PMDF Installation Guide
OpenVMS Edition


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1.8 Post-Installation Tasks for New Sites

The following is a list of tasks which must be completed following a first installation of PMDF, PMDF-MTA, PMDF-MSGSTORE, PMDF-POPSTORE, and PMDF-TLS.

  1. Run post_install.com : If you are installing PMDF on multiple systems in a cluster with systems on different system disks (for example a mixed-architecture cluster), you should execute the pmdf_com:post_install.com procedure on one system for each distinct system disk, other than the one on which you installed PMDF.
  2. Reinstall dcltables.exe : For any other systems in the cluster, other than those that you did the installation on or you ran post_install.com on, the image sys$library:dcltables.exe must be reinstalled manually using the command:


    $ INSTALL REPLACE SYS$LIBRARY:DCLTABLES.EXE
    

  3. Add pmdf_startup.com to system startup: A command file, pmdf_startup.com , is created by the installation procedure and stored in the SYS$STARTUP directory. This command procedure is used to define PMDF logical names and install PMDF images. Add the following command to your system startup command procedure:


    $ @SYS$STARTUP:pmdf_startup.com
    
    The pmdf_startup.com procedure should be executed before any networks are started. If you want this command procedure to run as a SYSMAN startup task you can use the SYSMAN STARTUP ADD FILE command to enter it into the SYSMAN database. When using SYSMAN, you must ensure that pmdf_startup.com is executed early in the startup phase before any networks have been started. There is no need to stop or shutdown your networks before executing pmdf_startup.com manually if you did not ask KITINSTAL to run pmdf_startup.com during the installation. Just be sure that the order of pmdf_startup.com and pmdf_submit_jobs.com and any commands to start networks and queues is correct in your system startup procedure so when the system reboots PMDF starts properly. Rather than customizing pmdf_startup.com itself, which will be replaced when you upgrade PMDF, you can create a PMDF_COM:pmdf_site_startup.com procedure and put your site specific PMDF definitions in that file. When pmdf_startup.com executes, it checks for the existence of a site-supplied pmdf_site_startup.com procedure and executes it.

  4. Compile the configuration: If this is a new installation on an additional system clustered with a system already running PMDF, that is, a new installation on a system which will share a configuration with an already installed and running PMDF, then if you use a compiled PMDF configuration on the old PMDF system, you will want to install the compiled PMDF configuration on this new system. (If this is a system which will have its own PMDF configuration, this step does not apply.) If the configuration you want to use is already compiled for the current PMDF version for the architecture (VAX, Alpha or I64) of the system you are newly installing on, you can simply install it with the command:


    $ INSTALL CREATE PMDF_CONFIG_DATA/OPEN/SHARED/HEADER
    
    If the old PMDF system is of another architecture type, or if you are upgrading that old system as well as newly installing on the new additional system, then you will need to first generate a newly compiled configuration and then install it with the commands:


    $ PMDF CNBUILD
    $ INSTALL CREATE PMDF_CONFIG_DATA/OPEN/SHARED/HEADER
    
    If PMDF is currently executing on the system, you must also restart it:


    $ PMDF RESTART DISPATCHER
    

  5. Configure queues: You must initialize and start a MAIL$BATCH queue and optionally additional service queues for PMDF processing. Such queues can be regular batch queues or, as is recommended, PMDF Process Symbiont queues to cut down on process creation overhead. The queues must be initialized and started before the second command file mentioned above, pmdf_submit_jobs.com , is executed. Run the PMDF CONFIGURE QUEUES utility to generate queue initialization and queue start procedures suitable for your system; e.g., 4


    $ PMDF CONFIGURE QUEUES
    This utility will create the following command files 
            SYS$STARTUP:PMDF_INIT_QUEUES.COM 
            SYS$STARTUP:PMDF_START_QUEUES.COM 
            SYS$STARTUP:PMDF_STOP_QUEUES.COM 
            SYS$STARTUP:PMDF_DELETE_QUEUES.COM 
     
    How many execution queues do you want? [4] 4
    Do you want all queues to run on this node yournode? [Y] Yes
    Do you want to initalize the queues now? [Y] Yes
    Do you want to start the queues now? [Y] Yes
    
    where your DECnet node name will appear where yournode is shown above. If you have PMDF-MTA licensed on multiple nodes in a cluster, you might want to have execution queues run on the multiple PMDF-MTA nodes for load balancing and redundancy.
    The PMDF CONFIGURE QUEUES utility creates four files in the SYS$STARTUP directory. pmdf_init_queues.com and pmdf_start_queues.com contain sample commands to initialize and start PMDF service queues, respectively; you can customize the queue initialization and start commands in those files, if you want. (The pmdf_stop_queues.com and pmdf_delete_queues.com procedures are provided for convenience in testing, but are generally not used in production setups.) If you want to use the default queue definitions generated by the PMDF CONFIGURE QUEUES utility, answer YES when asked if you want to initialize and start the queues now. So that these queues will be properly initialized and started at system startup, you must add the commands to initialize and start the queues to your system startup procedure. In your system startup procedure, the queue initialization commands, e.g., pmdf_init_queues.com , must be executed after pmdf_startup.com is executed, normally before networking packages PMDF employs have started. The queue start commands, e.g., pmdf_start_queues.com , should generally be issued after all networking packages PMDF employs have started, but must be issued before pmdf_submit_jobs.com is executed. Details on PMDF Process Symbiont queues can be found in the PMDF System Manager's Guide.

  6. Run pmdf_submit_jobs.com : A second command file is created during the installation, pmdf_submit_jobs.com , is used to resubmit PMDF service jobs after a system queue failure or initialization. The procedure pmdf_submit_jobs.com must be executed by your system startup after all networks are started and after the MAIL$BATCH queue and other PMDF service queues have been initialized and started. After initializing the MAIL$BATCH queue as described in the previous step, execute the command


    $ @SYS$STARTUP:pmdf_submit_jobs.com
    
    and then add this command to your system startup procedure. Again, in your system startup procedure, this command procedure must be executed after executing pmdf_startup.com and after all PMDF service queues have been initialized and started. If you want this command procedure to run as a SYSMAN startup task, you can use the SYSMAN STARTUP ADD FILE command to enter it into the SYSMAN database. If using SYSMAN, be sure to execute pmdf_submit_jobs.com in a late startup phase, after your queues are started.

  7. Generate a configuration: Create PMDF's site specific configuration files using the automatic configuration generation utility. Refer to Chapters 3 and 4 (PMDF-MTA regular configuration), or to Chapters 9 and 10 (PMDF-MTA firewall configuration), for information, step-by-step procedures, and a example configuration.
  8. Complete the configuration: When you have generated an initial configuration, you should take whatever steps are needed to complete the configuration of PMDF. The automatic configuration generator produces a check list which details any additional steps required to complete the configuration of PMDF.
  9. Remove DELIVER commands: PMDF-MTA includes a facility called DELIVER, which is an adjunct to VMS MAIL that makes it possible for incoming mail messages to be handled and processed automatically based on information provided in a user supplied file. This integrated version of DELIVER obsoletes an older, standalone version of DELIVER that ran independently of PMDF. If your site had previously been using the older, standalone version of DELIVER, you might have commands to set up DELIVER in your system startup command file. These commands should be removed. You should change references to DELIVER% to IN% format. See the PMDF System Manager's Guide and the PMDF User's Guide, OpenVMS Edition for details on the integrated DELIVER component of PMDF.
  10. Edit SYS$SYLOGIN: If you use the system login command procedure, SYS$SYLOGIN, you probably do not want it to perform its normal action when the PMDF server account logs in. You can avoid this by putting the line:


    $ IF F$EDIT(F$GETJPI("","USERNAME"),"TRIM") .EQS. "pmdfacct" THEN EXIT 
    
    at the beginning of the system login command procedure. pmdfacct is the name of the PMDF server account you previously selected.

  11. Perform image installation of any site-specific images: pmdf_startup.com installs a number of images using the OpenVMS INSTALL utility. These images are listed in the file pmdfimage.dat in the PMDF_COM: directory. The pmdfimage.dat file is reserved for PMDF use and should not be modified. Site-specific images can be installed by using the file siteimage.dat in the PMDF_COM: directory. pmdf_startup.com checks to see if this file exists and installs the images listed in it if it does exist. The siteimage.dat file has the same format as pmdfimage.dat . This format is extremely simple---a file name is specified followed by the appropriate qualifiers for OpenVMS INSTALL. The file name must be separated from the qualifiers by at least one space or tab character. In either case the images specified by pmdfimage.dat will be reinstalled, but this will not hurt anything.
  12. Update Pascal RTL (VAX and Alpha only): Versions of the HP Pascal RTL (Run Time Library) earlier than V5.0-15 (VAX) or V5.0-18 (Alpha) were not fully thread-safe; PMDF's multithreaded SMTP server and multithreaded SMTP client were liable to exercise these problems. Hewlett-Packard Corporation has given Process Software permission to distribute an updated version of their Pascal RTL for VAX and Alpha. As of PMDF V5.0-6, the PMDF installation procedure will check the version of the Pascal RTL installed on the system on which you install PMDF, and will install an updated Pascal RTL, pasrtl.exe (VAX) or pas$rtl.exe (Alpha), if your system is running OpenVMS 6.1 or later and is using an older version of the RTL. This new version of the Pascal RTL will be included in the next releases of OpenVMS and HP Pascal for OpenVMS. If you are running a shared PMDF configuration on a cluster, then note that the PMDF installation will only update the Pascal RTL on the node on which you perform the installation; you must separately update the Pascal RTL on any other system disks. (Sites running PMDF on a mixed architecture cluster or on a cluster with multiple system disks should note that post_install.com does not update the Pascal RTL; you must still update the Pascal RTL separately.) See Appendix A for details.
  13. Configure components: If you will be using PMDF-MSGSTORE or PMDF-POPSTORE, then you should configure them now. Configuration instructions for PMDF-MSGSTORE and PMDF-POPSTORE can be found in Chapters 7 and 8.

Note

4 Using PMDF Process Symbiont queues significantly reduces process creation overhead in general. The commands to initialize and start a generic MAIL$BATCH queue feeding four PMDF Process Symbiont execution queues would be


$ 
        INITIALIZE/QUEUE/START/DEVICE=SERVER/NOENABLE_GENERIC - 
        /PROCESSOR=PMDF_PROCESS_SMB/PROTECTION=(S:RWE,O:RWD,G:R,W:R) 
        PMDF_1$ 
        INITIALIZE/QUEUE/START/DEVICE=SERVER/NOENABLE_GENERIC - 
        /PROCESSOR=PMDF_PROCESS_SMB/PROTECTION=(S:RWE,O:RWD,G:R,W:R) 
        PMDF_2$ 
        INITIALIZE/QUEUE/START/DEVICE=SERVER/NOENABLE_GENERIC - 
        /PROCESSOR=PMDF_PROCESS_SMB/PROTECTION=(S:RWE,O:RWD,G:R,W:R) 
        PMDF_3$ 
        INITIALIZE/QUEUE/START/DEVICE=SERVER/NOENABLE_GENERIC - 
        /PROCESSOR=PMDF_PROCESS_SMB/PROTECTION=(S:RWE,O:RWD,G:R,W:R) 
        PMDF_4$ 
        INITIALIZE/QUEUE/START/DEVICE=SERVER/GENERIC=(PMDF_1,PMDF_2,PMDF
        _3,PMDF_4) - /PROTECTION=(S:RWE,O:RWD,G:R,W:R) 
        MAIL$BATCH
Or if you prefer to use a regular batch queue for PMDF processing, you can execute a command such as

$ 
        INITIALIZE/QUEUE/START/BATCH/BASE_PRIORITY=4/JOB_LIMIT=4 
        MAIL$BATCH


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