This chapter describes features that are new to the operating system, features that have changed significantly from previous releases, and restrictions to the software and the documentation.
Tru64 UNIX Version 5.1B is a functional release that includes the following enhancements:
Support for variable memory page sizes (Big Pages)
Enhanced features for IPv6 support
The ability to perform parallel scanning of multiple SCSI and Fibre Channel buses during system boot
Logical Storage Manager Fast Plex Attach support
Enhanced security features
Support for the Netscape 6.2.3 Web Client for Tru64 UNIX product
Enhanced features for I18N support
1.1 Support for Variable Memory Page Size (Big Pages)
Big pages memory allocation supports mapping a page of virtual memory to 8, 64, or 512 pages of physical memory. Given physical memory's current 8-KB page size, this means that a single page of virtual memory can map to 64, 512, or 4096 KB. Using big pages can minimize the performance penalties that are associated with misses in the translation lookaside buffer. The result can be improved performance for applications that need to map large amounts of data.
Applications can take advantage of increased page size without making changes or rebuilding. Big pages memory allocation has the following characteristics:
Allows a virtual page in the process address space to be mapped to the most appropriate multiple-page granularity option supported by the system's physical memory.
Uses threshold values set on a per memory-type basis to determine whether a memory allocation request is eligible for use of the extended page sizes.
By default, the use of variable memory page sizes is disabled.
For information
about enabling this feature, see
sys_attrs_vm(5)1.2 IPv6 Enhancements
The following enhancements and changes to IPv6 have been incorporated into this release of the operating system:
Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) search and analysis tool — this tool searches one or more files to identify potential IPv6 porting issues. The tool searches for IPv4-only socket usage and options and IPv4 name and address resolution.
For more information, see
ipv6sniff(8)
Support for a 6to4 transition mechanism — this mechanism, as described in RFC 3056, allows a host or a site to derive a /48 IPv6 prefix from a single global unicast IPv4 address. This implementation supports host and border gateway configurations. For more information, see the Network Administration: Connections manual.
Support for generic tunneling in IPv6 — this tunneling mechanism provides the ability to encapsulate any type of traffic inside an IPv6 packet. For more information about applicability and configuration see the Network Administration: Connections manual.
Support for IPv6 Advanced API — these programming interfaces allow applications to take advantage of advanced IPv6 features, such as extension headers. For more information, see the Network Programmer's Guide.
Parallel scanning is a new feature in Tru64 UNIX Version 5.1B that is designed to shorten the system's boot time. Parallel scanning is disabled in the default system configuration. See the Hardware Management manual for information on using this feature.
When you enable parallel scanning of SCSI and Fibre Channel buses, the
system initiates the scan on all buses simultaneously (rather than sequentially).
This feature reduces the time required to find devices.
On systems with moderate
to large numbers of storage devices, the reduction of time required to boot
can be significant.
1.4 LSM Fast Plex Attach
For mirrored LSM volumes, you can use the Fast Plex Attach feature to make a temporary copy of the volume data available for backup. You use the temporary volume to perform your backups, leaving the original volume running and available for use. You can use this feature on any mirrored volume on a standalone system or a cluster, including rootvol and cluster_rootvol, except volumes used for swap space. See the Logical Storage Manager manual for more information.
The temporary (secondary) volume is created from one complete plex (mirror) from the original mirrored volume (the primary volume).
Both the primary and secondary volumes use a Fast Plex Attach log, which
tracks the regions that change in each volume, similar to a Dirty Region Log.
When the plex that created the secondary volume (the migrant plex) is reattached
to the original volume, the two FPA logs are merged.
Only the regions that
changed in the original volume are written to the returning migrant plex,
resynchronizing the plex with the original volume in much less time than usually
required.
The FPA log also ensures that changes to the secondary volume are
in effect thrown away, and that the corresponding regions from the primary
volume are also written to the returning migrant plex.
1.5 Ensuring Metadata Integrity by Freezing Domains
The
freezefs
command causes a domain to enter into
a metadata-consistent state and guarantees that it stays that way until it
is explicitly thawed with the
thawfs
command, or the freeze
time expires.
All of the filesets in the domain are frozen.
All
metadata, which could be spread across multiple volumes or logical units (LUNs),
is flushed to disk and does not change for the duration of the freeze.
When you freeze a file system, all in-process file system operations are allowed to complete. Some file system operations that do not require metadata updates (for example, read) work normally even if the file system is frozen.
Once frozen, the file system remains in this metadata-consistent state until it is thawed:
By the issuance of the
thawfs
command
In a cluster, by shutting down any node of a frozen file system or if any cluster member fails
By timing out
See
freezefs(8)1.6 The vfast Utility
The
vfast
utility runs at the operating system level
with low overhead, continuously defragmenting and balancing files, consolidating
free space and distributing the file I/O over the volumes of a domain.
It
only processes files that are actively being opened and closed.
The utility
automatically runs during periods of low system demand so that system administrators
do not have to take a system off line.
The
vfast
utility balances the available free space
over volumes to maximize file-creation performance.
It defragments all active
files including the
frag
file and the
root tag
file.
The system administrator does not need to perform balance
and defragment maintenance tasks.
The utility also uses file I/O statistics
gathered by the AdvFS kernel to distribute files with high I/O to different
volumes in the domain.
The
vfast
utility takes into account reserved file
access, but it does not move any of the reserved files.
1.7 LUN/UNIT Expansion
You can increase the amount of storage available in your domain by enlarging the size of an existing volume. For example, LSM and hardware RAID controllers support dynamically increasing the size of a volume.
Because expanding the size of an LSM or hardware RAID volume is done
independently of AdvFS, you must notify the domain when the size of a volume
changes by using the
mount
command with the
-o
extend option.
If the fileset is not already mounted, enter:
mount -o extend domain#fileset /mountpoint
If the fileset is already mounted, enter:
mount -u -o extend domain#fileset /mountpoint
For non-LSM volumes, you must first modify the disk label to include
additional storage.
See
disklabel(8)
When you use the
-o
extend option, all additional
storage is available to all filesets in the domain.
1.8 Security
The following notes describe changes and enhancements to the security
features of the operating system.
1.8.1 Secure Shell
The Secure Shell software is client/server software that provides a suite of network commands to create a secure connection for all data that is exchanged via a Secure Shell command.
You can use the Secure Shell commands in addition to or in place of traditional nonsecure network commands. The following table describes the traditional nonsecure network commands and the equivalent Secure Shell command:
| Traditional Commands | Equivalent Secure Shell Commands |
rsh |
ssh2 |
rlogin
or
telnet |
ssh2 |
rcp
or
ftp |
scp2
or
sftp |
1.8.2 Single Sign On Moved to the Operating Ssystem CD-ROM
Single Sign On (SSO) is optional client/server software that uses Kerberos
technology to provide secure communication for the
ftp,
rcp,
rlogin,
rsh, and
telnet
network commands and for applications that use Kerberos.
The OSFSSOW2K540 software subset that contains the SSO software has
been moved from the Associated Products CD-ROM, Volume 2, to the Tru64
UNIX Operating System CD-ROM.
In order to load this subset, you must
select it from the list of optional subsets.
1.8.3 Common Data Security Architecture (CDSA)
CDSA shipped as an Advanced Developers Kit with Version 5.1 and Version 5.1A. With this release of the operating system, CDSA is integrated into the base operating system. CDSA provides the following infrastructure for security services:
Published service provider APIs
Security plug-ins
Common Security Services Manager (CSSM)
For more information, see
CDSA_intro(3)1.8.4 Support for /dev/random
This release of the operating system provides support for
/dev/random
and
/dev/urandom
character device
special files.
These files provide an interface to the kernel random number
generator.
For more information, see
random(4)get_random_bytes(9r)1.9 Netscape 6.2.3 Web Client for Tru64 UNIX
This release of the operating system contains the Netscape 6.2.3 Web Client for Tru64 UNIX as well as Netscape Communicator. The Netscape 6 Web client is the next-generation Web client to the popular Netscape Communicator Web client.
Enter the following command from a terminal window to start the Netscape 6 Web client:
# /usr/bin/X11/netscape6
To set Netscape 6 to be the default Web client for the system, run the following script as a privileged user from a console prompt or a terminal window:
# /usr/opt/netscape6/set_default_client
For additional information about the Netscape 6.2.3 Web client for Tru64
UNIX, refer to the release notes by entering the following URL in a Web browser:
file:/usr/doc/netscape6/release_notes.html
1.10 I18N Support
The following new internationalization features have been added in this release of the operating system:
Support for Unicode Version 3.1.
Unicode (ISO/IEC 10646) is a major I18N character set standard supported by all major operating system vendors and ISVs. Unicode Version 3.1 was approved in May, 2001, and it adds 44,946 new characters to Unicode's repertoire, bringing the total repertoire to 94,140. Most of the new characters are Asian ideographs.
A new set of Unicode locales that use Unicode scalar values as the wide character code for all characters. In addition, there is a simple switching mechanism that allows users to chose the new Unicode or existing dense code locales as the default.
Improved font support for Unicode (UTF-8 based) locales
dxim, a multilingual input server for Simplified
Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, and Phrase input methods.
See
dxim(1X)
The following new features also deserve mention:
Support for ATI RV200 AGP graphics card.
Support for the SDLT320 Tape Drive. For information on configuring this device, see Section 5.3.1
An upgrade to POSIX Threads Library Version 3.20. The upgrade includes numerous bug fixes and changes required to support the AlphaServer ES80 and AlphaServer GS1280 systems.
An update of Java to Version 1.3.1.
Java Version 1.1.8 has
been retired but is still available on the retired subsets directory (Tru64_UNIX_Retired) of the Associated Products Volume 2 CD-ROM.
Java 1.3.1 uses the Fast VM as a default VM.
Fast VM uses more memory
than the Classic VM and may result in low swap space messages.
See the Java
release notes in
/usr/share/doclib/java/index.html
for
more information.
Essential Services Monitor daemon (esmd),
which monitors the availability of essential system daemons.
The
esmd
monitors the Event Manager daemon,
evmd,
and the the Cluster Application Availability daemon,
caad.
Use of the
df
command with the
-h
option, which displays disk space in a human readable format:
/dev/disk/dsk0a 252M 99M 128M 44% / /proc 0 0 0 100% /proc /dev/disk/dsk7e 2596M 734M 1602M 32% /usr var_domain#var 2637M 13M 2618M 1% /var
Limited support for PCI device indictment is included with this release. PCI indictment of the KGPSA adapter is supported on AlphaServer GS80, GS160, GS320, ES45, and DS25 systems.
The return of the previously retired Bookreader (dxbook) application, now available on the Associated Products CD-ROM,
Volume 2.
This application is located in the Tru64_UNIX_Retired directory.