Open VMS System Mgmt.

Essentials Training

Open VMS System Mgmt. Essentials Training

1. System Startup and Shutdown

2. Managing Users

3. Developing DCL Command Procedures

4. Introduction to Networks

5. Queue Creation

6. Managing Open VMS Print Queues and Jobs

7. ACL’s

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1. SYSTEM STARTUP AND SHUTDOWN

System Startup (i.e. booting) is the process of loading operating system software from system disk into
memory.

Startup Phases: System startup is divided in the following sequential phases

⇒ VMB.exe (VAX) or APB.exe (Alpha) . Contain the location on disk of the primary boostrap program.
⇒ SYSBOOT.EXE . Read the system parameter
⇒ EXE$INIT. Creates a swapper process.
⇒ SYSINIT. Create the startup process
⇒ STARTUP. Process performs additional task and executes the SYS$SYSTEM:STARTUP.COM

System Startup Files:

⇒ SYS$SYSTEM:STARTUP.COM. This command procedure directs the execution of other procedures and
images.
⇒ SYS$MANAGER:SYLOGILCALS.COM. This file contains the whole system logicals.
⇒ SYS$MANAGER:SATELLITE_PAGE.COM.
⇒ SYS$SYSTEM:SYSPAGSWPFILES.COM. Managing the paging system.
⇒ SYS$MANAGER:SYSECURITY.COM. Controls the system security.
⇒ SYS$MANAGER:SYSTARUP_VMS.COM. It’s used by the system manager to perform a number of
task including:
⇒ Mounting disk
⇒ Installing known images
⇒ Starting one or several network protocols
⇒ Configuring a variety of devices
⇒ Starting layered products by calling their specific command procedures

System Shutdown. It’s the process of stopping the whole operating system.
SYS$SYSTEM:SHUTDOWN: This is the file that invoke the shutdown process. Depending on the situation, you may
choose between the following:

⇒ An orderly shutdown
⇒ An emergency shutdown

Commands Related:

$ SHOW SYSTEM
$ SHOW PROCESS
$ SHO DEVICE
$ SHO CLUSTER
$ SHO DEFAULT

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2.MANAGING USERS

ADD ( Authorization Database Description)

SYS$SYSTEM: SYSUAF.DAT: This user-authorization file contains a record for each user allowed to log in.

SYS$SYSTEM: RIGHTSLIST.DAT: Associates users with identifiers which can be used for additional protection.

SYS$SYSTEM: NET$PROXY.DAT: Contains entries that map remote users to one or more local users. On systems
running, this file contains proxy information stored.

Using the Authorize Utility

This utility is used to manipulate the authorization database files.

$ SET DEFAULT SYS$SYSTEM

$ RUN AUTHORIZE
UAF> SHO USER
UAF> SHOW /BRIEF [group, *]
UAF> SHOW /BRIEF *
UAF> SHOW /BRIEF user name

Major Field of a User Account Record

USERNAME specifies the name of the record to be added to the SYSUAF.DAT.

OWNER: Identifies the owner of the account and can be used for billing purposes.

ACCOUNT: All users in the same group must have the same Account name, and each Account name must belong to
one group only.

UIC: User Identification Code, it’s group number in the range from 1 to 37776 (octal) and a member number in the
range from 1 to 177776 (octal) in the format [group, member]. Group 1 and groups 300-377 are reserved for special
accounts.

DEFAULT: Indicates the user’s login device and directory. The directory name is typically the same as the username.

LGICMD: Indicates the name of the default login command file.

AUTHORIZED PRIVILEGES: They are a list of privileges the user is allowed to take after login.

DEFAULT PRIVILEGIES: They are a list of privileges the user get automatically at login name.

QUOTAS/LIMITS: Several fields are provided to specify resource quotas and limits allowed.

Create the user directory

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Make the new user, the owner of the directory. If you do not, you need to change it using the SET
DIRECTORY/OWNER.

$CREATE/DIRECTORY/OWNER_UIC=uic+directory spec

Captive account
A captive account denies the user access to the DCL command level. The user is under control of a specific program.
To create a captive account, you should set:

⇒ /LGICMD= file-spec to the command procedure that controls the user.

⇒ /FLAG=CAPTIVE
⇒ /PRCLM=0 to disable the SPAWN command
⇒ /NOPASSWORD or /FLAGS=LOCKPWD, so the password can only be changed trough the
Authorize utility.

Proxy account
Proxy accounts allow remote users to access a local account without providing a password. It minimizes the need to use
control access strings which include the password in node specifications passed over the network and eliminate the need
to grant world access to files and directories. A proxy login is not an interactive login, it allows the remote user to do
some operations on the local system such as executing a copy command.

Creating Proxy Accounts

Steps for creating a Proxy account:

⇒ Create the network proxy authorization file.
⇒ Add entries to the proxy authorization file.
⇒ Enable incoming proxy access on the local node.
⇒ Enable outgoing proxy on the remote node.

Create the Network Proxy Authorization File:

UAF> CREATE/PROXY
UAF> ADD/PROXY /DEFAULT /node::remote-user local-user

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Monitoring and controlling processes

Monitoring and control process is required if you suspect a process is having a problem such in an endless loop or is
causing a problem on the system by using an excessive amount of resources.

$ SHOW SYSTEM
$ SHOW PROCESS /ID= /ALL
$ SHO PROCESS /CONT/ID=
$ MONITOR PROCESS/TOPPCU
$ MONITOR SYSTEM
$ MONITOR DISK
$ STOP /ID=

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3. DEVELOPING DCL COMMAND PROCEDURES

Local and global symbols

Local Symbols are defined with either = or :=
Are available to:
⇒ The command level that defined them
⇒ All over command levels
Are defined for the duration of the command level that defined them.
Can be explicitly deleted using the DELETE/SYMBOL command

Global Symbols are defined with either = = or := =.

Are available to all command levels of a process.
Allow you to pass information between command levels
Defined for the duration of the process
Can be explicitly deleted using the DELETE/SYMBOL /GLOBAL command.

Using lexical function

Lexical Function are command language constructs used to obtain and manipulate information about the current
process, the system and arithmetic and string expressions.
The information is returned as a symbol value that can manipulated in performing tasks.

All lexical functions begin with F$, followed by the function name.

Format:
F$function-name([argument,…])

⇒ The function-name is the name of the lexical function. This name usually gives some indication of what the
function does.
⇒ The arguments for the function, if any, are enclosed in parentheses.

Command procedures as batch jobs

⇒ Make good use of system resources like spare CPU time
⇒ Don’t have to compete for resources at the same priority as the interactive user.
⇒ The default queue is SYS$BATCH
⇒ The files submitted constitute a job
⇒ Th default queue is SYS$BATCH

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4. INTRODUCTION TO NETWORKS

TCP/IP Services for Open VMS (UCX)

TCP/IP is a two-layered program:

⇒ The higher layer, Transmission Control Protocol, manages the assembling if a message or file into smaller
packets that are transmitted over the Internet and received by TCP layer.
⇒ The lower layer, Internet Protocol, handles the address part of each packet so that it gets to the right
location

TCP/IP Services:

Telnet: Allows a user logon access to remotes systems.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol.
NFS: Network File System
SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

DECnet
DECnet is the collective name of Digital family of communications products that provides the means for various
Operating System.
DECnet networks support configurations, such as LAN and WAN, use FDDI, Ethernet and point to point connections.
We can found different modes of DECnet:

DECnet-Plus (DECnet Phase V)

DECnet Phase IV

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5. QUEUE CREATION
Queues are categorize by the type of job that they will accept and are further divided into different types according to
their function.

Types of Queues:

Bach Queues:

⇒ Generic: Hold batch jobs for transfer to execution batch queues

⇒ Execution: Execution batch jobs

Output Queues

⇒ Generic: Hold print jobs for transfer to execution output queues

⇒ Execution: Print, Terminal, Servers.

• A generic batch queue can accept jobs from the SUBMIT command and transfer the jobs to available batch
execution queues. Batch execution queues can also accept jobs directly from the SUBMIT command and execute
the jobs.
• A generic output queue can accept jobs from the PRINT command and transfer the jobs to available execution
output queues. Output execution queues can also accept jobs directly from the PRINT command and print the jobs.

Queue Manager

• Receives the user’s request

• Stores information in the queue database and retrieves it to execute the jobs.

Creating Execution Batch Queues

The queue manager must be running before you can create queues. Executions queues must be created before creating
generic queues.

Format:
INITIALIZE/QUEUE/BATCH/START SYS2_BATCH

Creating Generic Batch Queues

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Generic batch queues can be used to hold and direct batch jobs to any execution batch queues available or to queues on
a specified list of execution batch queues.

Format:
INITIALIZE/QUEUE/BATCH/START/GENERIC SYS$BATCH

Set the Output Device Characteristics

Device characteristics must be set prior to creating the queues. Use the SET PRINTER command for line printers.

Format:
SET PRINTER [/device-characteristics] printer-name:
IE: SET PRINTER/PAGE=60/WIDTH=80/LOWERCASE/WRAP LPA0:

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6. MANAGING OPEN VMS QUEUES AND JOBS

Monitoring queues.
SHOW QUEUE command should use to monitor the status of the queues to detect unexpected problems. Qualifiers
allow you to monitor certain types of queues and to control the amount of information being displayed. Wildcards are
allowed in the queue name.

Format:
SHOW QUEUE [/ qualifier][queue-name]

Qualifier Result

None Brief description of all queues

/BATCH Brief description of batch queues
/GENERIC Brief description of generic queues
/DEVICE [=(device-type)] Brief description of output queues
/FULL Detailed description
/ALL_JOBS List all entries
/BY_JOB_STATUS= (status-list) Displays queues that contain jobs with the specified status
/SUMMARY Displays the total number of jobs by status

Starting and Stopping Queues

Starting Queues.

The START/QUEUE command restarts queues that have been stopped or paused.
Since execution queues are stopped during a shutdown, you need to include this command in the startup command
procedure to start each execution queue that was created without the /AUTOSTART_ON qualifier. Include the
ENABLE AUTOSTART command in the startup command procedure, to start all autostart queues at boot time.

START/QUEUE SYS2_BATCH

Stopping Queue

Individual queues can be paused, stopped, or closed to allow management of the specified queue. You can also choose
to stop all queues on specific node or for the entire cluster.

STOP/QUEUE SYS2_BATCH

Other Commands

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SUBMIT /QUEUE= queue-name file-name ………… Submit a execute file in a specific queues.
STOP/QUEUE/RESET queue-name…………………. Stopping a queue immediately

Managing Jobs
Managing jobs might require the following task to be performed:

⇒ Monitoring jobs
⇒ Modifying jobs
⇒ Requesting all jobs from a queue
⇒ Aborting jobs
⇒ Deleting jobs

Monitoring Jobs
To monitor the status of batch and print jobs use the SHO ENTRY command. The default is to display all of your own
job entries, to monitor other jobs provide the entry numbers or job names on the command line.

Format:
SHO ENTRY [/qualifiers [entry-number] [job-name]

Qualifiers Output
/BATCH Selects batch jobs for display
/BY_JOB_STATUS Selects for display only those jobs with the specified status.
/DEVICE= queue-type Selects for display only those print jobs in the specified queue type.
/FULL Displays the following information for each job entry number, job name,
user name, job status, full file specification associated with each job, date
and time of submission, settings specified for the job, queue name, queue
status and queue type.
/GENERIC Selects for display only those jobs contained in generic queues.
/USER_NAME-username Selects for display those jobs owned by the specified user.

Modifying Jobs
Jobs can be modified when in the queue if they are not executing.

Format:
SET ENTRY [/qualifiers] entry-number

Qualifier Description
/PRIORITY= n Specify the job priority between 0 and 255 to change the order of the jobs in
the queue. Default is 100.
/REALESE Release a job that is HOLDING or HOLDING UNTIL
/REQUEUE= queue-name Moves the job from its queue to the specified

Deleting Jobs

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The following commands allow you to delete jobs.

1) DELETE/ENTRY deletes one or more jobs from a queue. If the job is executing , it aborts.
Format:
DELETE/ENTRY= entry number

2) STOP/QUEUE/ABORT deletes the currently executing job. The queue is not stopped and the next job starts
executing.
Format:
STOP/QUEUE/ABORT queue-name

3) DELETE/QUEUE deletes all the jobs from a queue. The queue must be in a stopped state.
Format:
DELETE/QUEUE queue-name

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7. ACL’s
The Open VMS operating system offers two primary protection mechanisms. The first, UIC-based protection is
based o the user identification code (UIC) and is applied to all protected objects.

The second protection mechanism uses access control list (ACLs), which employ a more refined level of protection
than that available with UIC-based protection, ACLs can be used to grant or deny access to individual users or
groups of users.

Creating Access Control List

For most interactive user accounts, the default UIC-based protection is adequate. However, in some cases you may
want to set up an additional level of protection by using access control list (ACLSs). ACL- based protection
provides a more refined level of security in cases where different groups or members of overlapping groups share
access to an account.

Format:

SET ACL/ACL=(INDET=”XXX”,ACCESS=(READ+WRITE+EXECUTE+EXECUTE) file nate.

Assigning ACLs

You can place ACLs on the following object classes:

Capability
Common event flag cluster
Device
File
Group global section
Logical name table
Queue
Resource Domain
Security Class
System Global Section
Volume

Typically, ACLs are used when you want to price access to an object for some, but not all, users, or if you want
deny access to specific, unprivileged users.

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9 APPENDIX

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