Red Box release 2: Notice 8/1

February 1998

Enhancements and corrections to Red Box release 2: Red Box PC client version 2.00h and server amendment rb1.35_serverplatform_014

Applicability

This notice applies to Red Box PC client software version 2.00a and Red Box server software versions 1.35/6 and later. In addition to new enhancements and corrections, it incorporates all server software corrections made available since the issue of Red Box release 2.

Problems

See the Appendix to this notice for details of the problems resolved by Red Box PC client version 2.00h and server amendment rb1.35_serverplatform_014.

Correction

If your site wishes to use a dynamic IP address allocation scheme (using Novix or Cytrix for example), you must implement the client software and server amendment at the same time.

If your site uses static IP addresses, you can carry out a phased implementation of the client and server amendments. You must apply the server amendment first. Red Box version 2.00a PC clients will run successfully with the amended server, although most of the problems described in the Appendix will remain outstanding. You can then progressively upgrade the Red Box PC clients to version 2.00h.

To prepare for the Red Box server amendment

If you have changed the Oracle passwords from their issued defaults, reset them to the defaults.

Ensure that the Oracle7 tablespaces USRDATA and USRINDEX have sufficient free space for the amendment, as described below. For details of the commands named in this step, see the Red Box System Administrator’s Guide.

a) Display the current space usage:

The values in the Free column for USRDATA and USRINDEX must be greater than 1280 (5 Mbytes).

Exit from rboxdba.

b) If either USRDATA or USRINDEX have a Free value less than 1280:

Log in as rboxsw.
Run ucrbextend and add a data file of at least 15 Mbytes to the tablespace(s).
Exit from rboxsw.

To apply the Red Box server amendment

The Red Box server amendment requires 50 Mbytes free disk space in the rboxsw user partition. Close your Red Box service, and take a full backup using ucrbbckfull. Apply the Red Box amendment rb1.35_serverplatform_014 as described in the Applying amendments chapter of the Red Box System Administrator’s Guide. The amendment raises Red Box to version 1.35/14. No changes to Red Box licensing are required.

After applying the amendment you must re-enable the Email interface to Red Box. Follow the instructions in step 7, chapter 3 Server installation of the Red Box release 2 Installation Guide.

ucrbpatchundo is not supplied in this amendment; after applying the amendment, reversion is possible only by restoring from the full backup.

To install the Red Box PC client

Install the new Red Box PC client by following the instructions in Part II PC Installation of the Red Box release 2 Installation Guide.

Availability

The new PC client and server amendment are enclosed with the hard copy of this notice.

The software is not available from Ultracomp’s web site. To receive the client software on 1.44Mb disc and the server amendment on QIC150, 4mm DAT or 8mm Exabyte tape, please call the Ultracomp Support Centre on 0118 973 3456.

Appendix: enhancements and corrections in this notice

Administration

Problem reference	Description
RBOX/3098	Some users have experienced difficulty when the system requests that they change their password. Red Box has been enhanced so that the login and Red Box User dialogs for changing passwords now say "Enter Password (Twice)" around the two password fields
RBOX/3118	Changes to slot assignments may be lost if the user modifies one group's information and then clicks on another row of the list. The user may find that only the last group changed retains its changes, or that all the changes are lost.
RBOX/3150	Team and Team Member screens are not consistent.
RBOX/3238	Assert failure checking field changes, when q the record type has no field changes, and user requests test all, and q the record type does have field changes, user requests test all and asks to remove successful tests from the list.

Change Management

Problem reference	Description
RBOX/3094	When a user has only 1 slot they cannot use change capture as both Change Management and Configuration Management must be loaded. Red Box has been enhanced so that when the user goes into capture mode, Configuration Management is automatically loaded if necessary, ignoring the slot limit. When the user closes capture mode, Configuration Management is unloaded if it has been loaded automatically.
RBOX/3095	RFC Copy copies across expected implementation date from originating RFC instead of setting the date to new value of "Date Required".
RBOX/3171	If the status of active RFCs is changed manually, Periodic incorrectly resets the status to that of the current control point when doing Next Stage processing.
RBOX/3196	Change Management has been enhanced to allow non-team members to amend dates on RFCs that they have created, until the RFC is started. Once the RFC is started, either team member or supervisor access is required.
RBOX/3207	CM-ACTION does not check for team assignment, allowing change of status by users who are not in the correct team.
RBOX/3209	When viewing a list of controls (Assessments, Progress Reports etc.), the history selected by the history button may be from the wrong RFC. Completing a control may also associate its history record with the wrong RFC.
RBOX/3215	Excessive time is taken to collect the data for the control point list screen. Red Box has been enhanced to only collect data for those types that the RFC/Model uses.
RBOX/3216	Change Management does not allow the Target User to be changed once the control has been started. Red Box has been enhanced to allow the supervisor to change the target user once the control has been started.
RBOX/3217	If the user copies an unstarted RFC it correctly maintains the Prefix, Impact & Priority values on the copied RFC. However, if the user copies a started RFC these fields incorrectly revert to their default settings.
RBOX/3246	Drag-and-drop linking can fail to link records when one record type is not under change control. If a link is successfully made the change details are visible in the change set but not beneath the affected record.
RBOX/3247	Red Box Change Management has been enhanced to allow a user who is not a team member to add resources to an RFC if the user is a target user for an assessment or progress report within that control point.

Help Desk / Problem Management

Problem reference	Description
RBOX/3103	For New Call, Existing Incidents tab, Red Box has been enhanced to display the count of incidents on the title bar when the incidents have been selected.
RBOX/3121	For New Call, Existing Incidents tab, newly created incidents do not appear on existing incidents list. If the user has previously viewed existing incidents, and then creates a new one, the list is not refreshed automatically on going to the existing incidents list.
RBOX/3129	The clear form of Status is incorrectly used to determine valid next states. Consequently, if Status names are changed and then subsequently reverted to their original values, incidents created with the changed Status name cannot be matched.
RBOX/3146	Data is lost switching tabs on new call screen; if the tab is manually switched after entering data in a field which is not set to react immediately to new values (e.g. the phone or details fields), entered data is discarded.
RBOX/3194	Trailing white space on user/department notes crashes Windows 3.x. When the notes field is being displayed in a message box, on incident or call create, it can crash Windows in KRNL386.
RBOX/3214	Incidents do not show the latest status after an associated problem is resolved.
RBOX/3221	Problem Management: on the 'PR Prefix - View' screen, the 'Re-Opened' check box should be read-only.
RBOX/3287	User may specify dates beyond permitted maximum values. When the incident defaults are set to use the submission date as the basis for impact date calculations (target resolution etc.), the impact assigned on date should be the submission date, not the current date/time.

Operations Control

Problem reference	Description
RBOX/3126	Red Box Operations Control manager may in some circumstances crash when it receives a Sceptre-Overlord alert report which has the ‘Unit of measurement’ character set to ‘M’ (Milliseconds). Symptoms of the crash include ‘manager unavailable’ events recorded in the Red Box database, and the presence of a UNIX core file.

Report Definition / Reporting

Problem reference	Description
RBOX/2245	A report query can be constructed which when executed has insufficient brackets; this joins tables incorrectly, returning too many records.
RBOX/3087	Changes to a report definition enquiry and certain changes via direct section editing do not cause local cache to be flushed.
RBOX/3100	Date literals used in a report enquiry generate incorrect selection terms.
RBOX/3131	The date/time a report is run is kept in the Red Box PC cache and is incorrectly used the next time the report is run.
RBOX/3145	Lists extracted using ? button cannot be printed.
RBOX/3161	Printing of lists sometimes produces overlapping or too tightly wrapped columns, and changes made to the list on screen are not reflected by the report.
RBOX/3173	Using real variables in Report Definition can cause the pc to hang.
RBOX/3200	Red Box reporting causes GPF in UCRP200.DLL @ 000C:15E2 when the user edits the report definition of a sub report that has recently been run.
RBOX/3205	Red Box graphs cause a GPF in module GSWAG16.DLL at 000d:0000a310 when data is not present for the graph format. The error occurs when using summary data, maximum or minimum values, and these values are not available.
RBOX/3299	Red Box reporting causes GPF in UCUS200A when a report assigns a database field with 255 characters or more to a string variable. The problem has been corrected by ensuring that only 255 characters are copied to a string variable.
RBOX/3309	Red Box interim version 2.00g has no capability to change graph definitions. The Graph tab on graph format create and amend screens has the graphics server icons greyed out, so the graph cannot be customised.
RBOX/3310	Red Box reporting causes GPF in UCDB200.DLL @ 000a:0032 when a View Graph Format search retrieves only 1 format.
RBOX/3315	Red Box reporting issues "The currently selected printer is invalid, please use Print Setup to correct it" when a printer name or URL contains spaces.

Server / User interface

Problem reference	Description
RBOX/2184	When a Red Box record is being updated it is locked, and updates by other users are rejected with a message that it is already being updated by another user. Red Box has been enhanced so that the record locked error message will now contain the name of the Red Box User holding the lock.
RBOX/2261	ucrbbatch intermittently causes a Bus Error (Core dump) at ucrbbatch closedown. The core dump is reported after ‘Completed OK’has been output.
RBOX/2772	Date format on outward email incorrect. The space between month and year is missing, causing date interpretation problems in some mail gateways.
RBOX/2857	Dynamic IP allocation schemes can cause Red Box problems. Systems such as the Cytrix NT application server, and Novix's dynamic IP address allocation/ fixed fallback connection mechanisms, can lead to Red Box disconnections. Red Box has been enhanced by changing the identification strategy on login to allow multiple connections from one IP address. If the IP address is in use, the Red Box client checks for a pre-existing session for the same Red Box user from that address. If there is no pre-existing session for that Red Box user, login proceeds immediately. If a session does already exist for that user, the user is given the opportunity to confirm that they want a new session; if a new session is required, the old session is then terminated.
RBOX/2980	ucrbbatch does not delete records unless a FIND_QUERY containing (Obsolete,=,@"0") is initially supplied.
RBOX/2994	Spurious error messages output to the master server's trace file.
RBOX/3068	Numeric fields on select screens do not ignore single space, producing the message "The value supplied for ... must not be a sign or decimal point alone".
RBOX/3086	After amending a list definition via Options and closing the list, when the user subsequently reopens the list its window size has been reset to the issued value.
RBOX/3092	ucrbbatch RFC complete_create does not copy model. When the prefix has a default model and the copy model on create flag set, ucrbbatch's complete_ create special action should perform the copy. The RFC is being created without its model attached, and without any notification being performed.
RBOX/3093	Periodic may loop on AIX when reactivating an incident, if the reactivation requires that targets or reminders be adjusted.
RBOX/3097	ucrbbatch Incident Creation fails to set flags. When creating multiple incidents in a single pass, some actions and default values may not be supplied as expected.
RBOX/3104	The message pop-up acknowledge option can cause Red Box to time out if the user ignores the acknowledge message.
RBOX/3106	ucrbbatch connections remain logged in, consuming slots. The session details records can show finished batch processes as still logged in, and consequently they incorrectly retain their reserved slots
RBOX/3111	Novix and Cytrix can't run multiple Red Box connections: see RBOX/2857.
RBOX/3128	Red Box has been enhanced to give a Cancel option on the refreshed list dialog "Do you wish this to be the refreshed selection?".
RBOX/3176	Delayed update can become frozen, causing the message pop-up to show the same values continuously.
RBOX/3179	Delayed update can dump when tidying processes.
RBOX/3204	Suspend session can cause the error "there is no list definition for dataset 149 context 0" if the session is suspended without having first either displayed the message popup or General, Messages selected.
RBOX/3206	Various corrections and enhancements to Red Box graphing: q Using options on a graph format list loses bitmap column. The standard list starts with a bitmap column, but list amendment does not show this column entry, and after amendment it has been lost. q More explicit graphing error messages and validation of selection fields. q Graph Create, Label column drop down - use of control keys on this combo causes focus to revert to the field above (format name).
RBOX/3208	Red Box list retrieval count is incorrect if the user's retrieval limit is set to -1 (unlimited) and a search finds more than the maximum 8000 list items.
RBOX/3220	Red Box server completely stopped, processes looping. All Red Box activity eventually ceases, with one or more processes consuming significant processor time. Red Box cannot be closed down normally; rboxlist also loops if used to obtain evidence.
RBOX/3222	Embedded file reference: if a leading or trailing space is included in the file reference, Red Box fails to open the file.
RBOX/3224	Periodic should close down tidily when killed, with improved messages sent to the .trc log file.
RBOX/3239	Suspend incorrectly proceeds when list refresh is running, subsequently causing a hang-up.
RBOX/3240	Suspend fails to report database errors.
RBOX/3280 RBOX/3288	Red Box has been enhanced to issue a warning that the site Red Box licence will expire shortly. The warning is issued only to users who have Supervisor access to the licence record.
-	Red Box has been enhanced so that when Red Box dialogs are resized, buttons on the dialog are also resized proportionally.
-	Red Box has been enhanced: the delimiter for CSV list files generated on a particular PC now defaults to the value defined by the Windows List separator. The default value can be overridden by setting the Red Box CSV Separator field, accessed via File, Preferences, INI File Options, General Options.