method (see the next chapter) to achieve the same results as the “disk” method, without the need to restart the emulator.

Follow the installation procedure described here.

If you downloaded the “disk-package” (T4DISK.ZIP) from our site, take the following steps:

1. Unzip the T4DISK.ZIP file, and copy the newly extracted disk to a location which is available

to the emulator (where your other disks are located)

2. Attach the new disk to the OpenVMS system in your emulator-configuration

3. Restart the emulator (shutdown the OpenVMS system first) for the OpenVMS system to

be able to see and use the new disk

4. Mount the new disk on OpenVMS after rebooting

5. Setup T4 via the following procedure

a. $ @<newdisk>:[T4SETUP]T4SETUP <T4-version> <diskname>

i. $ @DKA400:[T4SETUP]T4SETUP 40 DKA400 ! T4 version 4.0

OR

ii. $ @DKA400:[T4SETUP]T4SETUP 44 DKA400 ! T4 version 4.4

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6. Next, to make sure T4 is available after a reboot, put the following command in the

procedure where you mount your disks (DKA400 is used in these examples)

i. $ mount/system DKA400 T4DISK T4DISK

and place the command you used to setup T4 in one of your system startup files

after the T4DISK is mounted

ii. $ @DKA400:[T4SETUP]T4SETUP 44 DKA400

NOTE: Pay attention to the output when starting the T4SETUP procedure. If there are errors or insufficient process quotas that prevent T4 from running, it will say so during the setup.

2.3. The saveset method

The advantage of the saveset method (opposed to the “disk” method) is that you do not need to restart/reboot the emulator to connect the T4DISK. And you can choose to install the T4 package to any disk you like.

In other aspects it has the same advantages as the “disk” method. You can install it on a free/isolated disk you have available and your system disk won’t be touched.

If you downloaded the “T4 saveset-package” (T4KITSAVESET.ZIP) from our site, take the following steps to install T4:

(depending on the VMS version, for VMS 7.3-1 you need to install T4 version 4.0; for VMS 7.3-2 and higher use T4 version 4.4; both versions are included in the package)

First unzip the file T4KITSAVESET.ZIP.

1. FTP the zip file to the OpenVMS system you plan to use for collecting data (or unzip on a

Windows system and ftp the extracted files)

2. Unzip the file

a. $ unzip T4KITSAVESET.ZIP

This will unzip 5 files,

i. T4KIT40.BCK

ii. T4KIT44.BCK

iii. T4INSTALL.COM

iv. T4STARTUP.COM

v. FIX_SAVESET.COM

3. Go to the directory where you unzipped the files to, and restore the original file attributes

of the savesets

a. $ @FIX_SAVESET T4KIT40.BCK

b. $ @ FIX_SAVESET T4KIT44.BCK

4. Now you can install the T4 product via the T4INSTALL.COM procedure (in this example to

disk DKA500)

a. $ @T4INSTALL 40 DKA500 ! for VMS 7.3-1

or

b. $ @T4INSTALL 44 DKA500 ! for VMS 7.3-2 and higher

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This will install the T4 files to the specified disk. T4 is ready for use from that

moment on. For T4 work to be available after a reboot of your system, put the

following (example) line in one of your startup files:

$ @SYS$STARTUP:T4STARTUP 44 DKA500

3. Installing TLViz

TLViz stands for Time Line Visualizer, and it is software to view and present the data that T4 collected, in a graphical form (lines, bars, etc.). NOTE: TLViz is exclusively available for the Microsoft Windows operating system.

3.1. Download and installing

Download the (free) software from here (ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/openvms/t4/TLViz_2.1-0.zip). Unzip and install the software the way you are used to on your Windows machines. Apply the update (ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/openvms/t4/TLViz-2.1-1.zip) after installing it.

NOTE: If you are not able to download the software, we also put the software on the T4 disk in the directory [TLVIZ_WINDOWS].

4. Collecting T4 data

T4 is meant to collect “performance data” on a running OpenVMS system. It does so via a T4 batch job and writes this data to files on disk. This job can be started (and submitted) via a T4 procedure, as well as stopped via a T4 command.

4.1. Start collecting

The easiest and simplest way T4 can start collecting data is via the procedure T4$CONFIG.COM (located in the directory T4$SYS).

$ @t4$config Copyright 2000-2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. T4 Version V4.3 Executing T4$CONFIG.COM on node VMS84 - Date/Time is now 21-APR-2017 09:04:44.60 T4$SYS defined as DKA500:[T4SYS44] T4$DATA defined as DKA500:[T4DATA] Please see T4$SYS:T4_README.TXT if you need assistance configuring or running T4 . Collection Start Time [22-APR-2017 00:01:00.00] : Collection End Time [22-APR-2017 23:59:00.00] : Batch queue name [T4$BATCH] : Network Interface Device (? for list, type RETURN to finish) : EWA0

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Network Interface Device (? for list, type RETURN to finish) : Sampling Interval (seconds) [60] : Setting SAMPLING Interval to default of 60 Destination Directory [DKA500:[T4DATA]] : Checking for EVA controllers - please wait ... Collect Memory statistics? [N] : y Re-Submit data collection job daily [N] : Email address : Job T4$COLLECT (queue T4$BATCH, entry 5) holding until 21-APR-2017 23:59 $

NOTE: Collected data will be saved in CSV files, which at the “end-time” will be put in a ZIP file in the T4$DATA directory.

4.2. Stop Collecting

A T4 batch job will automatically stop when it reaches its “Collection End Time”. It will stop the T4 processes in an orderly fashion and put the collected data in ZIP files.

If you want to end the T4 batchjob before the “end-time” and you want to have the data in ZIP files for further analysing, you need to take the following steps to stop the job in a proper fashion:

1. Set default t4$sys

2. $ set command t4$abort

3. $ show sys /batch

4. T4abort/id=<id of t4-batchjob>

Example log:

$ sh sys/batch OpenVMS V8.4 on node VMS84 21-APR-2017 09:33:46.16 Uptime 0 22:44:44 Pid Process Name State Pri I/O CPU Page flts Pages 00000487 T4$V43_220001 HIB 5 1059 0 00:00:01.60 2024 164 B $ t4abort/id=00000487 T4ABORT-I-WAIT, waiting for process T4$V43_220001 (Pid : 00000487) to complete ( 237/822) ... T4ABORT-I-WAIT, waiting for process T4$V43_220001 (Pid : 00000487) to complete ( 258/881) ... T4ABORT-I-WAIT, waiting for process T4$V43_220001 (Pid : 00000487) to complete ( 1896/2069) ... Job T4$COLLECT (queue T4$BATCH, entry 5) completed $

5. Viewing and analysing data

The T4 collected data is in CSV format, so there are plenty of alternatives for presenting the data, but TLViz works very smoothly and is excellent for presenting the T4 data in graphical form. So try it first before switching to an alternative product.

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From here on we assume you have installed the TLViz software on a Windows system and have a basic understanding about Windows in general, FTP, unzipping and file-handling on the Windows platform.

5.1. Copy and unzip the collected data

When a T4 job has ended in a proper way, by reaching its end-time or via the T4Abort command, a ZIP file will be created in the T4$DATA directory on a OpenVMS disk. This ZIP file will contain a number of CSV files.

Copy this ZIP file to a location/share on the Windows system (where TLViz is installed). Unzip the file so the CSV files are extracted.

5.2. Use TLViz

Start TLViz and choose “File -> Open -> New” from the top-menu (or press CTRL-O). Then navigate to the location where your CSV files are located and choose one file. After selecting the file a graph will be presented. From here on you can select or add items to your liking.

5.3. Examples and tips

- If you want to combine certain statistics/numbers in 1 (one) graph, hold the CTRL-key

when selecting a “performance item” in the left window pane of TLViz. It will add the

selected item to the current graph.

Example of CPU activity:

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Example of Disk activity: