STCP’s Duplicate IP Address Detection
STCP has had duplicate IP address detection for quite some time but a change to how Microsoft Windows 2008 and 7 behave has added an interesting wrinkle. First let’s review how it works. Duplicate IP...
View ArticleThird Party Keep-Alives
I recently had a discussion with someone who had run afoul of their corporate firewall settings. The firewall will clear its state table of any connection that has been idle for over 10 minutes....
View ArticleThe Importance of -1
Don’t worry, despite the title I haven’t reverted to math nerd mode. The topic is not number theory but socket programming and a coding mistake that I have seen way too often. The code fragment in...
View ArticleHost versus Hosts
There has been a fair amount of confusion over the difference between the host file and hosts (plural) file. Both files should be in the >system>stcp directory but there the similarity ends. The...
View ArticleTelnet versus SSH
A lot of locations are mandating that you stop connecting to the system with Telnet, and use SSH instead. The rationale is greater security. When you log in using Telnet your password, as well as any...
View ArticleClone Wars
In this post I wish to discuss a common coding error that can result in a module running out of or at least seriously depleting the available number of stcp device clones for use in creating TCP...
View ArticleHow to access the graphical administrative interface of devices on the...
The maintenance network is used by OpenVOS for monitoring several devices including the RAID and SAN disk arrays. This network also allows you access for making configuration changes, debugging...
View ArticleWhat’s up with VOS structured files and POSIX programs?
If you have ever tried to use POSIX-based programs to process VOS structured files, you may have encountered some restrictions or seen some behavior that you didn’t understand. In this post I will try...
View ArticleUpdate to “Changes in the STCP accept code may affect applications”
About 18 months ago I wrote a blog talking about changes in how accept works in OpenVOS release 17.1. What I neglected to indicate was that these changes only take effect if the application code is...
View ArticleRemote Command Execution
Last week (well it was last week when I started writing this) we had an issue come into the CAC where someone wanted to write a command macro that ran telnet to log into a system and execute some...
View ArticleOpenVOS Release 17.2.0 is generally available!
I’m pleased to announce that OpenVOS Release 17.2.0, GNU Tools Release 4.0.0 and Kona for OpenVOS Release 1.1.0 are now generally available. All VOS V Series customers with a maintenance contract are...
View ArticleInconsistent success using public keys
Why is it that from my home directory I can use SSH with public key authentication to log into another host without being prompted for a password? ccd (home_dir) ready 14:24:53 display_current_dir...
View ArticlePotential enhancements to OpenVOS
Here is a short list of useful enhancements to OpenVOS that have been suggested by our customers. I’m interested in learning which of these ideas you think would be the most useful to you and your...
View ArticleFix the algorithm before you fix the code
When you are fixing bugs in existing code, it is easy to fall into the habit of finding the “mistake” in the code and adjusting the code to avoid the mistake. But if the root cause of the problem was a...
View ArticleHow much disk storage can a single VOS module handle?
Today, a customer asked me how much disk storage a single VOS module can address. Here is my response. The per-disk (actually, per LUN) storage limit for all V Series releases is 8.7 TB. A single VOS...
View ArticleUsing a modern copier as a line printer
Does your office have a modern photocopier? One that accepts output via TCP/IP? If so, you can probably configure the OpenVOS spooler to send files to it. Here’s how. The feature that the copier needs...
View ArticleSecurity Updates for Open-Source Software
I was recently asked why Stratus was not providing security updates for customers running OpenSSL on releases of VOS prior to 17.0, when we are still providing updates to customers running OpenSSL on...
View ArticleNew password encryption algorithms are coming!
Starting in OpenVOS Release 18.0, VOS System Administrators will be able to select one of 3 new password encryption algorithms. This post provides an overview of these changes. The existing, legacy VOS...
View ArticleConsidering an “atomic clock”?
Recently, a customer wrote to Stratus Customer Service to ask whether we could recommend an “atomic clock” for use with his OpenVOS system. It seems that this customer does not have access to an NTP...
View ArticleUsing 64-bit Stream Files
VOS stream files are limited in growth to about 2 GB. This is because the definition of interfaces such as s$seq_position, s$get_port_status, s$lock_region, etc. use signed 32-bit variables to indicate...
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