kellym@tekgen.UUCP (10/30/87)
Keywords:analyze/error I have heard that DEC will be removing the analyze/error command from version 5 and that they intend that proprietary software (VaxSim, SPEAR, etc.) will be the only means of displaying detailed hardware error information. This may not seem too terrible to those of you who have DEC maintenance contracts and therefore have these software packages on your systems by virtue of your maintenance contract, but for those of us in the self maintenance business this could mean many thousands of dollars in additional support costs for each system we maintain. Also not all of this software is available to the general public, SPEAR for example is not for sale at any price. This seems to me to be a giant step backward in maintenance philosophy. From what I have seen and heard of VaxSim and SPEAR, they do not provide the kind of detail that is required (and is provided by analyze) to properly diagnose hardware faults. That detail is and would still be available from off-line diagnostics but that requires bringing the system down and running those diagnostics to get the same information that we can currently get before shutting a system down. Has anyone in netland heard this nasty rumor? Better yet, can anyone tell me if it's true or provide any additional information. Thanks, Kelly McConnell