[Info-vax] $GETRMI RMI$_DISKS

[Neil Rieck]

On Mar 26, 6:18 pm, Neil Rieck <n.ri... at sympatico.ca> wrote:
> On Mar 26, 8:29 am, Paul Sture <p... at sture.ch> wrote:
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> > On Mon, 26 Mar 2012 04:49:22 -0700, Neil Rieck wrote:
> > > Does anyone else out there remember anything about SPI or SPM? Also, if
> > > anyone out there has any docs from VMS-4.x or VMS-5.x then you could do
> > > me a favor to see if those docs contain any mention of SYS $GETSPI or
> > > SYS$GETRMI.
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> > I recall a consultant arriving at a customer site circa 1983/4 with SPM
> > to do a couple of days of performance analysis.
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> >http://h71000.www7.hp.com/wizard/wiz_1412.html
>
> > ----
> > Whither SPM?
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> > The Question is:
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> > What happened to SPM?  I've been away from VMS for a few months and used
> > to use it heavily (as opposed to other fancier and more expensive
> > products).
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> > The Answer is :
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> >   SPM was retired many moons ago, the last release of the product was in
> >   1990.  SPM was replaced by POLYCENTER Performance Solution back in 1993.
> >   Computer Associates (CA) is now the vendor for this product.
> > ----
> > --
> > Paul Sture
>
> Try this hack:
>
> $ lib BASIC$STARLET.TLB/text/extract=$getspidef /out=getspidef.txt
> $ lib BASIC$STARLET.TLB/text/extract=$rmidef /out=rmidef.txt
>
> $ dir/since=tod/siz/width=file=25
>
> Directory SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSLIB]
> GETSPIDEF.TXT;1           142
> RMIDEF.TXT;1              219
> Total of 2 files, 361 blocks.
>
> $ dif GETSPIDEF.TXT RMIDEF.TXT /par
>
> Notice that the two files are almost identical (except for variable
> prefixes) until the point where GETSPI almost runs out of data. So it
> does look like SPI was used as a starting point for RMI then a bunch
> of stuff was tacked on. So why isn't SYS$GETRMI better document in the
> manuals. Inquiring minds need to know :-)
>
> Neil Rieck
> Kitchener / Waterloo / Cambridge,
> Ontario, Canada.http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/

I received this (edited) information from a friend who wants to remain
anonymous:

###########################################

sys$getrmi is available OpenVMS V7.3 and later, and was intended to
provide a central and familiar interface for acquiring performance
information.

exe$getspi (note the exe$ prefix) is (was) the officially-undocumented
and private API underneath MONITOR.  It is arcane, and somewhat flaky,
and does not follow the typical VMS system service API conventions.
On rare occasions, errant calls to exe$getspi have been known to crash
the OpenVMS system.  Using exe$getspi usually involves looking at the
MONITOR source listings to figure out how the API works because it's
(wait for it) undocumented.

Both of these APIs were mentioned in old presentations and a few
examples of exe$getspi have been posted around the 'net.  i_spi.c was
one that has been posted to places like this:
http://decuslib.com/decus/freewarev50/srh_examples
...and probably a few other spots.

SPM went to CA, and changed names.  After the dust of the DEC TNSG
spin-off and sale settled, a chunk of the interesting parts of what
SPM could provide eventually became available via SDA extensions and a
few other tools.

Other options for retrieving performance data can include SNMP,
depending on what data you're after.

###########################################

Neil Rieck
Kitchener / Waterloo / Cambridge,
Ontario, Canada.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/