Re: PC's Locking up when in BPCS -- BPCS-L

Kevin, and other interested parties,

The OPS Runtime Service Pack is a collection of client-side runtime (OPS) fixes.
It originally began as BMR 43360 "PC's lock-up without error."  Several clients
were complaining of such problems, and SSA R&D started working very closely with
a number of clients to find the cause and resolve it. Unfortunately, the problem
is very environmental and could not be duplicated in-house. Some early
indicators pointed to obscure things like certain models of network cards. Some
early experimental fixes for the lockup problem were released with names like
"testpatch43360". Eventually, since there were other BMRs that were also being
fixed by changes to the runtimes, and there were no dependencies between the
runtimes and the rest of the code, these fixes were all repackaged as the OPS
Runtime Service Pack. Each time a new version of the Service Pack was released,
it was found to solve more - but not all - of the reported lockup problems.

The questionnaire that is referenced in the email from SSA Frimley is a
questionnaire that was developed to get more info from clients on their
operating environments - with the intention of using that information to try to
find additional patterns or environmental patterns. However, logging facilities
built into the Service Pack (referred to in the Frimley email as "trace option")
have been much more useful in troublshooting ongoing lockup problems. Most
clients who continue to have problems with lockups are asked to enable the
tracing facilities, and then send the resulting log files to SSA for analysis.

The file "CUI BMRs.doc" is not an official document from SSA that I am aware of.
It was likely a document that the Frimley HelpLine Consultant used to summarize
some of the same information I am putting here, or maybe details of the BMRs
that were included in the Service Pack. It may have been specific to that
client's questions at the time. The Service Pack itself actually installs a
small readme that contains a list of BMRs and other issues fixed by the Service
Pack. The existence of this readme is not widely known. It gets installed at
\bpcscs\readme.txt.

The latest version of the Service Pack available on the FTP site, as of 17 Feb
00, is actually OPS_Runtime_Service_Pack_6.0.044_8.exe. It resolves _many_ of
the types of lockup problems that were reported, but not necessarily all. New
versions will likely continue to be released. The latest version for 6.0.04 and
6.1, which share the same runtimes, is always kept at the location that had been
listed - /ftp/as400/as400/opssp6461/. There is also a version for 6.0.02 kept at
/ftp/as400/as400/opssp602/. (These are available to Unix clients at
/ftp/unix/fixes/pc/opssp602 and /ftp/unix/fixes/pc/opssp6461.) The latest
version of the Service Pack for 6.0.02, as of 17 Feb 00, is
OPS_Runtime_Service_Pack_6.0.02_38.5.exe. Old versions of the Service Pack are
deleted from the FTP site as new ones are put there. There are also always two
more files in the directory with the Service Pack, files with the same name but
ending in extensions .rpt and .txt. The RPT files are packing lists, similar to
the ones that are shipped with client side BMRs, listing all files affected by
the Service Pack. The TXT files contain a few brief reminders about installation
of the Service Pack.

The numbering of the Service Packs matches the numbering of the runtime versions
on the PC. There is a file that can be checked on the PC to determine which
version of the runtimes are installed - this can help in determining if a
particular Service Pack has been installed. The file is located at
\bpcscs\bpcsoo\system and is called version.cfg. It can be opened in a standard
text editor like Windows Notepad. It will contain only one line, in the format
{[version]"6.0.0.44_8"}. As different versions of the OPS Runtime Service Pack
are installed, this file is updated.

Please note: the PC runtimes are completely independent of the Host runtimes -
one can be changed without changing the other.

A note about PC lockup problems: Most of the lockup problems that have been
reported to SSA involve situations where not just BPCS, but the entire PC locks
up. CTRL-ALT-DEL and ALT-TAB do nothing, although the mouse pointer may continue
to move. The PC must be rebooted from the power switch. If you experience lockup
problems that do not match this description, they may not be the types of
lockups that the OPS Runtime Service Pack is designed to fix. In that case, you
should definitely report the problem to the SSA HelpLine. No clients have
reported these types of lockups on WinNT, only 95 and 98. The Service Pack can
also be used on NT though, for other runtime issues.

Regards,
Mike Sassmann
Senior Technical Consultant
SSA International HelpLine PC Technical Team

-------------
original thread
-------------
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 14:34:40 -0500
From: Kevin_Catlin@GM.cytec.com
Subject: Re[2]: PC's Locking up when in BPCS

     Your attachment (CUI BMRs.doc) didn't make it through.  What is an OPS
     Runtime Service Pack and why do I care?  I'd really like to see the
     "notes with details of the problems solved by the Service Pack".
     Please include them directly in your reply if possible.

     Regards

     Kevin Catlin
     CYTEC Industries
     kevin_catlin@gm.cytec.com


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: PC's Locking up when in BPCS
Author:  BPCS-L@midrange.com at Internet
Date:    02/17/2000 2:39 PM


original question...


We have experienced the same issues.  We are currently trying an
experimental PC running Windows NT because soemone suggested this would
help minimize if not "cure" the lockups.  We are only running CEA live and
Accounts Payable and Purchasing seem to have the highest occurences.

reply from ssa (frimley)


(See attached file: CUI BMRs.doc)

BMR 52237 is part of the OPS Runtime Service Pack.

You can find the latest version, OPS Runtime Service Pack 6.0.0.44_5 at the
following address:

/ftp/as400/as400/opssp6461/

This Service Pack is the same for both 6.0.04 and 6.100 BPCS versions.

Attached you'll also find:

- -  Some notes with details of the problems solved by the Service Pack
- -  A questionnaire to complete if you have a lockup problem
- -  The instructions how to enable the trace option if a lockup occurs.

hope this helps ....
Patrick
PPS............ we are still getting locks daily in acp500


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