https://wiki.parsec.com/ 2026-04-10T01:39:44+00:00 https://wiki.parsec.com/ https://wiki.parsec.com/lib/tpl/dokuwiki/images/favicon.ico text/html 2023-08-03T17:54:32+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/accessing_and_configuring_alpha_raid_hardware?rev=1691085272&do=diff The Compaq Smart Array Controller Compaq was where the “famous” DL series servers (now owned by HP) got their start. They used to come with bright white Compaq faces rather than grey HP facades. One of the main reasons that HP bought Compaq was to gain control over their server line and capture the Alpha processor and related tech. text/html 2026-02-19T19:01:54+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/aix?rev=1771527714&do=diff AIX (Unix) Resources Versions of AIX We Support PARSEC provides professional services and operating system support services and AIX training. We support all AIX versions from 4.3 forward. We do not support VIOS also known as PowerVM. PARSEC Tech Support * README.FIRST -- Hints on Cut-&-Pasting Text From This Wiki * How To Initiate a PARSEC Tech Support Call * IBM VIOS versus AIX WPARs * How to get AIX to be useful in maintenance mode Creating a Snap Archive Most AIX systems com… text/html 2018-09-19T17:43:17+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/alphaserver_systems?rev=1537378997&do=diff The Alpha The Digital Alpha was a novel microprocessor architecture that started and ended it's life as a 64-bit clean CPU. It was designed to take the baton from the 32bit systems like the VAX that DEC had been using for fifteen years or so before. The Alpha ran from 1992 until 2004. The generation designation is text/html 2018-11-21T21:54:25+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/anatomy_of_your_login-dot-com_script?rev=1542837265&do=diff Anatomy of Your LOGIN.COM Script Your LOGIN.COM command file (or script) may be one of the most important files you'll ever use and maintain on a VMS system. It is stored in your own “home directory” (logical name SYS$LOGIN), and your version or instance of text/html 2019-02-15T16:30:33+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/bare_metal_linux_backups_with_rdx?rev=1550248233&do=diff Introduction RDX is a disk technology that puts small 2.5“ disk drives into hardened cases. It's meant to operate in place of tape. However, it has several advantages over tape. Linux supports RDX both in their USB and SATA variants. RDX drives simply show up as SATA disk drives or USB mass storage disk drives. text/html 2021-04-22T20:43:07+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/basic_health_check_and_monitoring_heterogeneous_unix_systems?rev=1619124187&do=diff Introduction Just about all monitoring systems allow you to build your own custom monitoring probes. Since most operating systems have only basic monitoring of system resources, finer granularity is usually something you have to build yourself. Additionally, having monitoring doesn't automatically setup your escalation paths or decide on monitoring thresholds. Custom scripting can be a challenge, but if you know where to look, you can create monitoring that is tailor made to not only your te… text/html 2019-02-07T16:27:03+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/basic_types_of_file_access?rev=1549556823&do=diff This is the list of the basic types of file access allowed in OpenVMS security * Read - the ability to use and view the contents of the file * Write - the ability to change the contents of the file * Execute - the ability to use the contents of the file (run a program) text/html 2018-12-03T20:04:19+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/catalog_of_dcl_lexical_functions?rev=1543867459&do=diff Catalog of DCL Lexical Functions The DCL HELP facility entries for Lexicals (all the F$* Lexical Functions) is organized alphabetically, not by function or category. Here's another way of listing these Lexicals, this time by category (roughly, by function). text/html 2019-11-12T16:02:51+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/command_file_parameters?rev=1573574571&do=diff DCL Command File Parameters DCL command file processing provides for as many as eight (8) com-line parameters in all versions of OpenVMS (V8.4 and above actually have 16 now), which are used/known as local variables named P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6, P7 and text/html 2020-05-14T22:17:39+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/considerations_for_those_choosing_an_alpha_emulation_suite?rev=1589494659&do=diff So, You Need Emulation Below is a series of questions to help you answer which emulation vendor's product you'd be the most happy with. General Questions * Does your emulation have to be freeware? * Would you be willing to pay 2-4 times the cash to get emulation (for convenience say, or to shed hardware maint costs) when you can buy generally Alpha hardware cheaper? text/html 2020-10-14T14:54:43+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/consulting_checklist?rev=1602687283&do=diff Introduction The PARSEC Group does a lot of consulting work for customers who'd simply like us to dig in and get our hands dirty instead of trying to support the customer doing the work directly. This is convenient for them and often easier for us, too. However, there are some pitfalls and common mistakes when starting a consulting engagement that are easy to avoid. This document covers the right way to setup a technical consulting engagement. text/html 2018-10-23T19:39:01+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/dcl_error_messages?rev=1540323541&do=diff HELP /MESSAGE In PARSEC VMS classes, we also say that “Error messages are your friends.” But sometimes just the error message text itself doesn't tell you quite enough to fix a command problem. A little known and infrequently used variant of the HELP command allows you to review help-text specifically for the current or last-occurring DCL error message displayed on your screen text/html 2018-12-03T20:02:01+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/dcl_lexical_functions?rev=1543867321&do=diff DCL Lexical Functions DCL Lexical Functions are a group of built-in functions, part of DCL itself, which return information (data) about DCL values, your (interactive or batch) process, and/or the VMS system environment itself. There are 45 Lexical Functions (as of VMS v8.4 and prior), and each is conventionally named with the characters text/html 2018-12-03T19:28:42+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/dcl_symbols?rev=1543865322&do=diff DCL Symbols The term “symbol” is nothing more than an old-fashioned name for “variable” -- a DCL symbol is simply a DCL variable, just as Linux/Unix shells like bash have shell variables. The term “DCL symbol” likely just comes from terminology used by the DCL software developers in the 1970s, probably related to their use of the terms text/html 2018-12-03T15:48:01+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/decnet_setup_for_tru64_and_digital_unix?rev=1543852081&do=diff You want to setup DECnet Phase V on Tru64. Setup Scripts You should be aware there are two setup tools you can use to make this whole process easier. First, you can do a commandline setup by running decnetsetup. For an X11 interface (CDE style) you can run text/html 2019-02-07T20:18:17+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/decnet-plus_-_what_does_csmacd_mean?rev=1549570697&do=diff Introduction What is CSMACD? If you've been working with DECnet-Plus (aka DECnet Phase V or DECnet/OSI on older versions of OpenVMS), you've seen the letters CSMACD in a number of places. Such as: NCL> show csma-cd port * Node 0 CSMA-CD Port CSMACD$EWA_0001 at 2019-02-07-12:26:28.074-07:00Iinf Identifiers Name = CSMACD$EWA_0001 text/html 2018-11-16T22:13:55+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/digital_vax_systems?rev=1542406435&do=diff DEC VAX The DEC VAX CPU is a legendary CISC CPU prized and praised by many low level assembly language coders. The CPU was used in many systems from the 1970's up until the 1990's. The acronym VAX came from the phrase “virtual address extension” text/html 2022-03-01T21:14:32+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/directory_performance?rev=1646169272&do=diff large.com in my directory working w/temp.dir subdirectory creates/deletes/etc 10000 files * starting w/empty directory * should have no large directory work * dir has 435/483 blocks; started w/1 * some directory expansion CLASS2> @large File action: create File name suffix: Status on 8-SEP-2010 08:24:46.33 Elapsed CPU : 0 00:00:00.32 Buff. I/O : 958 Cur. ws. : 34480 Open files : 1 Dir. I/O : 407 Phys. Mem. : 3168 Page Faults : 1506 … text/html 2025-11-13T23:44:26+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/docker_and_kubernetes_critiqued_in_light_of_the_unix_way?rev=1763077466&do=diff Docker & Kubernetes vs. "The Nine Unix Philosophy Principles" (Mike Gancarz) Mike Gancarz’s nine principles define the Unix Way: small, focused, composable, text-driven tools. Docker and Kubernetes claim to be “modern Unix” but both fail the Unix test text/html 2018-09-17T22:41:47+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/ftp_server?rev=1537224107&do=diff Intro Our support folks run a secure FTP (SFTP) server at the following address ftp.parsec.com on port 22 (standard default port) which can be used to send us support files like logs, diagnostic output, or support bundles. You can use the SFTP command line tool in either OpenVMS or on Unix systems. The server is a closed system that requires an account. Please contact your support representative to get your account information. If you need a handy SFTP client for Microsoft Windows try text/html 2018-09-18T20:28:05+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/gathering_vms_performance_data_with_t4_and_friends?rev=1537302485&do=diff Gathering VMS Performance Data with T4 and Friends Here at PARSEC Group, we often instigate or participate in VMS system performance analysis and capacity planning, and the data gathering tool we reach for, or recommend to our customers, is the free text/html 2018-11-21T21:46:19+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/getting_help?rev=1542836779&do=diff VMS and DCL HELP “HELP is your friend.” We say that often to new students here at PARSEC VMS classes. The DCL HELP facility and command have long been recognized as essential, both for the novice user and the experienced VMS guru alike. Bespoken help libraries are available not only to cover the essential DCL commands themselves, but also for specific utility programs such as (VMS) MAIL and PHONE, and for system administration tools such as SYSGEN, SYSMAN, TCPIP, AUTHORIZE and more. For thes… text/html 2018-12-03T19:49:54+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/global_and_local_symbol_assignment?rev=1543866594&do=diff Global and Local Symbol Assignment For the non-programmer, especially, who is nevertheless writing a DCL command procedure (script), the notion of global vs. local symbols (variables) and symbol tables is at first a bit confusing. This article will hopefully make these concepts more clear. text/html 2018-10-23T19:33:49+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/how_can_i_check_when_my_system_last_crashed?rev=1540323229&do=diff How can I check when my system last crashed? Or how do I know that the dump isn’t “stale”? You can check the date/timestamp of the most recent crash dump contained in the system’s dump file. This can be done both with the “active” dump file and with any copy of it. text/html 2018-09-10T21:40:55+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/how_to_capture_a_vms_crash_dump?rev=1536615655&do=diff How to Capture a VMS Crash Dump or: What should be done to preserve the System Dump File after VMS reboots? Sometimes a VMS problem manifests itself as a system crash. A VMS system crash is not an accident or a mistake -- it is an intentional response by the operating system (actual program code written by the VMS Engineering Team) text/html 2023-04-21T19:10:13+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/how_to_clone_hpux_the_hard_way?rev=1682104213&do=diff Cloning HPUX 11.11 PA-RISC This procedure & document was created in October of 2020 by Swift Griggs. Here is a procedure for cloning HPUX 11.11 systems which use LVM root volumes, mirrored with MirrorDisk/UX or standalone. HPUX 11.11 was so stingy that they withheld the mirroring feature in LVM to extort more money from their customers. It’s one of many things that drove folks to freeware operating systems, for example NetBSD or Linux. These methods will work for HPUX on 11.11 PA-RISC systems a… text/html 2025-05-30T03:42:42+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/how_to_clone_tru64_and_digital_unix?rev=1748576562&do=diff Cloning Digital Unix and Tru64 There are various places on The Net you can find how to clone a Tru64 system, but most of them are just discussions and hand waving. The complete process is documented here. Process Overview Here is a quick and dirty view of this overall process. text/html 2018-09-17T21:22:05+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/how_to_initiate_a_parsec_tech_support_call?rev=1537219325&do=diff How To Initiate a PARSEC Tech Support Call and Get the Most out of your Support Services Contract Here at PARSEC Group, our Technical Support Teams -- OpenVMS, Unix and Linux -- receive many new trouble/support calls from customers daily. We -- your Technical Team specialists text/html 2018-09-17T16:41:02+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/how_to_initiate_a_vms_openvms_tech_support_call?rev=1537202462&do=diff (Obsolete -- replaced by how_to_initiate_a_parsec_tech_support_call) text/html 2018-12-04T19:00:42+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/how_to_send_a_vms_crash_dump_to_parsec_for_analysis?rev=1543950042&do=diff How to Send a Crash Dump File to PARSEC for Analysis If your system ever does crash, immediately see to it that the system's SYSDUMP.DMP file has been correctly copied to its secondary/alternate file -- see How To Capture a VMS Crash Dump. Then open a new case (or re-open an old one) with PARSEC text/html 2021-12-04T01:42:55+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/how_to_setup_a_scsi2sd_emulated_cdrom_and_boot_hpux?rev=1638582175&do=diff Using the SCSI2SD to Create a Bootable CDROM in HPUX This document describes how you can boot an HP 9000 server off an emulated CDROM drive using the features of the SCSI2SD card. [The SCSI2SD Rev 6.0] Why Do This? You may need to do this for several reasons: * Your HPUX system won't boot and you need a rescue environment to fix it. text/html 2019-10-23T18:36:33+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/how_to_translate_an_error_message_via_message.com?rev=1571855793&do=diff Information The following document will provide a DCL program to traverse all the message files in SYS$MESSAGE to help translate error code status values to the actual error messages themselves. The reason for doing this is because neither the $ EXIT %x###### nor the $ WRITE SYS$OUTPUT F$MESSAGE(%x######) techniques actually examine all the message files. text/html 2021-12-01T23:07:41+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/hppa_systems?rev=1638400061&do=diff Hewlett Packards PA-RISC The Hewlett Packard Precision Architecture is a CPU family and instruction set architecture (ISA). It was created in the mid 1980's as one of the first RISC implementations that wasn't a hand-waving fairy tale. The CPU survived quite a long time powering HP workstations and servers which ran HP-UX. Check Wikipedias text/html 2022-01-14T16:10:49+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/hpux?rev=1642176649&do=diff Hewlett Packard's HP-UX PARSEC Tech Support How To Initiate a PARSEC Tech Support Call HPUX resources See below for resources related to troubleshooting and administration of HPUX. HPUX Data Collector - Nickle For collecting data from HPUX there is no built in data collector (ala 'snap', or 'sysinfo'). However, there is one called text/html 2018-11-16T22:09:33+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/ibm_power_systems?rev=1542406173&do=diff IBM POWER The IBM POWER CPU architecture has been around since the 1990s. Originally, there were two types of POWER based systems. You had Unix boxes which were called “p-Series” and AS/400 machines called “i-series”. They were not compatible and wouldn't interoperate at the text/html 2025-04-10T19:31:44+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/ibm_vios_versus_aix_wpars?rev=1744313504&do=diff AIX WPARs vs. VIOS: Dispelling Misconceptions So, you just got off a call with an IBM salesperson who’s convinced you that Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) is the only way to virtualize on Power Systems. You’ve been fed a load of nonsense about how VIOS is essential for performance, mobility, and resilience. But here’s the truth: for most AIX users, Workload Partitions (WPARs) are simpler, cheaper, and just as capable. This page will break it down, clear up the misconceptions, and show you why you don… text/html 2018-11-16T21:17:46+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/intel_itanium_based_hp_integrity_systems?rev=1542403066&do=diff The Intel Itanium The Intel Itanium is a CPU architecture invented by Intel and adopted by Hewlett Packard for some of there server platforms. The CPU was also adopted by other server companies but dropped soon after it's 2001 debut. The idea behind the EPIC instruction set architecture (ISA) was that it would be the next logical extension of the ideas pioneered by RISC CPUs. The biggest idea was that CPUs should minimize their instruction set and let compilers determine the best layout in soft… text/html 2018-10-03T20:51:53+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/intro_to_the_dcl_command_line?rev=1538599913&do=diff Intro to DCL DCL is the “Digital Command Language”, and is equivalent in intent to a command-line shell, like bash or zsh, in Linux and Unix -- in short, DCL is the VMS command-line shell. You (the VMS user) can enter DCL commands to perform file management, program development, system administration and other tasks as needed. text/html 2018-11-15T19:53:14+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/irix?rev=1542311594&do=diff IRIX (Unix) Resources As always check our page about How To Initiate a PARSEC Tech Support Call if you need immediate support. This page contains links and information concerning the Silicon Graphics (SGI) operating system known as IRIX. IRIX Resources In no particular order... * SGI Techpubs Mirror * Ian Mapleson's text/html 2019-02-12T23:02:09+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/is_openvms_vulnerable_to_cve-2017-17482_the_dcl_cdu_issue?rev=1550012529&do=diff Introduction If you've searched for OpenVMS vulnerabilities at either the <https://cve.mitre.org/> or <https://nvd.nist.gov/> you may have run across CVE-2017-17482 Details Per the Nist site, this Vulnerability and Exposure states the following An issue was discovered in OpenVMS through V8.4-2L2 on Alpha and through V8.4-2L1 on IA64, and VAX/VMS 4.0 and later. A malformed DCL command table may result in a buffer overflow allowing a local privilege escalation when a non-privileged account en… text/html 2021-12-17T21:43:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/is_openvms_vulnerable_to_cve-2021-44228_the_apache_log4shell_vulnerability?rev=1639777432&do=diff Is OpenVMS Vulnerable to CVE-2021-44228, the Apache Log4shell Vulnerability SUMMARY The only known thing that has been found on OpenVMS to be potentially vulnerable to the CVE-2021-44228 vulnerability found in the Apache Log4j2 V2.14.1 or earlier code stream is the Attunity Connect STUDIO text/html 2025-11-13T23:14:46+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/kubernetes_k8_versus_old_school_unix_is_not_looking_great_for_kubernetes?rev=1763075686&do=diff Skeptical Critique: "What Do You Do Here, Bob?" Skeptical of “hyperscaler” claims around Kubernetes (also called K8)? You're absolutely right to be skeptical. Kubernetes often feels like a massive, distributed Rube Goldberg machine doing things you already solved decades ago with text/html 2018-09-17T22:06:27+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/linux_getting_started_info?rev=1537221987&do=diff Basic Operating System Information -- Linux (any distro) 1. Is the system with the problem you're reporting actually on a current support contract? * If no, contact your PARSEC Account Representative before contacting the PARSEC Technical Support Team. text/html 2021-02-10T00:10:24+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/linux?rev=1612915824&do=diff Linux Resources PARSEC does a lot of work with Linux and has a very knowledgeable and well-certified staff when it comes to Linux. We support any Redhat or Debian based distribution going back as far as 1.3 kernels. We can usually provide the support for less money and better SLAs than Redhat or other consulting companies simply due to the synergy between this line of business and the other Unix variants we support. Also, having a broad knowledge of Unix informs our support for Linux, as well. text/html 2018-11-20T18:37:44+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/literal_quotes_in_dcl_strings?rev=1542739064&do=diff Literal Quotes in DCL Strings What if you want to produce literal double-quote marks to be printed in a string of text? -- like this: This is "double-quoted-text". ...or surround some text with single quotes? -- like this: This is 'singled-quoted-text'. text/html 2018-10-03T21:57:55+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/logical_names?rev=1538603875&do=diff Logical Names The concept of a “logical name” is unique to VMS (OpenVMS) -- no other operating system in common use has anything similar to VMS's logical names. Introduction In its simplest form and meaning, a logical name is nothing more than an alternate or alias name-string for another string-value. As an example, if we display the logical name text/html 2024-10-29T19:15:51+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/more_specifics_on_os_names_and_hardware_we_support?rev=1730229351&do=diff Supported Operating Systems There are a lot of legacy operating systems and hardware. We support a lot of things, but not everything. Sometimes it's confusing to tell. PARSEC doesn't support hardware directly. We work with other hardware partners who have things like parts depots and field engineers to support the operating system running on that older hardware. Below is a table breaking down what operating systems we do support and the usual sort of hardware it runs on. text/html 2020-06-03T16:55:09+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/moving_from_rhel_to_centos_or_oracle_linux?rev=1591203309&do=diff Disclaimer This article should be considered an opinionated editorial rather than any type of unbiased review. As a potential Red Hat refugee, it'll give you a lot of useful info. However, It's not supposed to be an impartial product review of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The author's opinions are merely his own views. There is little love lost for Red Hat here. Let me say that we love Linux but necessarily Red Hat due to bad experiences with their business practices, technical decisions, and prod… text/html 2018-09-10T17:44:18+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/my_system_just_crashed_--_now_what?rev=1536601458&do=diff My VMS system is crashing right now! What, exactly, should I do? If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too;… text/html 2021-02-10T23:10:04+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/ocfs2_and_drbd?rev=1612998604&do=diff Intro The following is a lab scenario with two Linux systems running OCFS2 using DRBD backing stores. I did this on CentOS7, Devuan Beowolf, and Oracle Enterprise Linux 7. The machines were actually VMware guest systems. I used a single IP subnet and IP for the whole thing. I choose to use text/html 2025-10-09T16:06:16+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/openssl_command_line_troubleshooting?rev=1760025976&do=diff OpenSSL Command-Line Cheat Sheet Author: Swift Griggs Date: October 9, 2025 This cheat sheet provides OpenSSL commands for inspecting, verifying, and managing SSL/TLS certificates and CA stores, with a focus on troubleshooting certificate verification issues (e.g., `unable to get local issuer certificate`) and configuring custom CA certificates on Oracle Linux (OEL) systems. text/html 2023-12-28T21:21:01+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/openvms_freeware_archive?rev=1703798461&do=diff We have mirrored the OpenVMS Freeware collections for version 7 and version 8. Those are available online. Note that the VAX, Alpha, and Itanium binary images are present (where available) for all archives. * OpenVMS Freeware version 8 Mirrored from online source * OpenVMS Freeware collection version 7 Copied from CDROM text/html 2023-02-23T00:58:45+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/openvms_technical_journals_online?rev=1677113925&do=diff Digital Technical Journal Starting in August 1983, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) began publishing a series of technical journals in the areas of their various technology strengths -- the Digital Technical Journal (DTJ) library was one of the best of these series. text/html 2023-02-23T20:27:26+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/openvms?rev=1677184046&do=diff OpenVMS Resources PARSEC Tech Support README.FIRST -- Hints on Cut-&-Pasting Text From This Wiki How To Initiate a PARSEC Tech Support Call OpenVMS Freeware Archive Using a SAN with OpenVMS VMS System Crashes My System Just Crashed -- Now What How To Capture a VMS Crash Dump How To Send a VMS Crash Dump to PARSEC for Analysis How Can I Check When My System Last Crashed VMS System Performance Gathering VMS Performance Data with T4 and Friends Digital Technical Journals online Dire… text/html 2021-10-12T17:58:43+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/parsec_autogen.com_and_a_sample_execution?rev=1634061523&do=diff Information The following document is a more user friendly method of using AUTOGEN.COM. It will show you the original display that AUTOGEN generates, but also provide a table of information containing the parameters that are being recommended for change, the old value of the parameter, the new proposed value of the parameter, the difference between those values, and the default value of the procedure. text/html 2023-10-17T14:33:45+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/parsec_created_freeware_for_your_tru64_5.1_system?rev=1697553225&do=diff Disclaimer PARSEC did the compiling and packaging of this software. We didn't write the software itself. So, please report bugs or issues to the actual authors unless you think it could be a packaging or compiling issue. Also, we make no claim about fitness for a particular purpose of these packages and provide zero warranty. Each package will contain the license for the software (ie.. text/html 2020-06-03T14:40:38+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/parsec_data_recovery_services?rev=1591195238&do=diff PARSEC Data Recovery Services ---------- PARSEC maintains a lab with classic Unix and OpenVMS systems. We have many hardware platforms in our lab. PARSEC Lab Hardware * Multiple VAX and MicroVAX * Many Alpha servers and workstations * Many Itanium servers text/html 2019-07-11T04:58:07+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/parsec_patches?rev=1562821087&do=diff Introduction Primary operating system vendors are in business to make money. That doesn't always put customer concerns like system longevity in focus. Vendors often want to deprecate their operating system before their customer base is ready to upgrade. They are incentivized to do this in order to create an upgrade and thus revenue cycle that their investors can predict. text/html 2018-09-11T17:12:51+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/readme.first_--_hints_on_cut-_-pasting_text_from_this_wiki?rev=1536685971&do=diff Hints on Cut-&-Pasting Text From This Wiki Experience has shown us that cutting and pasting (cut-&-paste) text from these Wiki pages might have variable, undesirable results in your VMS terminal emulation window (PuTTY, Reflection, TeraTerm, etc.). text/html 2020-08-18T15:17:34+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/reasons_not_to_abandon_your_classic_unix_or_openvms_server?rev=1597763854&do=diff Introduction Technology has certainly come a long way. On that we can all agree. Many changes in the IT landscape are helpful and involve better performance, flexibility, or new features. However, as most experienced IT folks have learned, not every feature is useful and sometimes the upgrade is a not good idea. text/html 2021-02-09T03:48:24+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/recommended_terminal_and_file_transfer_software?rev=1612842504&do=diff Terminal Emulation ProgramFeaturesRuns OnNotesPuttySerial Telnet SSHWindows LinuxWidely used free terminal program.KittySerial Telnet SSHWindowsImproved version of Putty with more featuresTeraTermSerial Telnet SSH RloginWindowsOldie but goldie. Works well on older systems too. text/html 2019-03-22T22:26:18+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/san_migrations?rev=1553293578&do=diff SAN Migrations At The PARSEC Group we are called upon often to perform SAN migrations. This consulting gig generally entails using operating system tools and occasionally some custom scripts to migrate from one storage device to another. What is a SAN Migration text/html 2019-07-25T04:05:54+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/sda_-_how_do_i_display_a_table_of_quadword_addresses_and_have_sda_translate_them_as_symbols?rev=1564027554&do=diff Question: How do I display a table of quadword addresses and have SDA translate them as symbols? Answer: The examine command in SDA displays data and tries to translate the contents into ASCII. While the show stack command displays the data and searches the symbol table to display the symbol that translates to that address or the nearest previous symbol (within 1000 (hex) bytes) with an offset from that symbol to the address that it is trying to translate. Use the /long qualifier to display a… text/html 2019-02-12T19:54:39+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/sda_-_how_do_i_find_who_is_trying_to_allocate_or_deallocate_nonpaged_pool?rev=1550001279&do=diff Introduction You notice that NONPAGED POOL expansion has been occurring on the system. How would you determine who has done the most recent allocations? Details First you will need to have one of these two SYSGEN parameters enabled. SYSTEM_CHECK or POOLCHECK. text/html 2019-02-12T17:13:49+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/sda_-_how_to_read_in_additional_sys_loadable_images_not_found_in_standard_locations?rev=1549991629&do=diff Introduction How do you tell SDA to read in additional system loadable images that are not in the SYS$LOADABLE_IMAGES or SYS$LIBRARY directories with the SDA> READ/EXEC command? Technique Modify the SDA$READ_DIR logical search list to include the directory containing the additional loadable images. text/html 2019-02-12T19:55:09+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/sda_-_what_are_the_invalid_page_table_entry_formats_in_openvms?rev=1550001309&do=diff Introduction What are the unique invalid page table formats within OpenVMS? Details There are 5 unique invalid page table formats. The invalid page table entry can be for: * A demand zero page - This type of entry would be built for uninitialized data, which is at least one page in size. text/html 2025-11-24T15:29:59+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/solaris?rev=1763998199&do=diff Oracle Solaris Resources The following is a linkfarm of useful or applicable links for SunOS 4.x - 11.x (Oracle Solaris). * Two-factor authentication (2FA/MFA) for Solaris * Troubleshooting_Solaris8_boot_hangs Finding Info on Your Hardware Run your platform's 'prtdiag' with the '-v' option and you'll get all that info (full hardware info). It's under /usr/platform and then the type of platform, this bit of shell-script should get you there: text/html 2025-11-13T23:23:27+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/start?rev=1763076207&do=diff The PARSEC Group Technical wiki Welcome to The PARSEC Group's technical information wiki, intended to provide technical information and documentation for the OpenVMS, Linux and Unix systems we support. ---------- Operational Procedures and Lists text/html 2018-11-20T22:52:56+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/symbol_substitution?rev=1542754376&do=diff Symbol Substitution As explained here, the term “symbol” is nothing more than an old-fashioned name for “variable” -- a DCL symbol is simply a DCL variable, just as Linux/Unix shells like bash have shell variables. One of the most important things that you can do with script variables (DCL symbols) is to text/html 2019-02-14T17:21:07+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/system_management_-_what_does_a_process_in_a_rwbrk_state_generally_mean?rev=1550164867&do=diff Information What does the process state RWBRK mean? RWBRK = Resource Wait BReaKthrough It is a resource state that is not currently used but is documented and means waiting for a breakthrough broadcast message to finish. text/html 2019-02-14T17:06:41+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/system_management_-_what_does_a_process_in_a_rwcap_state_generally_mean?rev=1550164001&do=diff Information What does the process state RWCAP mean? RWCAP = Resource Wait cpu CAPability A process that is computable and further requires one or more CPU capabilities that can not be satisfied by a single CPU will be placed into this state. If you have processes stuck in this state, please contact 1-866-3-PARSEC or support@parsec.com to log a case for further assistance. text/html 2019-02-14T16:43:52+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/system_management_-_what_does_a_process_in_a_rwclu_state_generally_mean?rev=1550162632&do=diff Introduction What does RWCLU mean? Details This is a Resource Wait CLUster transition. A process may go into this state during a cluster state transition. Issuing a $ SHOW CLUSTER will show you which node is in forcing the transition of the cluster. text/html 2019-02-14T17:23:44+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/system_management_-_what_does_a_process_in_a_rwcsv_state_generally_mean?rev=1550165024&do=diff Introduction What does the process state RWCSV mean? RWCSV = Resource Wait Cluster SerVer Process A process is placed in the transient RWCSV state when it requests a service that requires a transfer of information between the cluster server processes on two different nodes and the limit to the number of outstanding requests has been reached. The process resumes normal activity once existing requests are completed. text/html 2019-02-14T17:25:12+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/system_management_-_what_does_a_process_in_a_rwimg_state_generally_mean?rev=1550165112&do=diff Information What does the process state RWIMG mean? RWIMG = Resource Wait IMaGe activation lock This resource wait is not currently used, but is documented in the help facility. text/html 2019-02-14T17:00:43+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/system_management_-_what_does_a_process_in_a_rwmbx_state_generally_mean?rev=1550163643&do=diff Information When a process is in a RWMBX state, what does it generally mean? RWMBX = Resource Wait MailBoX full This is the state a process may be placed in when it tries to write to a mailbox that is full. If you see this state often on your system, contact 1-866-3-PARSEC or support@parsec.com to log a case for techniques on how to address this problem. text/html 2019-02-14T16:41:28+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/system_management_-_what_does_a_process_in_a_rwmpb_state_generally_mean?rev=1550162488&do=diff Information If you see a process in RWMPB state, what does this generally mean? RWMPB is Resource Wait Modify Page writer Busy. RWMPB is a state, processes may be placed in, while waiting for the modified page writer to write the Modified Page List (MPL) to the pagefile. When the number of pages on the modified pagelist exceeds the SYSGEN parameter value for MPW_WAITLIMIT, any process adding pages to the MPL will enter this state, which generally means: text/html 2019-02-14T17:10:10+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/system_management_-_what_does_a_process_in_a_rwmpe_state_generally_mean?rev=1550164210&do=diff Information What does the process state RWMPE mean? RWMPE = Resource Wait Modified Page Empty When in this state, a process is waiting for the modified page writer to flush the modified page list. If processes are staying in this state for a long period of time, then contact 1-866-3-PARSEC or support@parsec.com to log a case for analysis of the issue. text/html 2019-02-14T17:14:48+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/system_management_-_what_does_a_process_in_a_rwnpg_state_generally_mean?rev=1550164488&do=diff Information What does the process state RWNPG mean? RWNPG = Resource Wait NonPaGed dynamic memory A process will go into this state when it is unsuccessful in allocating non-paged dynamic memory. This is typically a catastrophic problem and very likely will lead to either a CPUSPINWAIT or CLUEXIT bugcheck. If you see this state, you need to free up memory as soon as possible. text/html 2019-02-14T17:17:39+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/system_management_-_what_does_a_process_in_a_rwpff_state_generally_mean?rev=1550164659&do=diff Information What does the process state RWPFF mean? RWPFF = Resource Wait Page File Full A process may be placed in this state when it faults a modified page with page file backing store out of its working set and the associated page file has not yet been modified. This resource wait is not used on VAX. text/html 2019-02-14T17:26:32+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/system_management_-_what_does_a_process_in_a_rwquo_state_generally_mean?rev=1550165192&do=diff Information What does the process state RWQUO mean? RWQUO = Resource Wait job pooled QUOta This wait state is currently not used, but is documented in the help facility. text/html 2019-02-14T16:11:33+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/system_management_-_what_does_a_process_in_a_rwscs_state_generally_mean?rev=1550160693&do=diff Introduction What typically is the direct cause of a process entering the RWSCS state? Details The Distributed Lock Manager coordinates lock activity with other nodes of the cluster. Processes in a cluster which make heavy use of either locks, or the file system, may often be seen in this state for a brief time. text/html 2019-02-14T17:19:32+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/system_management_-_what_does_a_process_in_a_rwswp_state_generally_mean?rev=1550164772&do=diff Information What does the process state RWSWP mean? RWSWP = Resource Wait SWaP file space This wait state is not currently used, but documented in the VAX internals book and OpenVMS documenation. It means the swap file is full. text/html 2019-02-11T19:56:38+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/tcpip_nfs_-_how_large_of_a_file_can_my_nfs_server_or_client_handle?rev=1549914998&do=diff Introduction How large of a file can my OpenVMS NFS server and/or client handle? Details The answer depends on which IP stack you are running on your OpenVMS machine and which version of Network File System (NFS) is installed. 2 gigabytes was a major power of 2 boundary for almost all of the IP stacks. NFS v2 had that limitation because it only used 32 bits. Since one of the bits was signed, that means 2^31 power or 2,147,483,648 bytes. NFS v3 allowed files to exceed 2 text/html 2019-02-07T20:33:48+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/tcpip_services_for_openvms_-_how_to_display_the_fingerprint_of_an_ssh_key?rev=1549571628&do=diff Question: Once TCPIP$DEFINE_COMMANDS has been executed, which command will display the fingerprint for an SSH key? Answer: SSH uses keys to encrypt communication between systems. Each key may be identified by its fingerprint. When the key is generated, that fingerprint is displayed. When a client application makes a request for the public key from a remote server, it may display that fingerprint so the user can verify they are connecting to the correct host. If the fingerprint is unknown, then … text/html 2019-01-02T04:05:12+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/the_cuckoos_egg?rev=1546401912&do=diff Book Review: The Cuckoo's Egg The Cuckoo's Egg -- Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage, by Clifford Stoll (Doubleday, 1989, hardcopy ISBN 0-385-24946-2; 2015 paperback ISBN 0-7434-1146-3 -- inexpensive used copies available at Amazon.com). text/html 2019-02-13T23:29:40+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/tracking_batch_jobs?rev=1550100580&do=diff Tracking Batch Jobs In any busy IT/IS shop, there are usually “a lot” of batch jobs queued for various scheduled and event-driven times. It can be a challenge to track them all, to check on them to see if: * Each job has run when it's supposed to text/html 2025-11-24T15:39:41+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/troubleshooting_solaris8_boot_hangs?rev=1763998781&do=diff Troubleshooting a Hanging Init Script in Solaris 8 Solaris 8 boot scripts (/etc/rc?.d/*) can hang indefinitely with almost no feedback. Below are the methods that actually work on real Solaris 8 systems. 1. Boot to Single-User Mode from OpenBoot (most reliable) text/html 2023-10-12T15:52:18+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/tru64?rev=1697125938&do=diff Tru64 Unix Resources PARSEC Tech Support * README.FIRST -- Hints on Cut-&-Pasting Text From This Wiki * How To Initiate a PARSEC Tech Support Call Alpha Hardware * Accessing and Configuring Alpha RAID Hardware Tru64 Unix Tru64 is a Unix variant produced originally by Digital Equipment Corporation for use on the Alpha platform, which they also invented. It has several names. Version 1.0 through 3.0 used the moniker text/html 2024-06-06T16:32:46+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/two_factor_for_solaris?rev=1717691566&do=diff Getting Ready for Multi-Factor Authentication In any case, probably before or concurrent with any 2FA effort, an account cleanup on Solaris should take place because that is also an audit-failure waiting to happen. So, independently or concurrently with 2FA, the following cleanup tasks may need doing: text/html 2018-09-17T21:55:36+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/unix_getting_started_info?rev=1537221336&do=diff Useful Technical Information for Unix Calls The first and most useful bit of information is the type of Unix you are running. This is known as your *variant* of Unix. Likely options or candidates include IBM AIX, Oracle Solaris, HPUX, Digital Unix (also known as text/html 2020-03-13T00:47:28+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/useful_linux_802.11_commands_for_statistics_and_monitoring_purposes?rev=1584060448&do=diff Commands Useful for Access Points For the purposes of clarity, these are examples, not prototypes. Get basic info, channel, mode, etc.. # iw wlan0 info Interface wlan0 ifindex 3 wdev 0x1 addr b8:27:eb:9f:d3:52 ssid pg-guest type AP wiphy 0 channel 11 (2462 MHz), width: 20 MHz, center1: 2462 MHz txpower 31.00 dBm text/html 2021-07-09T16:40:40+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/using_a_san_with_openvms?rev=1625848840&do=diff OpenVMS does, in fact, support SAN technology and has for a very long time. Digital, Compaq, and HP all made their own storage and sold it for interop with VMS. This was the case from the very beginning, but SAN technology didn't hit the scene really until the 1990's. text/html 2025-10-06T15:13:50+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/using_modern_secure_shell_ssh_to_connect_to_older_secure_shell_servers?rev=1759763630&do=diff Sometimes you need to connect to older systems but modern Secure Shell will prevent you because of various changes to it's ciphers, HMACs, and key types. In general you should refer to this page that the OpenSSH guys keep maintained to see what options to use. text/html 2019-11-26T19:27:41+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/using_openssh_keys_with_openvms_secure_shell_servers?rev=1574796461&do=diff What Happens Sometimes when using (newer) OpenSSH 7.x or higher clients you may have multiple issues trying to connect and use public key authentication (PKI) with an OpenVMS server. The error messages will often complain about “no matching key exchange method found. text/html 2021-03-30T20:03:39+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/vendor_support_matrix?rev=1617134619&do=diff Support Links The following information comes from external support links and vendors. They can, of course, change their policies and lifecycle matrix for any OS at any time. So, it's always possible our links are out of date, but we try to keep them as current as possible. text/html 2019-01-25T21:20:49+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/version_locking_legacy_environments?rev=1548451249&do=diff Introduction to Version Locking Version locking is the practice of using defense-in-depth security strategy on a fixed-version of business-critical software in order to run the same version for an indefinite period of time. The software continues to run in a protected environment performing a narrowly defined task. text/html 2018-09-17T17:03:11+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/vms_getting_started_info?rev=1537203791&do=diff Basic Operating System Information -- VMS (OpenVMS) 1. Is the system with the problem you're reporting actually on a current support contract? * If no, contact your PARSEC Account Representative before contacting the PARSEC Technical Support Team. text/html 2019-07-25T03:51:58+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/what_is_a_uforthnight?rev=1564026718&do=diff What is a uFortnight? A Fortnight is an old English term for 14 days. A uFortnight is therefore a micro (1/1000000) of 14 days. 14 days * 24 hours per day * 60 minutes per hour * 60 seconds per minute = 1,209,600 seconds 1,209,600 / 1000000 = 1.2096 seconds. text/html 2020-03-04T19:04:24+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/when_to_migrate_a_classic_unix_system_and_where_to_migrate_to?rev=1583348664&do=diff Introduction It's a fact of IT that specific technical problems are created by aging systems. In many cases, the advantages of keeping the system outweigh those problems. However, if one could migrate away from the problems while keeping the advantages, then you are looking with the ever golden, text/html 2019-07-25T03:39:56+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/why_did_time_change_in_the_wrong_month?rev=1564025996&do=diff Why did the system time change in the wrong month? There are a variety of reasons that may explain this situation and before we discuss the other possibilities, we're going to explore a change that the US Congress made to the rules. In the Energy Policy Act of 2005 text/html 2019-02-14T23:28:09+00:00 Anonymous (anonymous@undisclosed.example.com) https://wiki.parsec.com/why_is_openvms_base_time_set_to_17-nov-1858?rev=1550186889&do=diff Introduction Why OpenVMS regards November 17, 1858 as the beginning of time... Details The modified Julian date, adopted by SAO (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) for satellite tracking, is Julian Day 2400000, which turns out to be November 17, 1858.