VIP Product Description

Started in 1994, Mom Software Services has developed a multipurpose monitor utility called VIP, which is an abbreviation of VMS Information Provider. Mom Software Services started developing this utility to anticipate problems in some non-interruptable applications. It resulted into what it is at the moment and it will continue to grow in the near future.

For more info about VIP please visit the following sections:

DESCRIPTION	This section contains a full description of VIP including help and examples.
LICENSE	This section gives a summary of the available license types for VIP.
DOWNLOAD	This section describes how VIP can be downloaded to your environment.
ORDER	This section gives a summary of the prices and describes how to order a VIP license.
PROBLEMS	This section gives a summary of the current known problems in VIP V2.1-2.

When you have special interest in functionality that is not contained within the current VIP version, please let us know because we might implement it in a future release.

VIP is a cluster-wide utility that monitors OpenVMS processes and disk devices, shows specific information and performs predefined actions. The user interface looks like the existing OpenVMS monitor utility. VIP is Year 2000 compliant.

VIP can be an interesting addition for your production environment. It also can help you integrating and testing new and modified software applications. Because of the short and clear user interface and command structure with a great number of selection options, it can find, show or monitor the requested information very fast. For this reason VIP is a fine product to be used together with existing system management utilities.

VIP runs on OpenVMS Alpha V6.2 or higher and on OpenVMS VAX V5.5-2 or higher.

For specific information please visit the following sections:

DEFINITIONS AND GENERAL FUNCTIONS

MONITOR DISK DEVICES

MONITOR MULTIPLE PROCESSES

MONITOR A SINGLE PROCESS

MONITOR LOGINS

DISPLAY INFORMATION

SEARCH AND REPLACE OF A CHARACTER STRING

You also can downdoad the official SPD (Software Product Description) by clicking at:

SPD VIP V2.1, English version, MS Word
 
SPD VIP V2.1, English version, RTF-format
 
SPD VIP V2.1, Nederlandse versie, MS Word
 
SPD VIP V2.1, Nederlandse versie, RTF-format

There are two types of VIP licenses available:

STANDALONE
With the Standalone License, you can use VIP on a standalone node only.

CLUSTER
With the Cluster License you can use VIP in a VMScluster environment. This will give you access to all nodes in a VMScluster and to all cluster-wide mounted disks. If you select this license, the SYSGEN parameter VOTES on the node you specify in the Key Information field of the VIP Order Form, must be greater than zero.

License control
There are two license control mechanisms that give you access to VIP. The first mechanism is the DECnet IV address of a node, the second mechanism is the ethernet address of the ethernet interface of a node. You are free to choose which of the two mechanisms you will like to install on your system.

Upgrades
There are several ways to upgrade your current license:

• You can upgrade your license to use the latest version of VIP. When a new version of VIP comes available, you cannot use that version with your current license, unless you have ordered a Version Upgrade License.

• You can upgrade your license to increase the number of concurrent users.

• You can upgrade your license from a Standalone License to a Cluster License.

Patches
When you have loaded a valid VIP license, you may free download patches for your current VIP version.

VIP will be provided as a self-extracting OpenVMS archive and can be downloaded and stored by clicking on one of the following archives:

VIPVI22: VIP V2.2 for OpenVMS IA64
 
VIPAV212: VIP V2.1-2 for OpenVMS Alpha
 
VIPVV212: VIP V2.1-2 for OpenVMS VAX

When downloaded, transfer the VIP archive to your OpenVMS environment in a separate directory. This can be done by using a utility like FTP in binairy mode. To unpack the stored VIP archive just run it (e.g. $ RUN VIPAV212). The VIP archive will now be unpacked into 4 separate files. One of the unpacked files is called VIP.README which contains further installation instructions. It also contains a 30 day evaluation license. After successful installation of VIP you can use it with full functionality. Please have a look at VIP to find out if the information that VIP shows you satisfies your needs.

If you choose for the ethernet address te be used as the license control mechanism, you will have to know the ethernet address of your ethernet interface(s). If you are running DECnet IV, you can retrieve the ethernet hardware address with the command:

$ MCR NCP SHOW KNOWN LINES CHAR

If you are running DECnet OSI, you can retrieve the ethernet hardware address with the command:

$ MCR NCL SHOW CSMA-CD STATION * ALL STATUS

In stead of the commands above, you also may download and a little program that shows you the ethernet addresses of all ethernet interfaces on your node. It will be provided as a self-extracting OpenVMS archive and can be downloaded and stored by right-clicking on the ALPETHER or on the VAXETHER archive:

IA64ETHER: Show ethernet addresses for OpenVMS IA64
 
ALPETHER: Show ethernet addresses for OpenVMS Alpha
 
VAXETHER: Show ethernet addresses for OpenVMS VAX

When downloaded, transfer the archive to your OpenVMS environment and unpack it by running it (e.g. $ RUN VAXETHER). The archive will now be unpacked into one executable image. This is the program that can be run to show the ethernet addresses.

You may not like the use of self-extracting archives for some reason, but you can imagine that the UNZIP program is not installed on all systems. Self-extracting archives do not need the UNZIP program, because it is contained in the archive itself. If you want to, you still are able to unpack the self-extracting archives using UNZIP.

The price for your site specific VIP license depends on the requested license type and of the number of concurrent users. Determine the license type of your choise and the number of concurrent users for your site and find those values in the tables below. You will find the price of the license at the location in the table where the selected values cross each other. As you can see there are lots of ways to upgrade your current license to a license with more capabilities. So you can start with a small and cheap license and choose an upgrade when your needs are growing.

If you want to order a VIP license, please click with your mouse in the price tables below at the price that is associated with the license of your request. For the correct handling of the order, we need to know some information about your company. For the correct generation of the VIP license key, we need to know some information about your license requirements. These questions will be asked when you click at one of the prices below.

All prices in the tables below are displayed in the Euro () currency and are exclusive VAT (Value Added Tax).

NEW LICENSE
	1 User	5 User	10 User	25 User	Any
Standalone	250.00	490.00	690.00	990.00	1,240.00
Cluster	550.00	1,030.00	1,430.00	2,030.00	2,530.00

VERSION UPGRADE LICENSE
	1 User	5 User	10 User	25 User	Any
Standalone	50.00	100.00	140.00	200.00	250.00
Cluster	110.00	210.00	290.00	410.00	510.00

USER UPGRADE LICENSE - CLUSTER
	5 User	10 User	25 User	Any
1 User to ...	480.00	880.00	1,480.00	1,980.00
5 User to ...		400.00	1,000.00	1,500.00
10 User to ...			600.00	1,100.00
25 User to ...				500.00

Currently no problems have been reported.