Installing T4 Version 4.4
1 Sep 2012



WELCOME TO T4 VERSION 4.4

Thank you for downloading the latest T4 kit from the public web site located at:  

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/products/t4/index.html

To get maximum benefit from the T4 data you will be able to collect with this kit, 
you will want to download the TLViz and CSVPNG kits which are available from 
the same web site.  TLViz and CSVPNG are specifically designed to save you 
time when you are analyzing the CSV (Comma Separated Value) files that the T4 
collector creates.

If you have questions about T4, TLViz, CSVPNG or other Friends of T4, or if 
you would like to be on the mailing list, please send mail to T4@hp.com.

This document contains the following sections to help you get started with T4

INSTALLING THE KIT
   THE T4 T4.4 KIT
   PRIVILEGES REQUIRED FOR T4 INSTALLATION
   RESET FILE ATTRIBUTES
   DEASSIGN T4$SYS LOGICAL NAME
   INSTALL THE LATEST T4 KIT
   MAKING THE T4 LOGICAL NAMES PERMANENT
   CREATING A T4$DATA STORAGE AREA 
   SET UP A LOCAL BATCH QUEUE TO RUN T4

RUNNING T4
   QUOTAS REQUIRED  TO RUN THE T4 COLLECTION
   PRIVILEGES NEEDED TO RUN T4 COLLECTION
   
DISK SPACE
   ESTIMATING DISK SPACE REQUIREMENTS
   RUNNING A T4 T4.4 TRIAL SESSION 
   LAUNCHING T4 IN LONG-TERM HISTORY MODE
   TYPES OF FILES CREATED IN T4$DATA

T4 T4.4 RELEASE NOTES
KNOWN ISSUES WITH T4 T4.4

TERMS & CONDITIONS FOR USE OF T4 T4.4



INSTALLING THE KIT

   THE T4 T4.4 KIT

Your zipped up T4 kit includes the following files:

1)  HP-VMS-T4-T0404--1.PCSI$COMPRESSED  - The T4 T4.4 PCSI kit.
2)  T4_README.TXT - The text file version of this document.
3)  HP-VMS-T4-T0404--1.PCSI$COMPRESSED_ESW - CDSA encrypted, signed manifest 
4)  HP-VMS-T4-T0404--1.PCSI$COMPRESSED_HPC - HPCSS encrypted, signed manifest


   PRIVILEGES REQUIRED FOR T4 INSTALLATION

You will need the SYSNAM privilege to establish the logical names required to 
successfully install T4 and make it ready to run.  


   RESET FILE ATTRIBUTES

Once you have moved this PCSI kit to your OpenVMS system, you may need to 
RESET the FILE ATTRIBUTES.  These can sometimes be altered in transit 
depending on how the transfer was accomplished.  If necessary, the appropriate 
reset can be accomplished with the following command:

$ set file/att=(rfm:fix,lrl:512,mrs:512,org:seq,rat:none) HP-VMS-T4-T0404--1.PCSI$COMPRESSED 

   DEASSIGN T4$SYS LOGICAL NAME

If you are already running a version of T4, be sure you DEASSIGN your 
current T4$SYS system wide logical name before installing the new kit.
 
         $   DEASSIGN  T4$SYS /SYS


   INSTALL THE LATEST T4 KIT

You can now install the latest T4 T4.4 kit using:

	$ PRODUCT INSTALL T4

This installs the kit to the [.T4$SYS] subdirectory beneath
SYS$SYSDEVICE:[VMS$COMMON] (that is, SYS$SYSDEVICE:[VMS$COMMON.T4$SYS])

To install to a different directory, use the /DESTINATION option as follows:

	$ PRODUCT INSTALL T4/DESTINATION=disk$somewhere:[dir.tree]

This installs the kit to the [.T4$SYS] subdirectory beneath the destination directory
(that is, disk$somewhere:[dir.tree.T4$SYS])

The T4 kit must be installed separately on each node where you expect to run it.

Once you have installed the T4 T4.4 kit, you will find many more files of 
additional reference material.

   MAKING THE T4 LOGICAL NAMES PERMANENT

This is a very important step that helps make sure you get full use out of T4 on 
your systems.  By making key T4-related logical names permanent, you enable 
interrupted T4 sessions to restart following a system reboot and make sure that 
you do not miss any vital data. The logical names of interest are T4$SYS and 
T4$DATA, which are discussed in the following sections. 

Define the T4$SYS logical and make it permanent by adding the definition to the 
system startup SYLOGICALS.COM command procedure.  For example, try the 
following command.

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


   CREATING A T4$DATA STORAGE AREA 

When you run T4 collections you will need a convenient and suitably sized disk 
location to store the T4 generated performance data.  Set up your data disk in 
advance and point to it with the T4$DATA logical name.  It is equally important 
to make this logical name permanent by adding the definition to the system 
startup code SYLOGICALS.COM command procedure which allows T4 sessions 
to resume following system reboots.

$ DEFINE /SYSTEM /EXEC T4$DATA   Your_Data_Disk:[000000.T4$DATA]

You can establish a separate T4$DATA area for each OpenVMS system or you 
can set up a single T4$DATA disk that is available to all nodes on your 
OpenVMS cluster.  

WARNING:  Do not use your system disk for T4$DATA.

   SET UP A LOCAL BATCH QUEUE TO RUN T4

For each OpenVMS node that you will want to monitor with T4, you will need to 
use a local batch queue to run the T4 jobs on that node.   This can be an existing 
queue (assuming it has available job slots) or you can set up a special T4 batch 
queue for that node as shown below.  

First, start the queue manager if not already started

          $ start/queue/manager/new

Create and start up a new batch queue 

          $ init/que/start/batch T4$batch /job=10

          $ sho queue/batch/full

Batch queue T4$BATCH, idle, on NODEX::
  /BASE_PRIORITY=4 /JOB_LIMIT=10 /OWNER=[SYSTEM] 
     /PROTECTION=(S:M,O:D,G:R,W:S)

You will need one batch queue and one T4 collection session for each OpenVMS 
node you are interested in.  As noted above, all the collected and processed data 
from these sessions will be saved to the T4$DATA directory. 

RUNNING T4


   QUOTAS REQUIRED TO RUN T4 COLLECTION

The User Account (e.g. T4_USER) that you plan to use to run T4 will require the 
following QUOTAS.

PRCLM must be at least 20.
TQELM must be at least 100.
PGFLQUOTA must be at least 500000.

$ mc authorize
UAF> mod T4_USER /prclm=20/tqelm=100/pgflquota=500000
UAF> exit


   PRIVILEGES NEEDED TO RUN T4 COLLECTION

For the user who will be launching T4 history creation sessions, the ALTPRI 
privilege is needed so that the OpenVMS Monitor Utility can run at the 
recommended process priority of 15.



DISK SPACE



   ESTIMATING DISK SPACE REQUIREMENTS

For your most important and performance sensitive systems, we suggest that you 
launch T4 in long-term history mode by answering yes when asked the 
question:
 
      Re-Submit data collection job daily   [N] : Y

This way it will build up a detailed performance history for you day by day.

The actual size you will need for your T4 history area depends on several key 
factors: 
	* the number of nodes under measurement, 
	* the number of hours of measurement each day, 
	* the number of devices to be measured
	* the number of processes on each system, 
	* the sampling rate (default = 60 seconds)
	* the OpenVMS version

To gauge the amount of disk space that you will require, we suggest you start with 
at least 500,000 blocks.  Run a trial session (see quick instructions below) of 1 to 
2 hours and determine how much disk space is needed for that run.

Then adjust the size of the T4$DATA storage area as necessary to meet your 
needs.

WARNING:  Do not use your system disk for T4$DATA


T4 includes some rudimentary capabilities for assisting you in the management of 
your T4$DATA performance history area.  Since the data that T4 helps you 
collect may prove invaluable to you in the future, you will want to think through 
and apply your standard local site policies for backing up, archiving, and 
preserving this potentially priceless historical system information. 


   RUNNING A T4 T4.4 TRIAL SESSION 

Once you have installed T4, set up your T4 user account with the appropriate 
privileges and process limits, established a T4 Batch queue on each node you will 
be monitoring, and created a T4$DATA area, you are now ready to launch your 
first T4 T4.4 collection session.  

We suggest you run a trial session to help calculate the disk space that you will 
require to run T4 in its recommended long term history mode (see the OpenVMS 
Technical Journal Article at 

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/journal/v3/t4.pdf 

for a full explanation of the benefits of long term performance histories

To help estimate the amount of disk space you will require, run the following 
command and respond to the questions you are asked following the guidelines 
shown below.

      $  @T4$SYS:T4$CONFIG.COM

Start Time -- pick a time that is 5 minutes in the future as this will give you 
enough time to work your way through all the questions.  That way the T4 
collection session will be launched prior to the time you specify and you can 
make sure that you get a full hour of data.

End Time -- pick a time that will give you a total run time of one hour.

Batch queue -- remember to use your T4$BATCH queue that is local to the node 
you are measuring

Network Interface Device -- Enter a question mark to get a list of all available network 
interface devices.  Then, highlight that list, and paste it in as the answer to the 
question.  This will cause T4 to monitor each and every one of your Network 
adapters.  Note that you can also provide the string ALL in order to monitor
all your network adapters.

Sampling Interval -- use the default 60 seconds

Data Directory -- use T4$DATA


Re-submit data collection job daily -- answer NO to this question as 
you are using this run to help you determine storage needs before launching T4 in 
long term history collection mode.

Email Address -- if you can send email from the VMS node being measured, fill 
this in so it sends email notifying you that the data has all been collected and 
processed.  

Once the run is complete, check the sizes of the files created in the T4$DATA 
directory to discover the approximate storage costs per hour for this OpenVMS 
node.    See the sections below describing the types of files created during a T4 
session and the suggested retention periods of each type of data.


   LAUNCHING T4 IN LONG TERM HISTORY MODE

Having established a reasonable size for your T4$DATA area by following the 
steps outlined above, you are now ready to launch T4 in long term history mode.  
Long term history mode for T4 is explicitly designed to help you maximize the 
benefits that T4 can provide.  At the same time it helps to minimize how much 
time you will have to spend and keep that down to an absolute bare minimum.

Here are some recommendations for parameter values to use in response to the 
questions triggered by running the following command

      $  @T4$SYS:T4$CONFIG.COM

Start Time -- use the default which will be tomorrow at one minute after 
midnight.

End Time -- use the default which will be tomorrow at 23:59.  These settings for 
Start Time and End Time mean that you will have round the clock performance 
data for the systems that are most vital to you.
 
Batch queue -- remember to use your T4$BATCH queue that you created and 
that is local to the node you are measuring.

Network Interface Device -- type in the names of the devices that are a regular 
part of your production environment.  You can enter a question mark to get a list of all 
available network interface devices.  If you want to measure all of them, you can 
highlight that list, and paste it in as the answer to this question.  

Sampling Interval -- use the default 60 seconds.  This has proved to be an 
excellent default compromise value for long term history creation.

Data Directory -- use T4$DATA


Re-submit data collection job daily -- answer YES to this 
question.  When you do this, each time T4 runs, the first thing it will do is submit 
a new batch job for the following day.  If you have established T4$DATA and 
T4$SYS as system wide logical names in your SYLOGICALS.COM file, then 
this single launch operation will create a full long term history for this node.

Email Address -- using this or not using this feature is your call.  

Your T4 collections will start tomorrow at one minute after midnight and continue 
collecting and saving vital performance data for you until the batch jobs are 
deleted.  

Welcome to the world of T4.  We look forward to hearing of your experiences in 
using these handy tools.


   TYPES OF FILES CREATED IN T4$DATA

T4 produces a composite CSV file daily for each node being monitored.  The 
names of these files are of the form:

 T4_<nodename>_<Collection_Date>_<start_time>_<end_time>_COMP.CSV

For example, a one hour run on node PRFE40 might look like:

 T4_PRFE40_28JUN2005_1400_1500_COMP.CSV

These *COMP.CSV files are normally the first thing that we look at.

The output of a T4 collection session includes

	CSV files
	ZIP files
	LOG files
	DAT files (for OpenVMS MONITOR and for T4FCMON)

Please note that, after the CSV and DAT files are ZIPped, T4 will delete 
them, leaving only the ZIP files.

The key CSV files are:
	*COMP.CSV
	*DISK.CSV
	*SCS.CSV
	*T4FCMON.CSV

The remaining CSV files are what we refer to as intermediate files and they can 
be deleted after a few days.

We recommend that you retain all the ZIP files which contain CSV's for at 
least eighteen months.  We recommend retaining the ZIP files which contain
DAT's for at least 45 days.

Even beyond eighteen months,  if you find you must remove the older CSV files, 
we suggest you send these to a permanent archival storage location that you can 
access as needed.  You'll never know when you will have a need to search back 2 
or 3 years to compare what is happening right now to how things used to be.  You 
will only be able to do this if you carefully guard all of these invaluable 
performance timeline files.   


T4 T4.4 RELEASE NOTES

T4 T4.4 contains a number of changes to the previous release (T4 V4.3-1), as follows:

1) Added new collector for PEDriver Virtual Circuit (VC) charactersticsfor
   each node in the cluster.

   If the system is a cluster member, when the user runs T4$CONFIG.COM, he is asked the
   following question :
   
   Collect PEDriver VC statistics?    [N] :    
   
   Answer with 'Y' to collect PEDriver characteristics.


   The following characteristics are collected by the PEDriver collector :

   Bytes Xmt  		Cumulative size of all the messages transmitted over the VC, measured in bytes.
   Bytes Rcv  		Cumulative size of all the messages received over the VC, measured in bytes.
   Buffer Size  	Maximum data buffer size for this VC
   Msg Xmt  		Indicates the number of transmits completed along this VC.
   Msg Rcv  		Indicates the number of messages received over this VC.
   Buf Size Incr  	Number of times buffer size has increased for this VC.
   Msg_Xmt_Unsequence   Number of unsequence messages transmitted
   Msg_Rcv_Unsequence   Number of unsequence messages received
   Load_Class 	 	Bandwidth of the VC.
   Msg_Xmt_Sequence  	Number of sequence messages transmitted
   Msg_Rcv_Sequence  	Number of sequence messages received
   Open_Channels  	Number of currently open channels available to the virtual circuit.
   Seq_TMO_Ratio  	Ratio of number of sequenced messages transmitted to number of retransmits
   Msg_Rcv_Cached  	Number of messages in the receive cache
   TR_Rcv_Cache_Size  	Maximum size of the TR receive cache
   No_ECS  		Number of times VC got closed due to no usable channels (No ECS)
   No_Xmt_Path  	Counts the number of times channnels not available for transmit
   Round_Trip 	 	Average round-trip time, in microseconds, for a packet to be sent and acknowledged
   SeqMsg_RetryExh  	Number of times VC was closed due to sequence message transmission exhaustion
      			for a packet.
   Rcv_Cache_Miss  	Number of messages that could not be placed in the cache because message
      			sequence number difference was out of cache's range
   Round_Trip_Variance  Average deviation, in microseconds, of the round-trip time. 
   DL_Xmt_Incmpl  	Account for VC close due to transmit completion wait exhaustion.
   Illegal_Seq_Msg  	Number of illegal sequence messages received
   Xmt_Window_Full  	Number of times transmit window reached its maximum.
   Buf_Size_Decr  	Number of times ECS buffer size got decreased resulting in VC closure 
   Bad_Checksum  	The number of messages received with bad checksum. 
   CmdQLen_Cur  	Reflects the number of Port commands seen in the queue currently.
   CmdQLen_Max  	The maximum value reached by this field.
   CC_DFQ_Empty  	This reflects the number of times the DFREEQ  became empty
   Rcv_Short_Msg  	Number of  received messages too short for NISCA.
   Rmt_TR_Rcv_Cache  	Receive cache size of remote node at TR layer
   NPAGEDYN_Low  	Number of VC closures due to unavailability of non--paged pool. 
   TR_MFQ_Empty  	Number of times the MFREEQ  became empty
   Cur_UnAcked_Msgs  	Current number of outstanding unacknowledged messages
   XmtWin_Cur 	 	Current transmit window size.
   XmtWin_Slo 	 	Slow growth threshold for the transmit window
   XmtWin_Max 	 	Maximum transmit widnow size
   Grow_Cnt  		Number of succesful transmits since transmit window size was increased
   Grow_Thresh  	Number of succesful transmits required to increase the size of the transmit window. 
   Member_Count  	Number of ECS members
   Remote_BUSes  	Number of unique remote buses across the ECS.
   Local_BUSes  	Number of unique local buses across the ECS.
   Demote  		Current threshold for reclassifying a FAST channel to SLOW
   Epochs  		Number of times all ECS membership criteria was recalculated
   Promote  		Current threshold for reclassifying a SLOW channel to FAST.
   New_ECS  		Indicates the number of times the ECS was formed by selecting all active channels
      			based on previously established ECS membership criteria.
   Faster  		Current threshold for reclassifying a channel as FASTER than the current
			set of ECS channels.
   Min_Rmt_DL_Buf  	Indicates the minimum size of the communicating node’s (remote) datalink
 			receive ring buffer. 


2) Added new collector for Shadowing characterstics.
   If SHADOW_SERVER process is present, when the user runs T4$CONFIG.COM, he is asked the
   following question :    
   
   Collect Shadowing statistics?    [N] :
   
   Answer with 'Y' to collect Shadowing characteristics.

   The following characteristics are collected by the Shadowing collector :

   Resets		The number of bitmap resets for a shadowset during the
      			collection interval.  Note that by default bitmaps are only
      			checked and if needed reset every 150 seconds (SYSGEN 
      			SHADOW_HBMM_RTC).  So, collection intervals shorter than 
     			RTC should not have reset values > 1.

   % of Threshold 	The number of blocks represented in a DSA unit's
      			bitmap at the end of a collection interval expressed as a 
      			percentage of its reset_threshold.

   SF_MSG_SENT 		(from WBM_DATA$GL_SF_MSG_SENT) The number of SCS
      			messages sent in single message mode plus the number of full
      			buffered message mode SCS messages sent during a collection 
      			interval from this system.

   TQE_MSG_SENT 	(from WBM_DATA$GL_TQE_MSG_SENT) is the number of 
      			SCS messages sent via TQE  while in buffered message mode 
      			during a collection interval.  When in buffered message mode
      			a TQE is used to check buffers for connections in buffered
      			message mode every WBM_MSG_INT (SYSGEN parameter). 

   Buffered message mode status:  For each SCS connection the 
      			buffered message mode status bit is save at the end of each
      			collection interval.  1 indicates buffered message mode.
      			Since a connection can switch into or out of buffered 
      			message mode as often as every WBM_MSG_INT (10msec by 
      			default) this information may not always be a good 
      			representation. 
   
3) Added new collector for Memory characteristics.
   When the user runs T4$CONFIG.COM, he is asked the
   following question : 

   Collect Memory statistics?    [N] :   
   
   Answer with 'Y' to collect Shadowing characteristics. 

   The following characteristics are collected by the Memory collector :

   Pages Total  	The total number of pages in Main Memory.
   Pages Free 	 	The number of free pages in Main Memory.
   Pages Inuse  	The number of pages that are in use in Main Memory.
   Pages Modified  	The number of pages that have been modified in Main Memory.
   
   NPaged Total  	The total memory (in Bytes) in Non-Paged Pool.
   NPaged Free  	The free memory (in Bytes) in Non-Paged Pool.
   NPaged Inuse  	The in-use memory (in Bytes) in Non-Paged Pool.
   NPaged Largest  	The largest memory (in Bytes) in Non-Paged Pool.

   Paged Total  	The total memory (in Bytes) in Paged Pool.
   Paged Free 	 	The free memory (in Bytes) in Paged Pool.
   Paged Inuse  	The in-use memory (in Bytes) in use in Paged Pool.
   Paged Largest  	The largest memory (in Bytes) in Paged Pool.

   Gblpage Contig  	The maximum number of free, contiguous global CPU-specific pages.
   Gblpage Free  	The current number of free global pages. 
   Gblsect Free  	The current number of free global section table entries. 

   Pagefile Free 	The number of free pages in the currently installed page files.
   Pagefile Size  	The number of pages in the currently installed page files.

   Swapfile Free  	The number of free pages in the currently installed swapping files.
   Swapfile Size  	The number of pages in the currently installed swapping files.


4) Introduced a new logical "T4$PROCESS".  
   This logical can be used instead of editing the "Process_Name_List" symbol in T4$COLLECT.COM
   to collect information about processes. The users can define the logical to a comma separated list
   of process names( wildcards can also be used like in the definition of the symbol 
   "Process_name_list" currently ).
   
   Ex. $ define/sys/exec T4$PROCESS "*SHAD*,*T4*,*BATCH*"
   
5) Fixed the following issues :
	1) Remove the trailing spaces in Time format.
    	2) Correct syntax error with SUBMIT command.
    	3) Move the symbol assignemt of "Mon_Tdc" above the $RESTART test.
    	4) Correct the symbol definition of "This_Proc" to work with all valid file specifications.
    	5) Fix the "%DCL-W-TKNOVF" error with T4 Version.

KNOWN ISSUES WITH T4 T4.4:

1) PEDRIVER collector T4$PE_VC collects the data from SDA utility and parses
the output to generate CSV file. In SDA when there is an overflow in the display,
value is replaced by **** which affects the collector output. In such cases, the
generated CSV files will not be usable with TLViz 


TERMS & CONDITIONS FOR USING T4 T4.4:

T4 T4.4 is provided to you, subject to the following terms and conditions.  Any 
comments or questions regarding T4 T4.4 or its terms and conditions can be 
directed to T4@hp.com.  
 
(a) T4 T4.4 is supplied 'as is.' without warranties, either expressed or implied.

(c) T4 T4.4 is not a Commercial 'Off-The-Shelf' software product.

(d) T4 T4.4 is neither freeware nor shareware, and cannot be freely distributed 
other than by Hewlett-Packard Company, subsidiaries, successors and assignees.

(e) T4 T4.4 remains the sole intellectual property of Hewlett-Packard Company, 
subsidiaries, successors and assignees.
 
(f) T4 T4.4 may not be redistributed or supplied to any third party, either for 
commercial gain or otherwise without the prior written consent of Hewlett-
Packard Company.

(g) T4 T4.4 is deemed to be supported *only* by consulting services purchased 
directly from Hewlett-Packard Company, subsidiaries, successors and assignees, 
specific for this purpose and by prior agreement.

(h) The recipient must not request any kind of support from any other Hewlett-
Packard Company entity, such as any Customer Support Center or Engineering 
group.   This support restriction also applies to any issues of coexistence or 
interoperability with any other software or hardware, including (but not limited 
to) supported Hewlett-Packard Company products.




WHERE TO GET MORE INFORMATION

If you have questions, suggestions, comments, or if you want to be on the T4 & 
Friends mailing list, then please send mail to T4@hp.com.
