MPE/iX System Utilities Reference Manual (32650-90908)

UPSUTIL for MPE/iX
UPSUTIL OVERVIEW
Chapter 32
235
Introduction of the “user-specified UPS powerfail command file”. This is an MPE/iX CI command file that can
be specified by a configuration command within the UPS Monitor configuration file. When so specified, this
command file will be executed by the MPE/iX CI at a user-specified time following the detection by the UPS
Monitor of a UPS device’s powerfail signal. UPSUTIL itself does not access this file; it merely reports the file's
specification (or lack thereof) in UPSUTIL’s STATUS display.
Product Restrictions & Limitations
Because UPSUTIL was conceived to be a simple-to-use service tool, intended primarily for use by HP support
personnel to help them to verify and troubleshoot the operation of the UPS Monitor/iX subsystem, UPSUTIL
is not a “full-blown” MPE/iX software product implementation. In its initial implementation, UPSUTIL has
the following restrictions and limitations. These could be alleviated by future enhancements if warranted.
Batch Mode Limitations
UPSUTIL is primarily intended to be operated interactively from an online user’s terminal within an MPE/iX
session, and although it can be operated within a batch job, it does not implement the file I/O functions that
batch-mode applications usually possess.
In particular, UPSUTIL assumes that its Input and Output files comprise an MPE/iX “duplicative file set”
(i.e., input records that are read from the Input file are automatically written to and appear on the Output
file), and so it makes no checks for duplicative input/output files and no provision for echoing the input
records to the output file when the file set is not duplicative, as is the case in a batch job.
So, while it is permissible to run UPSUTIL from a batch job, taking UPSUTIL’s command inputs from
$STDIN (or from a file-equated INPUT file) and writing UPSUTIL’s output to $STDLIST (or to a file-equated
OUTPUT file), when UPSUTIL is run in this fashion the commands read from INPUT will not be echoed to
the OUTPUT file.
Language Localization Limitation
UPSUTIL has made no provisions for national language localization. Instead, to speed development, as
assumption was made that since the primary users of UPSUTIL will be HP support personnel, probably in
the HP Response Centers, it will be acceptable to have an English-language-only implementation.
Consequently, all UPSUTIL command input and display and error message output is hard-coded in English
language in the ASCII character set.
UPSUTIL User Interface
Type of User Interface
The UPSUTIL user interface is a simple “line mode” command and response interface, suitable for use on
direct-connected user terminals and dial-up modem-connected remote user terminals with no special
hardware features required in the terminal (e.g., no graphics capability is needed).
UPSUTIL sequentially prompts the user for the next command (using the UPSUTIL command prompt shown
at the bottom of Figure 32-1), reads the user’s command from the Input file, executes the command, and
displays the command's results (including warning or error messages, if any) on the Output file.
UPSUTIL Commands Summary
The UPSUTIL commands are syntactically very simple: each command consists only of a single
command-name keyword, such as “start”.