From: SMTP%"RELAY-INFO-VAX@CRVAX.SRI.COM" 13-APR-1994 15:36:13.46 To: EVERHART CC: Subj: DEC Apr 12th Announcement: OpenVMS VAX V6.1 X-Newsgroups: comp.os.vms From: ramsey@cua.edu (Betsy Ramsey) Subject: DEC Apr 12th Announcement: OpenVMS VAX V6.1 Message-ID: Sender: ramsey@news.cua.edu (Betsy Ramsey) Organization: The Catholic University of America Date: Wed, 13 Apr 1994 14:51:18 GMT Lines: 165 To: Info-VAX@CRVAX.SRI.COM X-Gateway-Source-Info: USENET This is from DEC's WWW server http://www.digital.com/. OpenVMS VAX V6.1 HIGHLIGHTS o Global networking now possible with "Fullnames" o Full CPU and peripheral support, including V5.5-2H4 hardware o Enhancements for nearline storage result in lower storage costs o Price reduction for volume shadowing PRODUCT DESCRIPTION OpenVMS VAX V6.1 provides an abundance of new capabilities, demonstrating Digital's commitment to this operating system and its intention to provide software enhancements that will fulfill the needs of its OpenVMS VAX users now and in the future. The new features in this release include: o DECnet/OSI Fullnames -- The Fullnames capability provides the underlying support for global networking, enabling the use of node names larger than six characters. It also provides underlying support for network protocols using hierarchical naming, such as DECnet/OSI and TCP/IP, so that both DECnet and OSI applications can run using standard network protocols. Fullnames services and utilities in OpenVMS VAX V6.1 provide support for continued network growth and connection of separate networks into global networks. o Support for Hierarchical Shelving Manager (HSM) for OpenVMS -- File shelving allows users and processes to move an inactive file to nearline or offline media transparently, and return the file to online media when needed, thus lowering the average cost of storing data that is rarely used. o Performance Enhancements for PATHWORKS (XQP+) -- XQP+ file system enhancements that were previously available on the PATHWORKS for VMS kits have been integrated into V6.1. o InfoServer Tape Backup -- System managers can now use online backup for full backup and restore. o Debugger Heap Analyzer -- This new debugger feature enables graphical representation of memory use in realtime. It helps to quickly identify where memory usage and performance could be improved. o Increased Baud Rates for VT500 Series Terminals -- The VT500 series is now supported with 57,600, 76,800, and 115,200 baud rates. o LAT Symbiont Customization -- Symbiont is now user modifiable. o POLYCENTER Software Installation (PCSI) Software for Layered Products -- PCSI provides Digital Command Language (DCL) and DECwindows Motif interfaces that can be used to install, configure, reconfigure, and deinstall software products that are PCSI compliant. o Reintegrated Hardware Support -- Hardware previously supported in OpenVMS VAX V5.5-2H4 has been integrated into V6.1, including support for: - VAX 4000 Models 100A, 500A, 600A, and 700A. - KZDDA, on a MicroVAX 3100 Model 90. - DEFTA (FDDI to TURBOchannel) and DEFQA (FDDI to Q-bus) adapters. - SCSI-2 Tagged Command Queuing support for the StorageWorks RAID Array 110 subsystem. o Per-Disk Licensing for Volume Shadowing -- Volume shadowing is now available with either per-disk licenses or capacity (Traditional) licenses under OpenVMS VAX V6.1. You can either purchase capacity licenses for each CPU that accesses shadowed data or purchase licenses for each disk that you wish to include in a shadow set. If you choose the second method, each disk in a shadow set will require one per-disk license, regardless of the size or type of the disk. For more information and order numbers, please refer to Volume Shadowing for OpenVMS VAX V6.1 SPD 27.29. o Associated Products -- DEC Availability Manager for Distributed Systems (DECamds) V6.1 is now distributed as a separate saveset on the OpenVMS VAX V6.1 distribution media. The ability to run DECamds functionality is part of your VAXcluster license. This software provides system resource availability monitoring, investigation aid, and a correction capability. System managers can proactively and effectively manage multiple systems from a centralized, mouse driven DECwindows display. Monitoring Performance History (MPH) software is also distributed now as a separate saveset on the OpenVMS VAX V6.1 distribution media. MPH collects error logs, crash dump information, and some configuration data from the system on which it is installed. This data is transmitted to Digital and used to create reliability reports: mean time between crashes and mean time between system interruptions. The reports are used to set and monitor reliability requirements for future releases of OpenVMS software. o Functional Equivalence -- With the release of V6.1 for both the OpenVMS AXP and OpenVMS VAX operating systems, the two have reached functional equivalence. In recognition of this achievement, the numbering scheme for the OpenVMS AXP operating system has been changed to match that for the OpenVMS VAX operating system. The two versions can be supported together and/or independently in VMScluster configurations, which can include both VAX and Alpha AXP systems. For more product information, please consult OpenVMS VAX Software Product Description 25.01.XX. For more information on OpenVMS AXP and VAX functional equivalence, see the "Functional Equivalence of OpenVMS VAX and AXP with V6.1" article in the February 14, 1994, issue of Digital's Customer Update. For information on VAXcluster software and mixed architecture cluster support, see the cluster software article in this issue. LAYERED PRODUCT AVAILABILITY Layered product information is constantly evolving and subject to change. Digital now regularly compiles a list of the available OpenVMS VAX layered products. This list will be updated monthly, and the first edition is available now. For convenience, the information from a preliminary version of the list has been included in the OpenVMS VAX V6.1 Release Notes Addendum. For the most current OpenVMS VAX layered products information, please contact your local Digital sales office. AVAILABILITY, INSTALLATION, AND ORDERING OpenVMS VAX V6.1 will be available this month both to users under a service update contract and to new users. It will be available on three types of media: CDROM, TK50, or MagTape. There will also be three documentation offerings (cardboard slash boxes will be provided to store all the manuals in the hardcopy documentation sets): o The Base Documentation Set will include the release notes kit and a desktop set of manuals known as the Base Kit, which addresses the needs of users and system managers of standalone systems. The Base Kit contains such documentation as the OpenVMS User's Manual, the OpenVMS DCL Dictionary, and the OpenVMS System Manager's Manual. o The Standard Documentation Set will include the Base Documentation Set plus the Master Reference Kit, the Advanced System Management Kit, the Networking Kit, and the Programming Kit. o The Standard + Optional Documentation Set will include the Standard Documentation Set plus all optional manuals. The OpenVMS VAX V6.1 release contains all the previous functionality of the OpenVMS VAX V6.0 and OpenVMS VAX V5.5-2H4 releases, plus a number of quality enhancements to improve availability and reliability. You can perform an installation of OpenVMS VAX V6.1 or upgrade to OpenVMS VAX V6.1 from any system currently running OpenVMS VAX V5.5-2, V5.5-2H4, or V6.0. With OpenVMS VAX V6.1, cross-architectural booting of Alpha AXP satellites is now possible. For additional information on mixed-version and mixed- architecture VMScluster systems, please refer to the accompanying article in this issue. Order No. Description OpenVMS VAX Media and Documentation: QA-XUL*A-H8 Binary and online documentation, CDROM QA-001*A-H8/H5 Media and Standard + Optional Documentation Set, CDROM/TK50 QA-005*A-H8/H5 Media and Standard Documentation Set, CDROM/TK50 QA-09S*A-H8/H5 Media and Base Documentation Set, CDROM/TK50 QA-001*G-HM Media and Standard + Optional Documentation Set, MagTape QA-005*A-HM Media and Standard Documentation Set, MagTape QA-09S*G-HM Media and Base Documentation Set, MagTape QA-001*A-GZ Standard + Optional Documentation Set only QA-005*A-GZ Standard Documentation Set only QA-09S*A-GZ Base Documentation Set only QA-VYR8A-G8 OpenVMS VAX Online Documentation Library, CDROM