[Info-vax] vms base priority watch

[Bob Koehler]

In article <00AB2409.145ED576 at SendSpamHere.ORG>,   VAXman-  @SendSpamHere.ORG writes:
> 
> I still do not see how report generation is all that CPU intensive that an
> increase in a user's base priority would aid its completion time.

   It could be a bit CPU intensive, and if the system is loaded 100% all
   day as the OP said, it could be loaded in the wee hours of the morning
   enough to make CPU access a real issue.

   Ever since VMS 4.0, multiple I/O requests to the same device are 
   prioritized by the base priority of the requesting process, so if 
   there's a lot of contention for the disk holding the data or the 
   report, that could impact the completion time.  I recall processing 
   that was affected that way, the affected users reported it as a bug, 
   and thier boss intercepted the bug report because he liked it that 
   way (it was he who got them the lower base priority in the first place).

   He really did have higher priority stuff going on, and had thought
   about suspending thier processes from time to time, but we never
   got that far.