$/3+$ 0,&526<67(06 5,*+7 )520 7+( 67$57 $/3+$ 0,&526<67(06 5,*+7 )520 7+( 67$57 $/3+$ 0,&526<67(06 5,*+7 )520 7+( 67$57 $/3+$ 0,&526<67(06 5,*+7 )520 7+( 67$57 $/3+$ 0,&526<67(06 5,*+7 )520 7+( 67$57 $/3+$ 0,&526<67(06 5,*+7 )520 7+( 67$57 $/3+$ 0,&526<67(06 Eagle 250 Computer Owner's Manual 5,*+7 )520 7+( 67$57 $/3+$ 0,&526<67(06 5,*+7 )520 7+( 67$57 $/3+$ 0,&526<67(06 5,*+7 )520 7+( 67$57 $/3+$ 0,&526<67(06 5,*+7 )520 7+( 67$57 $/3+$ 0,&526<67(06 5,*+7 )520 7+(
© 2000 ALPHA MICROSYSTEMS FIRST EDITION: July 2000 01 Version - January 2001 To re-order this document, request part number DSO-00221-00. FCC Notice This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digital device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference when the equipment is operated in a commercial environment.
Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 -INTRODUCTION THE EAGLE 250 DOCUMENTATION PACKAGE What’s in This Book? Graphic Conventions HARDWARE FEATURES Options SOFTWARE FEATURES CHAPTER 2 -USING YOUR COMPUTER FRONT PANEL CONTROLS AND INDICATORS REAR PANEL CONFIGURATION TURNING THE COMPUTER ON TURNING THE COMPUTER OFF REBOOTING THE COMPUTER CHAPTER 3 -KEEPING YOUR COMPUTER HAPPY WHERE SHOULD THE COMPUTER BE? REGULAR MAINTENANCE Cleaning the Computer Cabinet Caring for Tape Drives and Tapes Caring for the Diskette Drive and
Page ii CHAPTER 5 -ABOUT AMOS THE TERMINAL KEYBOARD Correcting Typing Mistakes USER NAMES Logging On Adding User Names HOW AMOS STORES INFORMATION Device Names Accounts File Names File Specifications Organizing the Disk Logging Into Other Accounts Adding New Accounts Table of Contents 5-1 5-1 5-2 5-3 5-3 5-4 5-4 5-4 5-5 5-6 5-6 5-7 5-8 5-8 CHAPTER 6 -WHERE TO NOW? 6-1 APPENDIX A -THE CONTROL CHARACTERS A-1 ABOUT YOUR COMPUTER ABOUT YOUR DEALER ABOUT ALPHA MICRO 1 1 1 Eagle 250 Owner's Manual, Revi
Chapter 1 - Introduction Welcome to the Eagle 250 Owner’s Manual. This book is for the new owner of an Eagle 250 computer. It tells you how to keep your computer running happily, what to do if something should go wrong, and how to get the most out of your computer hardware and software.
Page 1-2 Chapter One Graphic Conventions Like other Alpha Micro documents, this Owner’s Manual uses some standard symbols and special typefaces to make our examples and explanations easier to read and understand: Symbol Description This means STOP!, and signals an important warning or restriction. Be sure to read the text next to this symbol carefully, as it could help you avoid serious problems. This marks a hint—a shortcut or an easier way to do something.
Introduction Page 1-3 Options Your computer may have additional devices, such as an internal diskette drive accessible through the front panel, an external RAID disk subsystem for extremely reliable, high-capacity data storage, an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) to guard against data loss during a power failure, and more. SOFTWARE FEATURES All Eagle 250 computers use AMOS, the Alpha Micro Operating System.
Chapter 2 - Using Your Computer This chapter discusses some of the basic things you need to know to use your computer: what the buttons and lights on the front panel mean, what attaches where on the back panel, and how to turn the computer on and off. FRONT PANEL CONTROLS AND INDICATORS Figure 2-1, below, shows the computer’s front panel. The panel has these controls and indicators: • The two-character status display shows various codes depending on the state of the computer.
Page 2-2 Chapter Two Two-character status display Turbo button Power light Turbo (system activity) light Reset button H.D.D.
Using Your Computer Page 2-3 REAR PANEL CONFIGURATION The illustration below shows the Eagle 250 rear panel configuration.
Page 2-4 Chapter Two As shown, the back panel includes connectors for the serial ports (where you plug in terminals, printers, and modems), an Ethernet connection (for connecting the Eagle 250 to a computer network, and an external SCSI connector (for a disk, tape, or CD-ROM drive). TURNING THE COMPUTER ON While you will probably leave your computer running most of the time, you will need to turn it on from time to time. To do so, follow these steps: 1.
Using Your Computer Page 2-5 4. Generally, you do not need to turn off devices connected to the serial ports, such as printers and terminals, or devices connected via the network. If you do choose to turn off serial devices, turn them off after turning off the Eagle 250. REBOOTING THE COMPUTER At times, you may want to have the computer restart the operating system without turning power off and back on.
Chapter 3 - Keeping Your Computer Happy As you use your computer in your business, certain regular practices and daily habits can help keep it performing at maximum efficiency. This chapter discusses: • The best environment for the computer • Taking care of the various components: the main enclosure, tape drives, and diskette drives • Backing up your data • Checking your disk data WHERE SHOULD THE COMPUTER BE? For your computer to do its best job, it needs to be in a clean environment it is comfortable in.
Page 3-2 Chapter Three All of the proper conditions were probably assured before your computer was installed, and shouldn’t be a problem unless you move the computer or change its surroundings. If you have any questions, contact your dealer. REGULAR MAINTENANCE Physical maintenance of your computer is very simple: it’s mostly a matter of keeping it clean. You also need to be sure to take proper care of the tape drive and tapes in your computer, and your diskette drive if you have one.
Keeping Your Computer Happy Page 3-3 For the AM-629 and AM-650 drives use the appropriate drive-cleaning cartridge, as described in the documentation for the tape drive. If you have a DAT drive, you should clean the drive heads whenever the tape cartridge status light flashes. As routine maintenance, the heads of a DAT drive should be cleaned after every 50 hours of use. To clean the heads on the DAT drive, use a cleaning cartridge designed for your drive.
Page 3-4 Chapter Three Diskettes require much the same care as magnetic tapes: • The outside case of a diskette protects the actual recording surface inside—don’t touch the recording surface itself. • Treat diskettes gently. Fingerprints, scratches, spills, and dirt can ruin them. • Keep your diskettes in a dust-free environment.
Keeping Your Computer Happy Page 3-5 to automate backups and have them run at any time you select, even if you aren’t there. These methods can also automatically run diagnostic programs to check for disk errors before each backup, ensuring you are copying good data to the backup tape. If you haven’t yet done so, work with your dealer to determine the best backup schedule for your business, and to develop a reliable and convenient backup procedure.
Page 3-6 Chapter Three ¼" Tape Drive Read/Write Compatibility Streaming tape drives use many different data formats.
Keeping Your Computer Happy Page 3-7 Before unloading the tape cartridge, be sure the tape activity light (the center green LED) is out. To unload, press the tape eject and the drive will eject the tape. Using a DAT Drive The DAT drive is very simple to use: 1. In order to save data to the tape, the window on the tape cartridge must be in the write-enable position. The figure below shows the tape window in both "write-enable" and "write-protected" positions. 2. The tape inserts as shown below.
Page 3-8 Chapter Three you have a warm boot tape, and a good backup tape, you can normally recover all your data even if your disk drive “crashes” and is unreadable. Warm booting requires a special tape containing the proper system software files. You should have at least two, and possibly more, warm boot tapes. Your dealer or technician may have made warm boot tapes when he or she installed the computer.
Keeping Your Computer Happy Page 3-9 The REDALL Command REDALL reads every block of data—or the number of blocks you choose—on the disk you specify, and reports any errors. It does not change the data on your disk. It is a good idea to run REDALL for each disk on your computer occasionally, possibly once a week. That way, if any disk problems develop, you can be sure to detect them quickly. To use REDALL: 1.
Page 3-10 Chapter Three as shown in step 1 below, you can’t use this command. To use DSKANA, follow these steps: 1. Log into the OPR: account by typing: LOG OPR: ENTER 2. Type DSKANA followed by the device name of the disk you want to analyze and press example, to analyze DSK1:, type: DSKANA DSK1: ENTER . For ENTER You now see: [Begin analysis of DSK1:] As DSKANA checks the disk, it displays the disk account numbers (account numbers are discussed in Chapter 5).
Keeping Your Computer Happy DSKANA DSK1:/C Page 3-11 ENTER As mentioned above, you need to use the /L or /E option to find the location of any file errors DSKANA detects. The /C option is discussed in the next section. To see the list of DSKANA options, type DSKANA ENTER without a device name.
Chapter 4 - What If Something Goes Wrong? Your Eagle 250 computer is designed to be reliable and trouble-free. However, as with any product, especially one as complex as a computer system, things may go wrong from time to time. If you do have a problem, gathering the right information and following the correct procedure can help you and your dealer solve it as quickly as possible.
Page 4-2 Chapter Four IF THE PROBLEM AFFECTS MORE THAN ONE USER Sometimes, the symptoms of a computer problem spread beyond one user.
What if Something Goes Wrong? Page 4-3 • How many users are on your computer? • How much disk space and memory does the computer have? If you aren’t sure of all of this information (and you don’t generally need to know it unless there’s a problem), you can have the computer tell you.
Chapter 5 - About AMOS As we mentioned in Chapter 1, your Eagle 250 computer uses the Alpha Micro Operating System, AMOS. AMOS lets the various pieces of hardware in the computer talk to each other, interprets commands you type, reads information from and writes it to the disk drives, and more. This chapter talks about some of the basic concepts of AMOS and describes some of its commonly used commands and procedures.
Page 5-2 Key Chapter Five Description The key on most keyboards acts much like the shift key on a typewriter. By holding down , you can type upper case letters and the symbols on the upper half of the keys with two symbols. CAPS LOCK While the CAPS LOCK key is enabled, letters you type appear in upper case. On most keyboards, keys other than letters are not affected by CAPS LOCK .
About AMOS Page 5-3 If the AMOS line editor is enabled, you can recall a previous line to the screen by typing CTRL / R. (To see if this feature is available, you can ask your dealer, or just try it. If it doesn’t work, no harm will be done.) In the sample above, press CTRL / R at the AMOS prompt to recall the line PRIMT. Use the key to move back to the M without erasing characters, then type an N to overwrite the M. Press the ENTER key to enter the command again.
Page 5-4 Chapter Five Adding User Names If you need to add a user name for your computer—for example, for a new employee—you can do so with the MUSER command. Only the System Operator can use MUSER. To use MUSER, first log into the System Operator’s account, DSK0:[1,2] (also called OPR:): LOG OPR: ENTER MUSER ENTER At the MUSER menu, you can type L ENTER to list the currently defined users, or A ENTER to add new users.
About AMOS Page 5-5 Generally, AMOS separates a single disk drive into multiple logical devices (in the same way DOS and Windows can separate a drive into devices C:, D:, and so on). The name for each logical device then uses the same three letters, with a different number for each. For example, a single 2.1GB hard disk drive could contain devices named DSK0:, DSK1:, DSK2:, DSK3:, and so on. In most cases with AMOS you refer to the logical device name.
Page 5-6 Chapter Five Accounts are sometimes called disk accounts because each account is specific to a particular device— usually a disk. For example, you may have the account [63,1] on both DSK0: and DSK1:. Though these accounts have the same account number, since they are on different devices they are different accounts, and contain different files. You can also assign a password to each account on each disk.
About AMOS Page 5-7 This diagram shows how a disk drive is divided into logical devices, projects, account, and files: Physical Disk Logical Disk DSK0: [1,*] DSK1: [3,*] [2,*] [4,*] DSK2: Logical Disks [5,*] [6,*] DSK3: [7,*] Account [3,0] START.CMD [3,1] DATA.DAT [3,2] DOCUM.TXT etc. etc. Accounts Files [10,*] DSK4: DSK5: Project etc . Projects DSK6: Figure 5-1: Disk Data Layout This diagram is just a way to show how AMOS logically divides the disk.
Page 5-8 Chapter Five Logging Into Other Accounts Once you're logged on to the computer, as described on page 5-3, you can use LOG to switch to a different account. You don't need to enter your user name again, just the account you want. For example: LOG [36,14] ENTER If the account has a password assigned, you are asked for the password before you transfer to the account. The account number list for each device on your system is separate, so you may have duplicate account numbers on different disks.
About AMOS Page 5-9 Be very careful using SYSACT. Choosing the wrong option could destroy all the data on your disk! 6. SYSACT responds: Password: If you want to protect the new account with a password, type it. The password can be up to six characters (A-Z, 0-9, $). If you don’t want to assign a password, just press the ENTER key. If you do enter a password, whenever anyone logs into the new account, he or she must type the password. Anyone who doesn’t know the password is not allowed to log in. 7.
Chapter 6 - Where to Now? Your dealer, and the documentation he or she gives you, is your best source for information on your computer and how to get the most out of it. Your dealer knows your application and how it fits into the daily routine of your business. If you have questions about exactly what your computer can do for you, and how to make it happen, ask your dealer. But, lots more information is also available from Alpha Micro. Our World Wide Web site, www.amos-online.
Appendix A - The Control Characters Your terminal keyboard allows you to type control characters which perform special functions. A control character is the signal transmitted to the computer when you hold down the CTRL key and press another key at the same time. The following list contains the most important control characters. The AMOS User's Guide contains a complete list of control characters and their functions.
Page A-2 Appendix A Control-Q When you press CTRL / S (described above) to freeze the screen display, you must press CTRL / Q to resume the screen display. If you have typed anything while the Control-S was in effect, a Control-Q tells AMOS it can now go ahead and act upon that input. Control-R The command buffer is an area of memory where the computer stores commands you have entered. Pressing CTRL / R shows you what commands are in your command buffer.
Index A Account · 5-3, 5-5, 5-7 adding new · 5-8 logging to · 5-3, 5-8 number · 5-5 organization · 5-7 password · 5-3 Activity light · 2-1 Adding accounts · 5-8 Adding user names · 5-4 Alpha Micro contacting · 4-2 AlphaVUE · A-1 AMOS · 1-3 B Backing up data · 3-4 scheduling · 3-5 Backup device type · 1-2 Bitmap · 3-9 Boot port location · 2-3 Booting the computer · 2-4 C Caring for diskettes · 3-4 Cleaning DAT drive · 3-3 diskette drive · 3-4 tape drive · 3-2 the computer · 3-2 Command buffer · A-2 Command
Page 2 Index F N Features hardware · 1-2 software · 1-3 File name · 5-6 File specification · 5-4, 5-6 Front panel · 2-1 Function keys · 5-2 Navigation · A-1 Network interface · 1-2 O Optional devices · 1-3 Organizing the disk · 5-7 G P Graphics conventions · 1-2 H H.D.D.
Index format and capacity · 3-5 loading and unloading cartridges · 3-6 read/write compatibility · 3-6 Tape drive · 3-5 cleaning · 3-2 DAT · 3-2 streaming · 3-2 using · 3-5 using DAT · 3-7 Temperature for the computer · 3-1 Terminal keyboard · 5-1, A-1 Troubleshooting · 4-1 Turbo button · 2-1 Turbo light · 2-1 Turning off the computer · 2-4 Turning on the computer · 2-4 Typing mistakes · 5-2 Eagle 250 Owner's Manual, Revision 01 Page 3 U User name · 5-3, 5-4 V Ventilation · 3-1 W Warm booting · 3-8
Contact Information Sheet Use this page to record information about your computer hardware and software, and your Alpha Micro dealer. It also includes information about contacting Alpha Microsystems directly if you need to.
