[HECnet] Latest version of NETUPDATE.COM available

[Steve Davidson]

For those of you interested, the latest version of NETUPDATE.COM is available
at SGC::[DECNET]NETUPDATE.COM.   This is now its permanent home.

This file may live anywhere you wish on your system.   It is much more advanced
than any previous version.   You do not need to edit this one, in fact if you do
so, then the "auto-update" feature will not function.   It depends on the file
version to keep track of itself.   You will need privileges to execute this.
It is supported on VMS DECnet Phase-IV nodes only!   The first run should be
either using "@" or, "submit/user=SYSTEM".

The procdure is well documented so that you will be able use it as is, or
customize it via logicals.   The logicals (and their defaults) are:

NETUPDATE_MASTER_NODE	      "MIM"	!node to update from
NETUPDATE_SUBMIT_QUEUE	      "SYS$BATCH"	!batch queue to execute from
NETUPDATE_TIME_DELTA	      "+7-"	!update every 7 days
NETUPDATE_UPDATE_FLAG	      "FALSE"	!do NOT automatically update NETUPDATE

MIM contains the HECnet master nodename database.   If you have multiple
machines in your environment, then you should choose one machine to update from
MIM:: and the others should update locally from your "master" node.   This will
minimize the loading on MIM::.   Let's try to do that please.   I don't want to
hear about any problems that this "may" cause MIM:: :-)

SYS$BATCH is on most machines so this made sense to make it the default batch
queue to use.   My systems have dedicated system management queues so I change
the value of this logical.   In my case it runs on SYS$INIT2.   If you would like
more information about how my startups are optimized then send mail directly.

It seems that running this update procedure every 7 days is sufficient for
most systems within HECnet.   You are certainly free to change the default to
whatever you need.   You can always manually force the batch job to run at any
time should you need to.   It will resubmit automatically and revert to your
defaults.

NETUPDATE by default will NOT update itself to the latest version.   I have
decided that you need to make this decision for yourself.   I do encourage you
to allow it to self-update but I will NOT force anyone to do so.

These logicals should be defined is SYS$COMMON:[SYSMGR]SYLOGICALS.COM should
you choose to use them.   Again,   never never edit NETUPDATE.COM directly.

Here are "my" suggested values for SYLOGICALS.COM:

$ DSE	    == "DEFINE/SYSTEM/EXECUTIVE_MODE"

$ DSE	    NETUPDATE_MASTER_NODE	"MIM"		!update from MIM::
$ DSE	    NETUPDATE_SUBMIT_QUEUE	"SYS$BATCH"	!rum from SYS$BATCH
$ DSE	    NETUPDATE_TIME_DELTA		"+7-"		!update every 7 days
$ DSE	    NETUPDATE_UPDATE_FLAG	"TRUE"		!update NETUPDATE.COM

If you have any questions or problems please let me know.   This has been in 
field test for a while (thank you to those who allowed me to "abuse" your
system(s)).   This version is edit level 4 (and so is the file version).   Edit
levels 5 and 6 are under development with 5 soon to be submitted for field
testing.   If you have a wish list item for this process, let me know.   I will
take a look and we can go from there.

Enjoy!

-Steve