An Introduction to System Management
SJ Research File Servers are designed to be run easily without the need for much specialist knowledge. This section explains how the system manager should get going, setting up the communal filing system for all the users.
This chapter is kept deliberately simple in order to explain the principles. System managers will find full descriptions of all the commands and utility programs in Chapters 5 (user management) and 6 (printer management).
If the File Server has not been installed for you, please refer to Appendix C which gives full instructions.
The Modular Disc Filing System needs to be switched on at the front panel key-switch; the green POWER light will come on. All the lights, except the red NO CLOCK light, will come on for two or three seconds while the hardware is tested (consult Appendix B if the system failure light flashes). For normal operation, the switch should be turned to the SECURE position. The yellow DISCS FREE light will flash after a few seconds -- now insert all the floppy disks that you wish to use. There must be a copy of the File Server program on one of the disks at this stage, but it may be on either a floppy disk or a hard disk; there is a copy on the disk supplied with the fileserver. Press the RELEASE DISKS button on the front panel, and the DISCS FREE light will flash more rapidly while the system loads the program. After about ten seconds, the green ON LINE light will come on and the DISKS FREE light will go out.
The fileserver is now ready for use. If you want to perform any system privileged user operations (for example, editing the password file or setting the internal clock), then you should now turn the switch to the SYST position. More fundamental system operations such as formatting disks are carried out in Utility Mode, which is reached by either starting up the fileserver as above, but with the key-switch in the SYST position from the beginning, or by typing *FINISH from a station on the network while the fileserver is running normally.
If, after the File Server is switched on, the RELEASE DISCS button is not pushed within thirty seconds the system will attempt to start the File Server automatically.
When the File Server first comes on line it performs some consistency checks on the discs connected and also builds a map of the free space available on the disks. On a system with a large amount of data this can take several minutes. Until a disk has been successfully checked it is not possible to write data to it. However, it is possible to read files as normal. Attempts to write to a disk while it is being checked will result in a Drive read only error. An indication as to how long the checking process will take can be found by using the *FREE utility. The amount of used space on a disk is built up as the disk is checked and hence the values of bytes free and bytes used as displayed by *FREE will change as the disk is checked.
If any error is found while checking a disk then the error will be reported on the system messages printer. The disk will stay in a Read Only state so that the possibility of damaging more data by writing to the disk is eliminated. For more information on how to fix errors which cause a drive to become read only see *DESTROY in chapter 4.
Before switching off the File Server, press and hold in the RELEASE DISKS button on the front panel for about five seconds. The ON LINE light will go out and after a short pause the yellow DISCS FREE light will come permenantly on. Remove all the floppy disks and turn the front panel key-switch to the STOP position - the front panel lights will extinguish. This operation will park the heads on any hard disk drives attached.
If the system is in the process of printing, it will stop when the RELEASE DISKS button is pressed; when the File Server is turned on again, previous print requests will be remembered and restarted, going back to the beginning of any uncompleted item in the print queue.
Do not switch off without pressing the RELEASE DISKS button, for example using a master switch. (If a master switch is in use, then the File Server should be run from a supply independent of it.) If the system is not stopped before switching off, the cache memory may not have been written back to the disks. In this case, it will probably be necessary to restore the system from a backup, as the data on the disks will be corrupted. It is also unwise to remove any floppy disks from the drives before turning off the File Server, as power-off may have unpredicatable effects on them.
If hard disks are fitted, we recommend not switching off the File Server at all, since hard disks are considerably more reliable if they are kept spinning continously at all times. If your local Fire and Safety regulations permit it, this is the best course.
You may want to run a File Server system where there are more floppy disks (excluding backups) than floppy drives, and you insert them perhaps when a particular class is present. This process is recommended only when your Econet network extends only over a single room -- beyond that you will not normally know who will want access to files as any time, so the only complete solution is to have a File Server system large enough to have all files on line at all times.
The following procedure is necessary to change disks, either for this purpose, or any other (eg to return to an earlier version of a disk).
Press and release the RELEASE DISKS button on the front panel. The File Server may continue to access the disks for a few seconds, in order to write back any information held in memory. When it has finished, the DISKS FREE light will flash alternately with the ON LINE light. While the system is in this state, no File Server disks can be accessed by users. Remove the old disk(s), insert the new disk(s), and press the button again. Note that it is not necessary to continue using the disc containing the fileserver program once the system is running - the program is retained in memory.
When the disks are changed, the File Server will discard the old user list for the changed disks (since the password file has probably changed). This means that all users who are logged on from those lists will have to log on again - otherwise they will receive the error Who are you? if they attempt a filing operation. All opened files on changed disks will be closed. Disks which have not been changed will be unaffected.
Do not change disks without pressing RELEASE DISKS and then waiting for the DISCS FREE light. The system keeps information about the disk data and transient information in memory. If you change a disk without telling the system, the vital root directory information will be corrupted, and it will almost certainly be impossible to access files on the affected disks afterwards.
Your system will have a number of different users to whom you will want to be able to give factilites to create files for themselves, to read certain communal files (for example library programs) and to have selective access to other users' files.
The list of authorised users in a SJ Research File Server is kept in a file called the password file. This file can be read and saved only by someone with system privilege - normally only the system manager himself and only when the front panel key-switch is turned to the SYST position. The password file contains information about each user: their password, any accounts they have access to, and administrative information concerning start-up (boot) options, library directories and user root directories.
If someone logs on to the syste, and their name does not appear in the password file, then they will be logged on as the default user, if one has been set up by the system manager using EDITPASS (see Section 4.3). If no default user has been set by the system manager, the user will receive the error User not known.
When a user listed in the password file logs on, any password they quote will be checked against the one in the password file before the log-on is allowed to proceed. They will then be given any rights and privileges listed against their name in the password file. The system will then search the disk on which the user's password file entry was found for the User Root Directory specified for that user in the password file, which by default has that user's name, and will set this to be the currently selected directory (see Section 3.3 under *I AM for details). If no appropriately named directory is found, the disk root directory will be selected.
As described more fully in Section 3.3 (under *ACCESS and *ACCOUNT), the account(s) to which a user is given access control two things:
First, every file (or directory) has an account number, and if a user has access to this account, then they are an owner of that file (or directory). Only an owner may create files in a directory, and only an owner may delete a file or change its access letters (see Section 3.3 under the *ACCESS command). Note that there can be more than one owner of a file (or directory), simply by allocating access to its account to more than one user - this can be useful for communal files in a project.
Second, each account has a credit balance of storage space, and an attempt to create a file which would cause that balance to become less than zero will be prevented, and cause the error Account bankrupt.
This section describes the operation of each of the commands and programs intended for use by the system manager for the day to day running of the File Server system. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 explain in more detail how these commands are used for particular purposes.
These commands are not in themselves destructive in the wrong hands: provided that the system manager's password is kept secure, no other user can actually change any of the settings, although some of the programs allow non-sensitive information to be read. In addition, the front panel key-switch must be in the SYST position to enable the most sensitive operations.
The commands and programs documented here are:
*BACKUP Machine code program *CHECK Machine code program *CREDIT File Server command *DEBIT File Server command *DESTROY File Server command EDITPASS BASIC program EDITPRINT BASIC program *FAST Machine code program *FINISH File Server command FORCER BASIC program LISTUSERS BASIC program *LOGOFF File Server command *PGO File Server command *PSTOP File Server command SETBACKUP BASIC program SETTIME BASIC program SETSYSTEM BASIC program SIZER BASIC program SYSADM BASIC program *TAPEINFO Machine code program
If the password file is large then it can take some time for the program to build the map of account numbers used. While this process is taking place dots are printed on screen, one for every ten users in the password file.
A will list all account numbers allocated as a personal account. If two users share a personal account then both their User IDs will be displayed. If more than two users share a personal account then the first two names in the password fil will be displayed plus the number of other users who own the account.
B will list all the users who own the specified account.
C will list all users who have not been allocated a personal account.
D will list the first user who owns the account number plus the number of other users who own the account.
E will list owners of the blocks of sixty-four accounts above &100.
F performs all of the operations A-E in sequence.
Insufficient privilege - Error 186 (&BA)
If the user does not have system privilege.
The maximum possible balance is 65535K, and the system manager may effectively turn off the space accounting system by setting all acounts this much credit: 65535K is the largest single disk that can be fitted to a system.
System priveilege is required to execute this command.
The accounts system gives control of disk space filled by users' files. This command increases the allocation of space available for files with the specified account number,
Note that the current credit balance of an account only represents the free space available for files, and does not include files already existing in that account. It is therefore wise for the system manager to keep a notebook containing details of users, their accounts and any subsequent credit of debit given to them. A utility program SIZER is provided to find the total size of files in a directory tree, and this could be used to find the total space taken by a user's files at a later date.
The transient program *STATEMENT will give a printout of all the accounts to which a user has access with the associated credit balance for each. The system manager will normally have access to all accounts, and so will get a long list of all accounts from 0 to 7FF for each disk in the system. It may be wise to send this output to a printer if all the information is required.
allocates a further 512K to account number 89 on disk partition Fuji1.