Migrating to Netware 4.1

- 14 -

Managing NetWare 4.x Servers

Server Management Changes
- Console Commands
- ABORT REMIRROR
- REMIRROR PARTITION
- MIRROR STATUS
- LIST DEVICES
- SCAN FOR NEW DEVICES
- MAGAZINE
- MEDIA
- RESTART SERVER
- LANGUAGE
Remote Console Changes
Memory Allocation
NetWare 4 NLMs
- The DOMAIN NLM
- Understanding the DSREPAIR NLM
- RTDM Support
- NWSNUT NLM
- TIMESYNC NLM
- DSMERGE NLM
- CDROM NLM
- KEYB NLM and International Language Support
SCHDELAY NLM
The SERVMAN Tool
The MONITOR NLM
- Examining Memory Utilization
- Viewing System Module Information
- Viewing Memory Utilization
Examining Cache Utilization
- Managing Cache Utilization
- Controlling Turbo FAT Reuse Time
Examining Processor Utilization and Scheduling Information
Network Performance
- Network Type
- Understanding Packet Burst
- Large Internet Packet Size
Managing Disk Performance
- Block Suballocation
- NetWare File System Compression

This chapter discusses tools and strategies for managing servers under NetWare 4, focusing on NetWare 4's new and enhanced console utilities. I also discuss some new console commands. NetWare 4.x includes support for the protected operating system domain feature, which allows NLMs to run in an area of memory separate from the kernel. I'll describe the protected operating system domain feature, and I'll conclude this chapter with a discussion of network performance and disk management.

Server Management Changes

Many of the commands in NetWare 4.x have been enhanced; others have remained the same from a user interface perspective. NetWare 4.x has a completely redesigned memory architecture that allows it to manage memory from a global pool rather than the separate memory pools of the NetWare 3.x architecture. Because of this, some of the problems of memory depletion from dedicated memory pools that could occur while running NetWare 3.x console commands and utilities have been eliminated.

Console Commands

A console HELP command enables you to quickly obtain help on the syntax of each command and provides a brief overview of what the command does. Figure 14.1 shows the output of the HELP command. To obtain detailed help on the command LANGUAGE, for instance, enter the command:

HELP LANGUAGE

Figure 14.2 shows help on the LANGUAGE command. The LANGUAGE command displays the current language (see fig. 14.3).

Figure 14.1 The Console HELP command.

Figure 14.2 The HELP LANGUAGE command.

Table 14.1 shows the new console commands available with NetWare 4.1 and provides a brief description of each.

TABLE 14.1 New Console Commands

Command	Description
ABORT REMIRROR	Terminates remirroring of the specified logical partition.
REMIRROR PARTITION	Attempts to start the remirroring of the specified partition.
MIRROR STATUS	Displays a list of the mirrored logical partitions and its status.
LIST DEVICES	Displays a list of storage devices.
SCAN FOR NEW DEVICES	Registers any devices that have been added since the server was started.
MAGAZINE	Used to respond to console alert messages to perform the indicated action, such as magazine insertion and removal.
MEDIA	Used to respond to console alert messages to perform the indicated action, such as media insertion and removal.
RESTART SERVER	Restarts a downed server.
LANGUAGE	Allows the NLMs to use specific language files

Figure 14.3 The Language command.

ABORT REMIRROR

The ABORT REMIRROR command stops the remirroring of the logical partition. Its general syntax follows, where number is replaced by the logical partition you want to stop mirroring for:

ABORT REMIRROR number

Figure 14.4 shows the help that includes an example on the ABORT REMIRROR command.

Figure 14.4 Help on ABORT REMIRROR.

The ABORT REMIRROR command is the opposite of the REMIRROR PARTITION command explained in the following.

REMIRROR PARTITION

The REMIRROR PARTITION command attempts to start the remirroring of the logical partition. Its general syntax follows:

REMIRROR PARTITION number

where number is replaced by the logical partition that you want to mirror. Figure 14.5 shows the help that includes an example on the REMIRROR PARTITION command.

The REMIRROR PARTITION command is the opposite of the ABORT REMIRROR command that is explained in the preceding section.

Figure 14.5 Help on REMIRROR PARTITION.

MIRROR STATUS

The MIRROR STATUS command is used to display all mirrored partitions and their current status. Its syntax is this:

MIRROR STATUS

Figure 14.6 shows an example of entering the MIRROR STATUS command. Notice that there are no mirrored partitions, and this fact is reported. There are five possible status values for mirrored partitions. These status values are explained in table 14.2.

Figure 14.6 Example of MIRROR STATUS command.

TABLE 14.2 Mirror Status Values

Value	Description
Mirrored	This shows that the partition is in the process of being mirrored. The percentage of mirroring that has been completed also is displayed.
Fully synchronized	This indicates that the partitions are functionally identical (synchronized). This should be the normal state.
Not mirrored	This shows that the partition is currently not mirrored. This should be the status if the ABORT REMIRROR command is used.
Orphaned state	This indicates that the partitions do not have the same data. You can use the "Disk Options" in the INSTALL NLM to correct this problem.
Out of synchronization	This indicates that one of the NetWare partitions does not have the same data, and it is therefore not synchronized.

LIST DEVICES

LIST DEVICES displays a list of storage devices, such as disk drivers, tape drivers, or optical disks. Its syntax follows:

LIST DEVICES

Figure 14.7 shows an example of entering the LIST DEVICES command. Notice that only one device is displayed. If a new device has been added since the server was last started, and its device driver is activated, it is often necessary to use SCAN FOR NEW DEVICES to register the device. The SCAN FOR NEW DEVICES command is explained in the next section.

Figure 14.7 Example of LIST DEVICES command.

SCAN FOR NEW DEVICES

SCAN FOR NEW DEVICES registers any new hardware and devices that have been added since the server was last started. If the server does not recognize a device as part of its boot sequence, you must issue this command after you load the driver for that device. The syntax of this command is

SCAN FOR NEW DEVICES

Typing this command does not usually produce any visible display (see fig. 14.8). You must issue the LIST DEVICES command to see any new devices that have been found by the SCAN FOR NEW DEVICES command. Figure 14.9 shows the output of the LIST DEVICES command after the generic SCSI tape driver TAPEDAI.DSK has been loaded and the SCAN FOR NEW DEVICES command has been executed. Notice that a new device, the HP 35470A tape drive unit, is now registered.

Figure 14.8 The SCAN FOR NEW DEVICES command.

Figure 14.9 The LIST DEVICES command after the SCAN FOR NEW DEVICES command.

MAGAZINE

MAGAZINE is used to confirm whether magazine requests issued by the server have or have not been satisfied. This command is used in conjunction with secondary storage devices used with the data migration facility.

NOTE: The MAGAZINE command and the MEDIA command (discussed next) are reminiscent of the messages seen on the console for mainframe systems to mount a new tape or disk to the computer operator.

The syntax of the MAGAZINE command is as follows:

MAGAZINE request

where request is replaced by either INSERTED, NOT INSERTED, REMOVED, or NOT REMOVED.

Figure 14.10 shows the Help message screen for the MAGAZINE INSERTED command. Notice that this command acknowledges the insertion of the specified magazine in response to the console alert message to "Insert magazine." The MAGAZINE INSERTED command is a way of communicating to the system that the requested action has been performed. If you issue the MAGAZINE INSERTED command when no console requests have been made, no harm is done. The system tells you that there are no outstanding requests (see fig. 14.11), and your command is ignored.

Figure 14.10 The HELP on MAGAZINE INSERTED command.

Figure 14.11 The MAGAZINE INSERTED command when no requests are pending.

The following MAGAZINE request commands work in the same manner:

MAGAZINE NOT INSERTED MAGAZINE REMOVED MAGAZINE NOT REMOVED

The help messages for these commands are shown in figures 14.12, 14.13, and 14.14.

Figure 14.12 The HELP on MAGAZINE NOT INSERTED command.

Figure 14.13 The HELP on MAGAZINE REMOVED command.

Figure 14.14 The HELP on MAGAZINE NOT REMOVED command.

MEDIA

The MEDIA command is used to confirm whether media requests issued by the server have or have not been satisfied. This command is used in conjunction with secondary storage devices used with the data migration facility.

The syntax of the MEDIA command is as follows, where request is replaced by either INSERTED, NOT INSERTED, REMOVED, or NOT REMOVED.

MEDIA request

Figure 14.15 shows the Help message screen for the MEDIA INSERTED command. Notice that this command acknowledges the insertion of the specified media in response to the console alert message to "Insert media." It is a way of communicating to the system that the requested action has been performed. If you issue the MEDIA INSERTED command when no console requests have been made, no harm is done. The system will tell you that there are no outstanding requests (see fig. 14.16), and your command will be ignored.

Figure 14.15 The HELP on MEDIA INSERTED command.

Figure 14.16 The MEDIA INSERTED command when no requests are pending.

The following MEDIA request commands work in the same manner:

MEDIA NOT INSERTED MEDIA REMOVED MEDIA NOT REMOVED

The Help message screens for these commands are shown in figures 14.17, 14.18 and 14.19.

Figure 14.17 The HELP on MEDIA NOT INSERTED command.

Figure 14.18 The HELP on MEDIA REMOVED command.

Figure 14.19 The HELP on MEDIA NOT REMOVED command.

RESTART SERVER

The RESTART SERVER command is used to restart execution of the server, after the DOWN command has been executed but before the EXIT command to exit to DOS. In earlier versions of NetWare, the only way to restart the server was to exit to DOS and run the SERVER.EXE program.

The general syntax of this command is as follows:

RESTART SERVER [optionalParameters]

where optionalParameters can be: -ns for not using the STARTUP.NCF files

-na for not using the SYS:SYSTEM/AUTOEXEC.NCF file -d for entering into the NetWare OS low-level internal debugger The brackets ([]) around optionalParameters indicate that the parameter is optional.

You cannot use this command while the server is running. The server must be downed before you can run this command.

LANGUAGE

The LANGUAGE command is used to specify the language the message files. This allows the NLMs that are written to support internationalization to display their options and help files in different languages. The general syntax for LANGUAGE is

LANGUAGE [language] [option]

The brackets around the parameters indicate that they are optional.

The language parameter can be the name of the language or a language identification number. The languages and assigned codes are shown in table 14.3. Check your version of NetWare 4.x to see which languages are available. To select the SPANISH language, you can execute:

LANGUAGE SPANISH

LANGUAGE 14

Similarly, you can use the language name or language identification number for any of the other languages listed in table 14.3, provided this support has been installed at the server.

Figure 14.20 shows the server console screen that has these commands issued. Figure 14.21 shows the MONITOR NLM running after the LANGUAGE command was set to use Spanish language message files. This assumes that support for the language has been installed on the server. Figure 14.21 also shows that the Esc command was typed. You can see the prompt in Spanish for exiting the MONITOR NLM. Figure 14.22 shows the top level help for the MONITOR NLM.

The MONITOR NLM and its help screen can be displayed in English, French, German, and Italian. Connoisseurs of these languages might want to compare the MONITOR screens in different languages.

Figure 14.20 The LANGUAGE command for Spanish.

Figure 14.21 MONITOR NLM in Spanish.

Figure 14.22 Help screen for MONITOR NLM in Spanish.

TIP: To install Language Support, follow these steps:

1. LOAD INSTALL.

2. Select "Product Options."

3. Select "Choose an item or product listed above."

4. Then "Install an Additional Server Language."

Migrating to Netware 4.1 -- Ch 14 -- Managing NetWare 4.x Servers