CONFCALL: FAQ for Extended Services/2 1.0 and LAN Server 2.0

The following questions and answers may be of value to early users of OS/2 Base 6.177H, and associated Extended Services/2 1.0 and LAN Server 2.0.

The information is grouped into the following general categories, but a perusal of the entire file is suggested to ensure information regarding your area of interest has not been incorrectly cataloged:
 * Base Operating System
 * Communication Manager
 * Database
 * LAN Server
 * NOVELL
 * General/Installation

BASE OPERATING SYSTEM QUESTIONS
Q01. How will instructions for emulating 1.3 User Interface "look-and-feel" be provided with this driver?

A. The "Getting Started with the WorkPlace Shell" document, Chapter 2 contains initial instructions on how to closely emulate the 1.3 interface. A few steps needed to emulate additional interface details are missing, but documentation on how these can be accomplished will be forthcoming.

Q02. When can we look for the arrival of an 802.2 Virtual Device Driver?

A. This is a high priority known requirement; no commitment exists to provide at GA.

Q03. Are 32-bit PM and Seamless Windows support provided in this driver?

A. Most of PM is still 16-bit code at this point. The Graphics Engine is being rewritten in 32-bit, and will be available at GA. The XGA driver, GRE and a few others are still 16-bit.

Q04. Is there support for the additional SCSI adapters in this driver?

A. Some additional SCSI adapter work has been done with this driver, but has not been fully tested. Additional data on support for major SCSI adapters is expected at GA.

Q05. Is support for the Virtual HLLAPI in MVDM provided in this driver?

A. Virtual HLLAPI support should be present in both Base and Extended Services with this driver.

Q06. Are the HPFS Performance considerations described in earlier restrictions documents lifted yet?

A. Although there has been much work done in this area, the restrictions have not been lifted yet, and work to optimize and tune both HPFS and FAT file systems is still underway.

Q07. Is there full 8514 and XGA Support in this driver?

A. Support is provided. We have it working on a 90, are aware of some who have had problems with it on a 95. Please report any problems to the EEP Bulletin Board.

Q08. Is full color on the 8514/A, with all 255 colors, provided with this driver?

A. Yes.

Q09. Is the WorkPlace Shell product functionally complete in this driver?

A. Functionally, yes. Changes between now and GA to refine function and look of the interface are highly likely. Much of this change will be the result of feedback from early programs such as the EEP.

Q10. Will there be CDRom or Read/Write Optical support for docs with this driver or at GA?

A. No such distribution media is announced for GA at this time.

Q11. Is there a way to install OS/2 2.0 without Windows support?

A. Yes, when beginning the installation, indicate you want to select installable features. Then you can select DOS Only (radio button) and you do not need to install Windows. This gives you DOS Emulation and MVDM support.

Q12. Will CSET/2 and Borland Turbo C run in the VDM, particularly with regard to debugging?

A. IBM CSET/2 includes a 32-bit compiler only, and will not support 16-bit applications; thus, it will not operate in a VDM nor develop apps to run in a 16-bit environment.

It's too early to comment on Borland, but we expect to have more information shortly.

Note the following FTN of interest to all EEP customers:

2/27 Preview of 32-bit tools, including Borland, CSET/2...

This is the beginning of a series of some 6 FTNs to be aired April-June '92, to address each of the above products, including Borland and two other C compilers.

Finally, the IBM C/2 and its debugger will run in the VDM.

Q13. When will you be able to disable a Windows application from opening another session which can link to additional resources. the ability to trap a user in this way into a single session (as an option) is a security option already available in Windows.

A. We do not anticipate this capability being available at GA.

Q14. With OS/2 MVDM, can you segregate the printout coming from multiple VDMs by directing the output from each to different queues, then releasing those as the jobs complete?

A. No capability is provided to direct output from separate VDMs to separate queues. If your VDMs are using the print spooler, their output is naturally separated, and will print separately as each VDM completes its printing.

Q15. Is there any native device driver support for the HP DeskJet 500 printer or other HP DeskJet printers?

A. Deskjet is emulated as an Epson printer. There is no native DeskJet printer driver provided with OS/2 native or Windows under OS/2. Native support is a known requirement, but we are not able to commit support at this time.

Q16. We are happy to have the SAA HLLAPI functions in REXX to allow HLLAPI calls. Are there any plans to add additional PM calls, e.g. Dialog Boxes, List Boxes?

A. 1. No current plans exist to provide additional capability to REXX to do PM calls. We will forward this request.

2. At Technical Seminars this past year, Object-oriented REXX was described as the direction we wanted to take; implementation could remove all programming boundaries for REXX. There is no announced plan at this point.

Q17. What about AS/400 Support in MVDM with this driver?

A. AS/400 support in a VDM does not work in this driver, but is being addressed by development as a bug. System test is working on the problem.

Note that the 5250 Workstation Feature 1.3 via Communications Manager should work.

COMMUNICATION MANAGER QUESTIONS
Q18. How easily migratable is a 1.3 NS2 configuration: is the NDF migratable over to 2.0?

A. Raleigh indicates 1.3 NDF will be migrated to an APPN definition for you - perhaps via a migration utility.

Q19. TCP/IP Version 1.2 - does version 1.2 (designed to work with OS/2) work with this driver?

A. We have customers running with TCP/IP 1.2 today under driver 177H. There has been no announced plan for support for TCP/IP on OS/2 2.0, but we expect this will happen sometime after GA of 2.0.

DATABASE QUESTIONS
Q20. Database Tables - are they migratable from the 167F level to 177H?

A. Migration should work with this drop - any problems, please report to the Bulletin Board.

Q21. What is the status of Downlevel Database Server support - does the announcement letter indicate this support is provided, and will it be available at GA?

A. OS/2 Extended Services 1.0 did not announce support for "downlevel" Servers, and it is not planned for GA.

LAN SERVER QUESTIONS
Q22. NetWare Requestor and Communications Manager on the same system - there was a problem with coexistence with these packages in a previous driver - has the problem been fixed with this driver?

A. Yes, the problem is resolved with 177H.

Q23. LAN Install - will it be supported with response files in this drop? And where is it documented? (OS/2 Forums indicate "people" have it working. Will it be supported?

A. This function is not supported at this time.

Q24. With OS/2 Base and NetWare Requestor installed, I am having a problem getting to other servers over Novell routers. Is this a restriction or known problem?

A. This should work, and it if is failing on your system, please report the problem on the bulletin board.

Q25. Is it possible to install the new Lan Server over previous Beta code and still maintain all your aliases and user definitions? Will user profile information be maintained?

A. Support is provided in this driver.

Q26. Can I run the LAN Server or Requestor (2.0) without Extended Services installed, or is Extended Services required?

A. Lan Server does not require ES, unless your requestors will also need host access instead of simply running on the LAN. Extended Services is not a prereq in the Requestor instance either.

Q27. Documentation indicates LAN Server works on 2.0. It appears to be running at one account on OS/2 2.0 177H, although the supplied statement of support indicates it must be installed on 1.30.2. What is the proper answer (for Entry Server), and what is supported by Service Delivery?

A. After checking with development, we have learned that the Entry Server code was not able to complete testing on 2.0 base, partly because not all the required modules were completed by package ship time. Therefore our position remains that 1.30.2 base is required, and LAN Server on a 2.0 base is NOT supported with this driver.

Q28. Access to both DOS public and OS/2 public applications: Can we run a DOS application from an OS/2 LAN requestor?

A. (The following was condensed from an EEP Bulletin Board response from a Austin development) The development lab has tested a means to get to a DOS public application on an OS/2 2.0 requester. Please take a look at this method and provide feedback. If response is positive, it will be incorporated into the publications for LAN Server 2.0.

1. Define a public OS/2 application with the following characteristics: Drive: C Path: \OS2 Command Line: CMD /C C:\OS2\MDOS\DEBUG (insert path \\ to your DOS app) 2. Add the app to the program starter list for your OS/2 2.0 requester.

3. At the requester, log on, open the public applications group and double click the application icon.

4. There you go... your DOS app should be up and running. (In the above example, the DOS DEBUG command will run.)

If you If you try and like this function and approach, please provide feedback via the bulletin board.

NOVELL QUESTIONS
Q29. What documentation is available for the Novell 177H Driver?

A. Diskette read.me files are available for the NetWare requestor installation, and for the patch diskette.

Q30. Windows Emulation part of OS/2: Attached to a Novell server via Novell Requestor, and we pass information to LPT1. If we print to that printer through the Windows emulation part of OS/2, we get printer errors though we're actually attached onto that printer.

(Printer is PostScript. This, net, is a request to print to a printer defined on the Novell Server from Windows)

Response from another caller: Documentation from Netware indicates when you are running Windows and you are hooked into LPT1, even when you send the job to LPT1, it can't go to the Network printer, but is instead put on a printer locally.

A. We are researching this report as a bug, and have reproduced the problem on our systems as well. It seems reasonable that customers who have captured LPT1 output for targeting to a Novell Server-attached printer should be able to do so, but coming through Emulated Windows, the output appears to go direct to the local printed. In our test, we did not get printer errors documented in the question, and will follow-up with the author to determine more precise information on his environment.

If we get any further feedback on this issue, we will update this item on the bulletin board.

GENERAL/INSTALLATION QUESTIONS
Q31. Will installation of this driver require reformat of the partition?

A. The requirement to format or not is summarized in the following tables:


 * New Base must be installed with Format option

Note: ES/LS may NOT be installed over 1.3 EE.

Q32. Does this mean you can't handle any existing .INI files?

A. .INI files are not properly handled at this time.

Q33. How do current packages such as LDU (LAN Distribution Utility) handle the subsequent updating of workstations with OS/2 2.0?

A. This environment is not handled in this driver, and not planned for support at GA.

Q34. Will we have to do an install of all features of the Base to use Extended Services or LAN Requestor components in this drop?

A. No, installation of all features of the base is NOT a requirement to use Extended Services or LAN Requestor in this driver.

Q35. Will we need to reformat when we move from this level of code to the GA level of code?

A. Prior to GA, we expect reformatting to be the standard mode of operation when moving to the next driver. At GA, there should be no reformat requirement if going from OS/2 1.3 or DOS to the GA level.

Q36. Is the need for reformatting only aligned with the FAT file system? Is it still needed w/HPFS where you do not have the ES (Extended Attribute) files?

A. The reformat requirement is independent of file system.

Q37. Install over the network: will it be available with this driver?

A. Install over the network is not available with this driver.

Q38. Please describe LS 2.0 Server Installation over SE and EE systems.

A. Refer to LAN Server 2.0 Migration Handbook, Chapters 6 & 7.

Q39. Can you create a customer install diskette on a previous release to use to install (e.g., custom install from 167 to use on 177?)

A. Custom install is not supported for this driver or for any of the pre-GA code. EE Custom install diskettes are not supported, and custom install will not upgrade configuration files.

Previous ES Driver's Custom Install diskettes are not supported. Neither are previous driver's configuration files. Configuration file formats change during development and only the current format is supported by ES 351.

With this change in file format, it is too early to indicate if custom install diskettes from prior releases will work with the GA product.

Q40. Do the restrictions documents describe migration issues regarding ES installation on existing systems prior to LS installation?

A. No, but the process for installing LS over ES is described in a document referenced in a previous question, the LAN Server 2.0 Migration Handbook.

Q41. Please describe how "over the network" installation is expected to work at GA. Please provide a description of the product, and describe over-the-network application of a CSD.

A. Regarding "over the network" installation, development is still working toward a solution, and cannot document the implementation plan at this time.

Regarding CSD application, CSD install across LAN was not in the OS/2 FixTool plan. Personal Systems is escalating this concern, and working to establish a development/installation plan.

We will provide any further information on either of these two functions as it becomes available.

Q42. What are the current disk space and memory requirements for 177H components? And will GA requirements differ from these?

A. Please refer to the following information extracted from 'production' level documents. Requirements during the 177H driver may be slightly higher.

MEMORY
Here is an extract from the 'production' levels of hardware/software reference materials scheduled soon to go to print. NOTES:
 * 1) Automatically installed but removable by changing the PROTECTONLY=NO statement in the CONFIG.SYS file to PROTECTONLY=YES. This memory is optionally available to OS/2 applications whenever the DOS mode is in the background.
 * 2) Under OS/2 2.0, the amount of memory needed per DOS session is dependant upon the DOS application characteristics, particularly it's use of Extended, Expanded, or DPMI memory.
 * 3) This additional system memory allows better performance for transient conditions such as program loading, program termination, and print spooling.
 * 4) If the 3270 connection is LAN, SDLC, or X.25 (that is, not a DFT coaxial connection), also include APPC.
 * 5) APPC is a prerequisite for this function. (Add the APPC recommended memory to the total only once.)
 * 6) Concurrent file-transfer function requires 0.3MB for each session.
 * 7) Additional memory for database buffer pool or sort heaps for each database may be required depending on the user's workload.
 * 8) Includes the necessary Database Services code. Communications Manager base is required for Remote Data Services.
 * 9) LAN Server information secured from preliminary OS/2 LAN Server documentation. All other materials secured from "Hardware and Software Reference for Extended Services" preliminary copy.
 * 10) Dependent on the application and user. See application documentation

DASD
The following material documents DASD requirements. NOTES:


 * 1) Approximate total of several individually selectable options.
 * 2) A 2 MB to 10MB swap area is adequate for many environments. However, swap area is dynamically allocated as applications require more memory than is available. A swap data set larger or smaller than shown may be needed.
 * 3) This storage is required in the operating system primary (boot) partition.
 * 4) If the 3270 connection is LAN, SDLC, or X.25 (that is, not a DFT coaxial connection), also include APPC.
 * 5) APPC is required for this function. (Include the APPC requirement in the calculations only once.)
 * 6) These features are installed, by default, using Basic or Advanced Install. They may be later removed. The features are optionally installed when Custom Install is used.
 * 7) Communications Manager base is a prerequisites for Remote Data Services. If DOS Database Requester is installed on Database Server, an additional 1.1MB is required.
 * 8) This number is for table definitions and internal structures for each database and does not include user data. It is subject to many variables. Actual requirements may differ.
 * 9) LAN Server information secured from preliminary OS/2 LAN Server documentation.
 * 10) Dependent on the application and user. See application documentation