From:	CSBVAX::CSBVAX::MRGATE::"SMTP::CRVAX.SRI.COM::RELAY-INFO-VAX" 18-JAN-1989 18:05
To:	MRGATE::"ARISIA::EVERHART"
Subj:	Workstation tuning(if this is repeat,forgive)


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Date: 18 Jan 89 14:57:00 EST
From: <judith@suhep>
Subject: Workstation tuning(if this is repeat,forgive)
To: "info-vax" <info-vax@kl.sri.com>
cc: judith      
Reply-To: <judith@suhep>

In response to "JANET UHAC010@UK.AC.RHBNC.VAXA"'s comment which follows:

>" More generally, I think many of us would be grateful for the net's
>collective experience on VMS tuning - not so much to get wonderful
>performance but to avoid catastrophic failures like this one. Workstations
>in particular seem to suffer from bellyflops. "

I agree that it would be really useful to get some of the accumulated tuning
experience of the network,and would like to contribute the following towards
that end.

We have a LAVC consisting of a microvax 3600 as the boot node, 7 vaxstation
3200's and 5 vaxstation 2000's, running VMS 4.7a and VWS 3.2, and had been
having random crashes of workstations when users (1) used [VWSDEMO]SIGHT
or (2)did various other things which used much memory. DEC advised
the following:

 $ SHOW MEMORY/FULL/POOL

and look at

Small Packet (SRP) Lookaside List
    Current Total Size
    Initial Size (SRPCOUNT)
    Maximum Size (SRPCOUNTV)
I/O Request Packet (IRP) Lookaside List
    Current Total Size
    Initial Size (IRPCOUNT)
    Maximum Size (IRPCOUNTV)
Large Packet (LRP) Lookaside List
    Current Total Size
    Initial Size (LRPCOUNT)
    Maximum Size (LRPCOUNTV)
Nonpaged Dynamic Memory
    Current Size (bytes)
    Initial Size (NPAGEDYN)
    Maximum Size (NPAGEVIR)

for which the rule of thumb is :
   if "Current Total Size" for each is at or near "Maximum Size"
              (xxxCOUNTV or NPAGEVIR)
     set the "Initial Size"
              (xxxCOUNT or NPAGEDYN)
     parameter to the "Current Total Size" value,

and for:

Paged Dynamic Memory
    Current Size (PAGEDYN)
    Free Space (bytes)

the rule of thumb is :

    the "Free Space" should be 30-50% of the "Current Size (PAGEDYN)"-
         if not, up the PAGEDYN parameter accordingly.

Then edit MODPARAMS.DAT with the new values and AUTOGEN GETDATA REBOOT using
the new values from MODPARAMS.

After doing this on each workstation, the crashing problems disappeared!!
Also, VWS 3.3 has fixes in it which address memory management problems,
so upgrading to that is supposed to be helpful.

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