MARS Readme File ================ This is the README file for MARS release 2.13. *IMPORTANT NOTE* To upgrade from a version of MARS prior to release 2.10, you will need a new license. Release 2.10 licenses are still valid with release 2.13. Contents ======== System Requirements Installation Instructions Manual Installation of MARS NSK Server Changes made in release 2.13 Changes made in release 2.12 Changes made in release 2.11 Changes made in release 2.10 Changes made in release 2.04 Changes made in release 2.03 Changes made in release 2.02 Changes made in release 2.01 Changes made in release 2.00 *************************************************************************** System Requirements =================== PC Windows XP or Windows 2000 Professional (SP2 or later). NonStop System Itanium H series, Himalaya S series (G03 or later), or K series (D40 or later). *************************************************************************** Installation Instructions ========================= How to install MARS: 1. Prior to installing the MARS GUI client, you will need to determine the following information: - The TCP/IP address or host name on which the MARS server will be running, as well as the port number that will be used on the NSK to establish TCP/IP connections between the MARS client and server. - A user id and password on the NSK system. If you are also installing the server portion of MARS to the NSK, you also need: - The volume and subvolume on which the MARS server will reside. All MARS files will be placed in this location. Please note that, as SQL/MX is incompatible with the Guardian Storage Management Foundation (SMF), this must be a physical disk volume if you wish MARS to monitor SQL/MX object. - The process name of the MARS server monitor process. This process must be running at all times for MARS to function, so it must be unique. - The process name of the TCPIP or TCPSAM process responsible for the TCP/IP address above. 2. MARS is installed from your PC using the self-extracting file, MARSnnnn.EXE, which can be downloaded from the Merlon web site, www.merlon.com. Running this file will install the MARS GUI. You also need a copy of the following files before you can run MARS: LICENSE.101 (MARS License File) MARS Users Guide.PDF (MARS User's Guide) You can get a copy of these by contacting Merlon at (416) 504-8727, or toll free in North America at 1-888-463-7566, or via email at info@merlon.com 2. The first time you run the MARS GUI, follow the instructions in the setup and configuration wizards to configure MARS on your PC and, optionally install the NSK server component of MARS. *************************************************************************** Manual Installation of MARS NSK Server ====================================== This section provides a brief description of what you must do to manually install and run the NSK server portion of MARS. More detailed, step-by-step, instructions are available in the MARS documentation. Normally, manual installation of the NSK components of MARS is not required, as it is done automatically during the first installation of the MARS GUI client. You will need to install the MARS NSK components manually if the automatic installation fails. The MARS files required for installation are: README.TXT (This File) LICENSE.101 (MARS License File) MARSPACK.100 (Self-extracting NSK File) If you have already installed the client, you can find these files in the install directory, which defaults to "C:\Program Files\Merlon\MARS" You can also request these files from Merlon. The README.TXT file contains any last-minute information that was not included in the User's Guide. You should read this file before installing MARS. Note: If you download MARS over the Internet, the MARSPACK.100 and README.TXT may be contained within a ZIP file. You must run PKUNZIP to extract these files before you proceed. You install the MARS Server as follows: 1. Copy the LICENSE and MARSPACK files on the distribution disk to the NSK system. Use IXF, FTP, or a similar file transfer program. The files should be placed in the same subvolume on the NSK system. Important Note: The file MARSPACK is a binary file, the LICENSE file is an ASCII file. Make sure you select the correct file transfer mode for each file. 2. Logon to the NonStop system using TACL, and set your current subvolume to where you copied the MARS files. 3. Use FUP to alter the code of the MARSPACK file to 100, for example: FUP ALTER MARSPACK, CODE 100 4. RUN the MARSPACK file, for example: RUN MARSPACK 5. The MARSPACK program prompts for continuation, answer Y. 6. MARSPACK creates a set of files in your current subvolume. These are the code and data files needed by MARS. When MARSPACK has finished, it starts the SETUP program. 7. The SETUP program completes the installation of MARS. You will be asked to supply some information by SETUP. 8. When SETUP has finished, the MARS monitor process will have been started and you can begin configuring MARS through the GUI client. *************************************************************************** Changes made in release 2.13. ============================= IMPORTANT NOTE: As of this release, MARS has replaced optional dynamic or static TCP/IP connections with a private listener process that provides additional MARS-specific features (see #5, below). If you are using static connections, MARS installation will automatically update your configuration to use the private listener with the lowest port in the port range. All client connection requests will be addressed on this port. If you are using dynamic configuration, please remove MARS from your PORTCONF file to avoid conflicts with the system LISTNER. 1. The date after which a reload will be scheduled to be run now includes a time as well (MA34000414). 2. Initial queue priority is set based upon how full a file is to ensure that files that need reload most will be dealt with first. To prevent low priority reloads from being frozen out, never-attempted reloads will increase in priority over time (MA34000415) 3. Command security has been changed to allow operators access to the MARS SUSPEND/RESUME facility (MA34000416). 4. Windows Vista help support for compiled help has been accommodated. 5. The method of client communication has changed (MA34000423). There is no longer an optional static or dynamic connection, but rather a MARS-specific private listener that runs from the MARS installation subvolume. Several defects have also been corrected. *************************************************************************** Changes made in release 2.12. ============================= 1. To simplify configuration when MARS-monitored databases are distributed over multiple systems, the fileset's explicit primary reload volume has been enhanced to include disk volume patterns, so that MARS can automatically determine the primary partition when reloading secondary partitions (MA34000393). *************************************************************************** Changes made in release 2.11. ============================= 1. TMF audit dump disk space availability is now monitored for automated control of reloads on TMF-protected files (MA34000191). 2. File patterns may be added to filesets as semicolon-separated lists as well as individually (MA34000196). 3. Reload queue priority is initially set by file full percentage rather than an arbitrary value, ensuring that reloads on full files are performed first (MA34000197). 4. The reload queue has been enhanced to include a reload start and suspend time (MA34000215). 5. At the completion of a MARS-initiated reload, files are re-evaluated and their new index levels, slack, disorder and free blocks are added to the MARS activity log (MA34000218). 6. Restrictions have been added to allow Guardian users to be defined as administrators (access to all MARS functions) and operators (access to reloads but not the MARS configuration) (MA34000219) 7. Fileset restrictions now include a file size less than attribute (MA34000225). 8. Reloads manually added to the reload queue may be scheduled to start after a particular date and time (while still controlled by their related reload group schedule) (MA34000228). 9. The MARS report interface has been enhanced to make it easier to use (MA34000237). 10. An activity log record has been added to indicate when reloads have been manually removed from the queue (MA34000241). 11. An additional attribute has been added to the MARS fileset to prevent files from being selected for reload if they have been reloaded within a specified period of time (MA34000243). 12. SQL/MX tables and indexes are now monitored and reloaded by MARS (MA34000245). 13. The MARS client has been altered to allow simultaneous access to MARS monitors running on multiple systems (MA34000246). 14. Reload queue priority may now also be altered while a reload is running (MA34000334). 15. Queued reloads of the same queue priority are now started in "oldest first" order to ensure that reloads are completed in a timely manner (MA34000335). Several defects have also been corrected. *************************************************************************** Changes made in release 2.10. ============================= 1. The MARS Monitor has been certified for use on the Itanium platform (H-Series). 2. The system wide Audit Trail Capacity limit calculation has been improved (MA34000222). *************************************************************************** Changes made in release 2.04. ============================= IMPORTANT NOTE FOR WINDOWS XP AND 2000 USERS: As of this release, MARS stores its client configuration (*.INI files) and session connection information (*.SSP files) in \Documents and Settings\\MERLON\MARS, rather than in the installation directory (default \Program Files\Merlon\Mars) For existing clients, please move MARS.INI and all files of type .SSP to the appropriate directory to maintain client configuration and to ensure existing sessions are still available. 1. Intermittent failure to suspend reloads at the end of a processing window due to excessive CPU utilization has been corrected (MA34000192). 2. The speed of report processing has been improved and several issues resolved with reporting (MA34000186). *************************************************************************** Changes made in release 2.03. ============================= 1. A flaw was corrected in the handling of file patterns containing non-existing disk volume names. Previously, this would result in selection on the offending fileset not terminating, which means that automated reloads would never be started (MA34000195). 2. The maximum password length was extended to allow for greater than eight characters (MA34000204). *************************************************************************** Changes made in release 2.02. ============================= 1. The Merlon Reload Analyzer (MRA) was added. MRA is a server only program the can be used to do detailed reload anaysis reports. *************************************************************************** Changes made in release 2.01. ============================= 1. Corrected error in MARS reloads of TMF-protected partitions on SMF drives. *************************************************************************** Changes made in release 2.00. ============================= 1. Installation of MARS from the client includes an option to maintain an existing license file, rather than requiring that licensing information be re-entered. Please note that release 2.00 itself requires the installation of a new license file. 2. The MARS server may now be installed, started and stopped from the client Tools menu. 3. The MARS client may be used to install new MARS servers from the Tools menu. 4. The percentage of free (i.e. unused) blocks present in a file is included as a threshold for triggering file reloads, along with the existing slack, disorder, and index level thresholds. 5. Messages selected within the current and historical activity logs may now be copied from the Edit menu, allowing messages to be pasted elsewhere. 6. The weekend and weekday processing windows have been replaced with reload groups (up to 16), which may be assigned to individual filesets to allow portions of the database to be reloaded according to different schedules. Each reload group consists of a weekly schedule, broken down into half hour increments. When MARS 2.00 is installed over an existing MARS configuration, the existing weekend/weekday schedule will be translated into the Default group, which will be applied to existing filesets. 7. The maximum number of simultaneous reloads available to MARS has been increased to 200. 8. Several "master" processing limits have been added to the MARS configuration wizard to control reload processing based upon CPU, Disk, and TMF loads. 9. The current state tool has been enhanced to include more detailed selection and reload information as well as approaching CPU, disk and TMF thresholds. 10. Filesets may now include multiple file patterns, as well as excluded patterns to filter the files to be reviewed by MARS. 11. A pattern match count has been added to the fileset status to show the number of files that match a fileset's patterns. 12. A reporting facility has been added as the Reports menu to support reporting on MARS activity, MARS reloads, and the relationship between NSK files and MARS filesets. 13. Filesets may be renamed. 14. The MARS activity log now includes a message indicating that a given file has been selected for reload and the reason for that selection.