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- From: MLONG@isucard.card.iastate.edu
- Newsgroups: comp.os.os2.misc
- Subject: Fastservice for OS/2
- Message-ID: <16863845D.MLONG@isucard.card.iastate.edu>
- Date: 15 Sep 92 15:24:44 GMT
- Sender: news@news.iastate.edu (USENET News System)
- Organization: CARD
- Lines: 432
-
- DATA BASE : ALTR - Page: 1
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- NUMBER 292-509
- DATE 920915
- CATEGORY WS00, CM00, CM20, GI00, GI10, WS20, AS10, AS60
- TYPE Programming
- TITLE FASTSERVICE FOR OS/2
- ABSTRACT Today, IBM announces FASTService (TM) Release 2 for OS/2 (R).
- FASTService is an IBM licensed product that provides tools to enhance
- application availability by providing First Failure Data Capture
- capabilities and problem notification for customer software developed
- under OS/2. The technology used in FASTService provides the ability
- to implement First Failure Data Capture functionality to help improve
- software reliability, availability, and serviceability. FASTService
- provides an easy-to-use, graphical user interface that conforms to
- SystemView (TM) Integration Level 1. FASTService provides problem
- notification to a stand-alone OS/2 user and, if the OS/2 system is
- part of a local area network (LAN) or host-connected to a System/370
- (TM) machine, an alert flows to a server unit and NetView (R) to
- provide enterprise-wide management with automated problem detection,
- notification, and support. See Marketing Announcement 392-204, dated
- September 15, 1992, for additional details.
- Planned Availability Date: September 25, 1992.
- 5621-134 FASTService Release 2 for OS/2
- (TM) Trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
- (R) Registered trademark of International Business Machines
- Corporation.
- IN BRIEF . . .
- FASTService Release 2 provides the following functions for
- customer-written applications in the OS/2 environment:
- o First Failure Data Capture with small, customized dumps, unique
- failure identification, and virtually immediate reporting to
- designated customer support personnel.
- o FASTService start-up via parameter list and warm start to
- establish operational environment.
- o FASTService command level interface to provide dynamic,
- operational control of probes and environment.
- o FASTService tool utilizing Presentation Manager (R) to facilitate
- coding of probe statements.
- o FASTService probe enhancements to provide additional problem
- identification and support.
- o FASTService alert enhancements to include vendor name and
- automatic problem notification to a focal point in a
- host-connected environment.
- o FASTService 16-bit, 32-bit and Ring-0 support.
- o FASTService support for application message retrieval and
- logging, error logging, and dump facility.
- PRODNO 5621-134 FASTService Release 2 for OS/2
- OVERVIEW DESCRIPTION
- Development, operation, and support problems in software
- applications become increasingly complex as the interdependence and
- DATA BASE : ALTR - Page: 2
- size of applications increase. FASTService is designed to help
- reduce the cost of developing, operating, and supporting software
- applications and to help improve their serviceability and
- availability in complex environments. FASTService provides a
- user-friendly interface to build the probe statements and provide
- data structure information. This is accomplished by the following
- elements:
- o Software probes, error detection statements implanted by the
- programmer within critical junctures of the application, provide
- real-time error detection and, enable customized data capture.
- The software probes remain passive until triggered by an
- unexpected condition.
- o These probe statements interface to problem source identifier
- (PSI) code to collect, through a customized dump, the data
- identified by the software probes as necessary to resolve the
- problem. To conserve resources, duplicate dump suppression is
- enabled with unique symptom strings. This symptom string of
- standardized keywords is built to uniquely identify the failure
- and allow immediate recognition of known problems. In order to
- conserve disk space, the PSI code will take up to eight dumps
- then dump number 9 will overlay dump number 1. The parameter can
- be set during FASTService installation from 8 to 99 dumps.
- In addition, a generic alert is created to notify a
- user-designated location of the problem and appropriate
- corrective actions. The dump, symptom record, and generic alert
- can be enabled or disabled online by function or by application.
- The error can be displayed in a pop-up panel or routed to the
- server in a local area network environment or to a host in a
- connected environment. NetView can recognize the data stream as
- a generic alert and flow it to the focal point.
- The technology available with FASTService allows proactive
- problem recognition by providing rules and conventions for how and
- where to detect problems, and for what data to capture when a problem
- occurs. This technology provides developers with a consistent
- approach to problem detection and documentation that is flexible and
- easy to use in complex environments.
- FASTService for OS/2 is primarily designed to be used in a
- System/370 host-connected environment, connected to a system using
- FASTService for MVS and the FASTService for MVS Customer Services
- Automated Service Interface (ASI). When used with the FASTService
- Customer Services ASI, FASTService can provide an enterprise-wide
- system solution of automated problem detection, notification, and
- support.
- Refer to Marketing Announcement, 392-204, dated
- September 15, 1992, for details on FASTService Customer Services for
- MVS.
- SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT
- This failure analysis and support technology can significantly
- enhance applications systems management. FASTService provides the
- capability to flow an alert to a pop-up panel on a stand-alone system
- or flow the alert to the server and the host system in a connected
- environment to report on application problems and availability. The
- DATA BASE : ALTR - Page: 3
- cause of the problem is displayed and recorded in a consistent format
- to maximize ease of use by the operator and applications support
- functions.
- USER PRODUCTIVITY
- The programmer can utilize the OS/2 code to test applications.
- FASTService provides a panel-driven tool under the Presentation
- Manager to facilitate coding of the probe statements and defining
- data structures. The software probes are portable to other SAA (TM)
- systems, such as MVS, without any modification. The software probes
- provide diagnostic data, unique failure identification, and
- notification to assist the designated support personnel while helping
- to reduce the problem's impact on the end user.
- GROWTH ENABLING
- Reducing the interruptions faced by application programmers in
- solving problems can allow these resources to be able to focus more
- time on developing new business applications. FASTService provide
- the application developers with tools to implement the capture of
- necessary problem data at the time of the error and communicate this
- information without manual intervention. The methodology to detect
- errors provides a consistent serviceability approach for all
- programmers to ease integration of customer applications in a
- complex, distributed environment. The result of this action can help
- improve productivity in supporting applications in a complex
- environment.
- INVESTMENT PROTECTION
- FASTService provides the application developer with a consistent
- approach to define and handle application problems. This technique
- of capturing and reporting application problems can help reduce the
- overall cost of application development and maintenance as the
- customer implements this strategy in all business applications. The
- technology incorporated in these failure analysis and support
- technology products provides the foundation for IBM's strategic
- direction toward software problem detection and support. IBM intends
- to migrate this technology into new and changed lines of code of
- applicable IBM software products. The technology will also be
- available to software business partners and other vendors in order to
- pursue an enterprise-wide system solution of problem detection,
- notification, and support.
- BUSINESS SOLUTIONS
- Business solutions can be delivered by the Information Systems
- organization in a timely manner with high quality. The
- implementation of software probes in customer and vendor software
- provides a consistent means to detect unexpected events, capture
- relevant problem information, and report the incident to the
- respective support group for problem resolution, and can thereby help
- increase system availability and reliability. FASTService provides
- the tools to access First Failure Support/2 (FFST (TM)/2) to perform
- systems testing, implementation, and maintenance of new application
- functions.
- FASTService conforms to SystemView Integration Level 1.
- SystemView is IBM's systems management strategy for planning,
- coordinating, and operating heterogeneous, enterprise-wide
- DATA BASE : ALTR - Page: 4
- information systems.
- PRODUCT POSITIONING
- FASTService should be marketed to customers who develop or run their
- own applications on OS/2 systems and desire improved availability,
- higher serviceability, and better problem management in this
- environment. FASTService in the OS/2 environment provides automated
- problem detection, customized dumps, error and message log entries,
- and virtually immediate problem notification. In a stand-alone OS/2
- system, the error can be displayed on a pop-up panel. In a connected
- environment, such as a LAN or host-connected system, the problem
- notification can be passed to the server unit or host system for
- focal point problem management.
- New software development projects are strategic candidates for
- FASTService. Long-term benefits are attained by including software
- probes during the design phase of an application. The software
- probes are easily inserted into new code and enforce a new discipline
- on the application programmer to consider errors, should-not-occur
- conditions, and corrective actions. The programmer is aware of the
- functions to perform and the data that needs to be analyzed if a
- failure does occur. The software probes can ease development testing
- and help get the application into production sooner with fewer
- problems escaping the test cycle. Once the application has migrated
- to production, the software probes should remain within the
- application since they are passive until triggered. All of the
- problem management functions provided by FASTService are now
- available to the customer should the application encounter a problem.
- Critical applications, already in operation, that require high
- availability are candidates for FASTService. Typically the majority
- of application programmers are working on maintenance and support of
- existing applications. Immediate benefits can be realized by
- implanting FASTService probe statements in error handling routines to
- identify existing critical applications, modules, or programs that
- are experiencing availability problems. Using FASTService can result
- in improved availability and serviceability of the application and
- can allow the customer to redirect programming resources to develop
- new business applications. In addition, ongoing application
- serviceability may be crucial if the customer experiences a turnover
- of qualified personnel.
- Additional and significant benefits can be realized in
- centralized, automated problem management when the application runs
- in a distributed environment which is connected to a host using the
- failure analysis and support technology tools for the MVS environment
- (FASTService for MVS and the FASTService for MVS Customer Services
- ASI) and NetView.
- It is recommended that programmers take the education provided
- through an attachment (Z125-8287) to the IBM Customer Agreement.
- Option 1 of this attachment includes a tutorial, a workshop on the
- FASTService technology, and implementation assistance to provide
- education which is key to understanding the technology and using the
- probes to achieve the full benefits of FASTService.
- FASTService provides additional tools to support program
- maintenance for applications that run in IBM's SAA environments.
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- FASTService continues to migrate to AD/Cycle (TM) concepts by
- providing a more productive way to support the application during the
- test, production, and maintenance phases of development.
- STATEMENT OF GENERAL DIRECTION
- The technology incorporated in the FASTService offering provides the
- foundation for IBM's strategic direction towards automated software
- problem detection and support. The FASTService integration of the
- technology conforms to the requirements of SAA and, for the OS/2 and
- AS/400 (R) environments, provides an easy-to-use, graphical user
- interface that conforms to SystemView Integration Level 1.
- FASTService for MVS will conform to SystemView Integration Level 1 by
- first quarter 1993. SystemView is IBM's systems management strategy
- for planning, coordinating, and operating heterogeneous,
- enterprise-wide information systems. In addition, the concept has
- been approved for integration into AD/Cycle tools to pursue an
- enterprise-wide system solution of automated problem detection,
- notification, and support.
- Today, ACF/VTAM (TM) Version 4 Release 1 for MVS/ESA (TM) (See
- Programming Announcement 292-483, dated September 15, 1992.),
- ImagePlus (R) Release 1, OS/2 Database Manager Version 2, OS/2 LAN
- Server Version 2, and NetView Performance Monitor Release 6 (See
- Programming Announcement 292-494, dated September 15, 1992.) have
- incorporated the First Failure Support Technology (TM) in their
- products.
- IBM intends to migrate this technology into new and changed
- code of applicable IBM software products. Each IBM product will
- announce incorporation of this technology, as the migration
- progresses. It is IBM's intent to make the technology available to
- our software business partners and to pursue a total system solution
- of automated problem detection, notification and support.
- FASTService is not required to enable the technology in IBM
- products; however, the generic alert support in conjunction with the
- FASTService Customer Services for MVS Automated Service Interface
- (See Marketing Announcements 390-114, dated August 21, 1990; and
- 391-030, dated March 26, 1991) enables automated software support at
- the customer location.
- CUSTINFO EDUCATION SUPPORT
- Education on this new technology, especially for the user in
- the stand-alone environment, is recommended since use of the product
- software according to traditional techniques may not provide results
- that meet expectations. Online help is available with the
- FASTService for OS/2 product. In addition, education, consisting of
- a tutorial and a workshop, is available for a fee by ordering
- FASTService Customer Services through the FASTService attachment
- (Z125-8287) by selecting one of the following options:
- o Option 1 -- $3,000
- On-Site Education and Implementation Workshop
- (per session of up to 20 students)
- o Option 2 -- $900 per student
- Education and Implementation Workshop at an IBM facility.
- This education provides information on the FASTService
- technology and provides instruction on utilizing the FASTService
- DATA BASE : ALTR - Page: 6
- tools to construct probe statements and data definitions. Students
- are encouraged to bring appropriate nonconfidential and
- nonproprietary sample code to the workshop for implementation of the
- FASTService technology. Customers with FASTService for any operating
- environment should send their programmers to this class; the
- education is the same for all FASTService products. (See Marketing
- Announcement 392-204, dated September 15, 1992.).
- TECHINFO TECHNICAL INFORMATION
- SPECIFIED OPERATING ENVIRONMENT
- MACHINE REQUIREMENTS: FASTService supports application software that
- runs on all models of the IBM OS/2 hardware environment. Refer to
- the media features to determine hardware requirements for
- installation and maintenance media. FASTService requires minimum
- additional system resources beyond those required for the operating
- system and its programs of 1MB for virtual storage and 1MB for
- auxiliary storage.
- Virtual storage is required for the FASTService program and
- working storage. Auxiliary file storage is required for a load
- library, a macro library, command lists, dump datasets, and panel
- libraries. Additional resources are necessary for user tables,
- application program source files, and dump data sets. Refer to the
- features section to determine the peripheral device requirements.
- PROGRAMMING REQUIREMENTS: FASTService requires the OS/2 (OS/2
- Version 1 Release 3 or any subsequent release) operating system
- unless otherwise stated.
- FASTService for OS/2 supports the following SAA languages:
- o C
- o COBOL
- o FORTRAN.
- PERFORMANCE CONSIDERATIONS: FASTService and its prerequisite First
- Failure Support Technology/2 (TM) (FFST/2 (TM)), available for the
- OS/2 Version 1 Release 3 operating system or higher and shipped with
- the FASTService for OS/2 product, can provide significant performance
- improvements compared to the current process of identifying failures
- and obtaining the required documentation for problem resolution:
- o The probe statements are built using panel-driven interfaces.
- The probe statement interfaces to the FFST/2 code (the problem
- source identifier code) through a call statement.
- o FASTService for OS/2 Release 2 provides 32-bit addressing
- support.
- PLANNING INFORMATION
- SECURITY, AUDITABILITY AND CONTROL
- The announced FASTService for OS/2 uses the security and
- auditability features of the OS/2 software.
- User management is responsible for evaluation, selection, and
- implementation of security features, administrative procedures, and
- appropriate controls in application systems and communication
- facilities.
- ORDERING ORDERING INFORMATION
- NEW LICENSEES
- Orders for new licenses will be accepted now. Unless a later date is
- specified, orders entered prior to September 25, 1992, will be
- DATA BASE : ALTR - Page: 7
- assigned an AAS schedule date of one week following general
- availability. Shipment of backlogged orders will commence on the
- availability date. Orders entered after the planned availability
- date will be scheduled for shipment in AAS on the Friday following
- the week of order entry or as soon thereafter as supply permits.
- New users of FASTService for OS/2 should specify:
- TYPE MODEL
- 5621 134
- BASIC LICENSE: To order a basic license specify the program number
- and feature number 9001 for asset registration. Specify feature
- number 1621 for a one-time charge. Specify the feature number of the
- desired distribution medium shown below.
- BASIC MACHINE-READABLE MATERIAL: To order, select the feature number
- of the desired distribution medium:
- FEATURE
- NUMBER MEDIUM
- 5838 5.25-inch HD diskette
- 5848 3.5-inch HD diskette
- To suppress initial shipment of machine-readable materials,
- for serial number assignment only, use initial order suppress feature
- number 3444.
- CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS: Select the appropriate feature number(s) to
- customize your order to specify the delivery options desired. These
- features can be specified on the initial or MES orders.
- Example: If publications are not desired for the initial
- order, and for future updates, specify feature numbers 3470 to ship
- media only, and 3480 to ship media updates only. In the future if
- publication updates were required, order an MES to remove feature
- number 3480, and the publications will ship with the next release for
- the program.
- INITIAL SHIPMENTS
- FEATURE
- NUMBER DESCRIPTION
- 3444 Serial Number Only (suppresses shipment of
- media and documentation)
- 3470 Ship Media Only (suppresses initial shipment
- of documentation)
- 3471 Ship Documentation Only (suppresses initial
- shipment of media)
- UPDATE SHIPMENTS
- FEATURE
- NUMBER DESCRIPTION
- 3480 Ship Media Updates Only (suppresses update
- shipment of documentation)
- 3481 Ship Documentation Only (suppresses update
- shipment of media)
- 3482 Suppress Updates (suppresses update
- shipment of media and documentation)
- UNLICENSED DOCUMENTATION: A memo, a program directory, and one copy
- of the publication, LICENSED PROGRAM SPECIFICATIONS (GC38-7056) are
- supplied automatically with the basic machine-readable material.
- The optional publication FASTSERVICE GENERAL INFORMATION
- DATA BASE : ALTR - Page: 8
- MANUAL (GC38-7030) will be available on September 25, 1992, at
- product availability.
- Copies of unlicensed publications will be available for a fee
- on September 25, 1992, at product availability. These copies may be
- ordered from your IBM marketing representative, through the System
- Library Subscription Service (SLSS).
- LICENSED DOCUMENTATION: The licensed material listed below will be
- available from IBM by September 25, 1992.
- If you select the education option available through the
- Attachment to the ICA (Z125-8287), the customer will receive 20
- copies of these publications as part of the education. To order
- additional copies, contact an IBM marketing representative.
- o FASTService for OS/2 User's Guide (LC33-1015)
- o FASTService for OS/2 Probe Definition Tool User's Guide
- (LC33-1019)*.
- * Available February 15, 1993.
- Subsequent updates (technical newsletters or revisions between
- releases) to the publications shipped with the product will be
- distributed to the user of record for as long as a license for this
- software remains in effect. A separate publication order or
- subscription is not needed.
- TERMS AND CONDITIONS
- LICENSING: The program in this announcement is licensed under the
- terms of the IBM Customer Agreement.
- DESIGNATED MACHINE IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED: No.
- VARIABLE CHARGES APPLY: No.
- INSTALLATION LICENSE OR LOCATION LICENSE APPLIES: No. A separate
- license is required for each machine on which the licensed program
- materials will be used.
- EDUCATIONAL ALLOWANCE: A 15% educational allowance is applicable
- toward eligible license charges and is available to qualifying
- institutions in accordance with the Educational Allowance Attachment.
- The educational allowance may not be added to any other discount or
- allowance.
- VOLUME DISCOUNT: Volume discounting is available under the IBM
- Customer Agreement and the revised Volume Discount Exhibit -- IBM
- Selected Application Programs attachment (Z125-8294). FASTService
- for OS/2 (5621-134) is in a new Category F.
- The discount applies for licenses obtained under the one-time
- charge option.
- WARRANTED: Yes.
- LICENSED PROGRAM MATERIALS AVAILABILITY: Restricted Materials -- No.
- This licensed program will be available without source licensed
- program materials. It will be available in object code.
- TESTING PERIOD: None.
- PROGRAM SERVICES: Central Service, including the IBM Support Center,
- will be available until discontinued by IBM upon six months' written
- notice.
- CHARGES
- One-Time Charge: $40
- ONE-TIME CHARGE: Customers who pay a one-time charge for a licensed
- program receive enhancements and future releases, if any, at no
- DATA BASE : ALTR - Page: 9
- additional charge. Significant new function may be offered as an
- optional feature and charged for separately. If a replacement
- program is announced and the customer elects to license the
- replacement program for a one-time charge and replace the prior
- program, an upgrade charge may apply.
-
- - - - E N D O F P R I N T O U T - - -
-
