Alpha Microsystems Eagle 250, Owner'S Manual

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Page 2: ...sed batteries according to the manufacturer s instructions ATTENTION Il y a danger d explosion s il y a replacement incorrect de la batterie Remplacer uniquement avec une batterie du même type ou d un type recommandé par le constructeur Mettre au rébut les batteries usagées conformément aux instructions du fabricant For AM 3500 E100 E200 E300 E400 E500 and AM 990 01 systems replace battery with Pa...

Page 3: ...EEPING YOUR COMPUTER HAPPY 3 1 WHERE SHOULD THE COMPUTER BE 3 1 REGULAR MAINTENANCE 3 2 Cleaning the Computer Cabinet 3 2 Caring for Tape Drives and Tapes 3 2 Caring for the Diskette Drive and Diskettes 3 4 BACKING UP YOUR DATA 3 4 Using a Streaming Tape Drive 3 5 Using a DAT Drive 3 7 Warm Booting 3 8 CHECKING THE DISK 3 8 The REDALL Command 3 9 The DSKANA Command 3 9 DSKANA Options 3 11 The CHEC...

Page 4: ...AMES 5 3 Logging On 5 3 Adding User Names 5 4 HOW AMOS STORES INFORMATION 5 4 Device Names 5 4 Accounts 5 5 File Names 5 6 File Specifications 5 6 Organizing the Disk 5 7 Logging Into Other Accounts 5 8 Adding New Accounts 5 8 CHAPTER 6 WHERE TO NOW 6 1 APPENDIX A THE CONTROL CHARACTERS A 1 ABOUT YOUR COMPUTER 1 ABOUT YOUR DEALER 1 ABOUT ALPHA MICRO 1 ...

Page 5: ...icians If your computer is installed and running this Owner s Manual has the information you need for its day to day operation and maintenance What s in This Book This book contains five chapters Chapter 1 Introduction describes the documentation and covers the hardware and standard software included with your computer Chapter 2 Using Your Computer tells you how to turn the computer on and off and...

Page 6: ... type a CTRL C Control C press the CTRL key and while holding it down type a C HARDWARE FEATURES The Eagle 250 comes in an attractive compact deskside enclosure as shown below Inside the enclosure are A CPU Central Processing Unit board using the Motorola MCF5102 ColdFire CPU chip At least one SCSI 2 Wide SCSI 2 or Ultra SCSI disk drive for permanent data storage From 4MB to 256MB of Random Access...

Page 7: ...ware program or group of programs which perform related tasks for a specific purpose For example an application may contain all the programs needed to run a dental office billing scheduling keeping patient records and so on a hardware store or any other business Popular general purpose applications include word processors spreadsheets electronic mail and lots more The application software on your ...

Page 8: ...icates system activity In some configurations the Turbo button puts the system into a special diagnostic state known as LEVEL7 This is necessary only if you are having certain hard to diagnose system problems If you have this feature do not use it unless you are told to by your dealer If you don t have this feature the Turbo button has no effect The Reset button lets you reset the computer When yo...

Page 9: ...er Two Eagle 250 Owner s Manual Revision 01 Figure 2 1 Front Panel Controls and Indicators Two character status display Turbo button Reset button Power light H D D disk tape activity light Turbo system activity light ...

Page 10: ...rear panel configuration 4 or 8 STANDARD DB9 SERIAL PORTS RJ 45 CONFIGURATION OPTIONALLY AVAILABLE 10 BaseT ETHERNET PORT EXTERNAL SCSI PORT BOOT PORT 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 115 SCSI 0 9 PIN UPS STATUS PORT 25 PIN PARALLEL PORT SERIAL I O EXPANSION SLOTS FOR RJ 45 CONNECTORS OPTIONAL AM 90 BOARDS Figure 2 2 Eagle 250 Rear Panel Configuration ...

Page 11: ...t panel status display see Figure 2 1 then the AMOS license agreement appears on the operator terminal followed by the commands in the system initialization file These scroll rapidly as the computer executes them When AMOS is finished booting the operator terminal displays MEMORY 0 Depending on how your computer is set up your terminals may automatically display a menu or start your application af...

Page 12: ... This is called rebooting the computer and you may do it if you install new or updated software change the computer s configuration or in some problem situations To reboot the computer 1 Have everyone stop using the computer and log off If you are rebooting because one or more users are locked up have everyone else log off 2 After everyone is logged off and the H D D light see Figure 2 1 is out pr...

Page 13: ...ense do not place it where people may bump into it trip over it or use the cabinet as a desk or table Never put drinks or food on the computer if a drop of coffee or chunk of doughnut gets inside the chassis it could make the computer fail In fact anything even excess dust inside the chassis is not good for your computer Try not to place it in a high traffic area These areas have more dirt and dus...

Page 14: ...pe drive or a DAT Digital Audio Tape drive As discussed later in this chapter in case of a problem your backup tapes can be the only thing between your business and data disaster so it s very important to take excellent care of your tape drive and the tapes it uses Caring for the Drive It is very important to clean the read write head or heads of your tape drive periodically How often to clean the...

Page 15: ... in a dust free environment Store cartridges on edge not lying flat This places the weight of the tape on the hub of the cartridge not on the edge of the tape which could bend the tape over time Keep the write protect switch in the SAFE position Keep magnets away from your tapes Even weak magnets such as those in paper clip holders can erase data on a cartridge tape Don t expose tapes to very high...

Page 16: ...matter how trouble free your computer is please remember one important thing you must keep current copies of the data you are working on This copy is your backup Your data is valuable that s probably one of the reasons you bought a computer to store and work with it How long would it take to re enter the entire company payroll or all of your accounts receivable invoices if they were lost What if y...

Page 17: ...sections below show the tape cartridges and formats supported by each tape drive available from Alpha Micro and describe how to use the tapes with your drive Tape Capacity There are several different streaming tape drives available for your computer the AM 62x series of narrow SCSI drives and the AM 650 Wide SCSI 2 tape drive The storage capacity of your tapes depends both on the drive you have an...

Page 18: ...lf by touching the metal chassis before loading or unloading a tape cartridge For the AM 62x tape drives follow this procedure to load a tape cartridge 1 Press the button on the drive s front panel to open the tape drive door 2 Hold the cartridge with the metal side down The end of the tape cartridge with the write protect switch will enter the drive first 3 Insert the cartridge into the drive Kee...

Page 19: ...hrough the tape door the DAT drive pulls the tape cartridge into position WINDOW SHUT WRITE ENABLE WINDOW OPEN WRITE PROTECTED TAPE EJECT BUTTON DRIVE STATUS LEDs DAT DAT Tape Drive 3 Once the tape is loaded the status lights on the drive indicate the status of both the drive and the cartridge See the manual that came with your tape drive for information on interpreting the status lights 4 To unlo...

Page 20: ... disk If it cannot read an area of the disk it reports the problem to you Checking your disk frequently with disk diagnostic programs helps prevent data loss the sooner you catch a malfunction the less data is likely to be affected Before using disk diagnostic programs talk to your dealer If you have an automatic backup procedure it may include a disk diagnostic program as well as the backup You m...

Page 21: ...any errors occur REDALL displays an error message on your screen The DSKANA Command Each file is stored in one or more disk blocks AMOS keeps track of which disk blocks are currently used in files and which are not by means of a special structure called a bitmap Each disk has its own bitmap The DSKANA command is an important part of your disk maintenance routine It compares the data on a disk to t...

Page 22: ...in use Rewriting BITMAP No file errors If you see the No file errors message the file structure on the disk is intact If DSKANA lists a number of file errors there is a problem with the disk s file structure Your next step is to run DSKANA again using either the L or E option discussed below to see where the errors are on the disk For the complete procedure to follow if DSKANA finds any file error...

Page 23: ...ing the bitmap especially when using a scheduled backup method which runs DSKANA automatically before your backup The reason for this is simple if anyone on your computer leaves a file open on the device DSKANA is checking DSKANA doesn t know the file is open So it doesn t take the open file into account when it rewrites the bitmap When the person returns in the morning and writes the file to the ...

Page 24: ...ITH ONE TERMINAL If only a single user encounters a problem for example there is an error message and the application stops running or the terminal stops responding here s what to find out 1 What exactly was that person doing when the problem occurred What feature was he or she using What was the very last thing he or she did before the problem chose an option which option typed a name what name s...

Page 25: ...s it s practical Ideally you should call immediately while the problem is still in effect but this isn t always possible The more serious the problem the more important it is to call quickly a complete system lockup is more critical than an error on one or two terminals IF YOU CAN T CONTACT YOUR DEALER This chapter assumes your Alpha Micro dealer is your first line of support for your Eagle 250 Yo...

Page 26: ...e hardware and software configuration of your computer If requested you can then e mail this file to Alpha Micro if your computer can send e mail over the Internet or you can print it and fax a copy You can also use it to fill out some of the fields on the Contact Information Sheet at the end of this book FOR MORE INFORMATION Detailed technical and troubleshooting information for AMOS software and...

Page 27: ...pter you may make choices inside your application to perform the same functions If you ve received specific instructions from your dealer about any of these topics such as To see a list of files use option 2 from the menu follow those instructions rather than the ones in this chapter THE TERMINAL KEYBOARD The first step in communicating with AMOS is to be able to type your instructions on your key...

Page 28: ... the letter C In this book we indicate control characters this way CTRL C Appendix A lists some of the control characters AMOS recognizes Special Keys on the Terminal Keyboard There are also a number of keys often 12 or 16 at the top or left of the keyboard labeled with F and a number These are the function keys Many applications use the function keys to perform special editing choose options and ...

Page 29: ... command to connect to the computer Depending on how your Eagle 250 and network are set up they may then have to enter information about the type of connection they want before logging on as described here or they may be connected logged on and even have your application start automatically The LOG command identifies you to the computer and lets you choose what disk account you want to access acco...

Page 30: ... in on that device and the file name within the account Together these three items uniquely identify every file on your computer The next few sections discuss file specifications and their parts then describe how to switch between accounts and how to add more accounts if you need to Unless you can leave your application and enter commands from AMOS command level you won t be able to use the comman...

Page 31: ...first drive might be called FIR0 FIR1 and FIR2 Remember this is only an example Your computer may have a different number of physical disk drives and may refer to each physical drive as more or fewer devices You can see a list of the disk devices on your computer by using the SYSTAT or DEVTBL command from AMOS command level These commands are described in the AMOS System Commands Reference Manual ...

Page 32: ...tems such as Windows An AMOS file name contains up to six characters a period and an extension of up to three characters the extension can be blank File names can contain only letters and numbers except for the period before the extension These are legal AMOS file names AMOS32 INI HEADER TXT PAY BAS The extension normally identifies the type of file In the previous paragraph for example TXT indica...

Page 33: ...ing separate accounts and projects each of which stores related files Your system software is already organized into various accounts and you can add as many or as few additional ones as you need For example you could create a project to store all files related to correspondence with letters to vendors in one account faxes in another and so on As mentioned above the same account number can exist o...

Page 34: ...or more details about the LOG command see the AMOS System Commands Reference Manual Adding New Accounts There is no specific number of accounts you must have you can add as many as you want When your computer is new the only accounts may be the ones the system software and application are stored in You may want to add more accounts as your business grows To do so use the SYSACT command following t...

Page 35: ...enever 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 You can see a list of all the account numbers on the disk device and their passwords by selecting the L List function L ENTER 8 When you are finished using the SYSACT command and are ready to return to AMOS command level select the E end option E ENTER SYSACT ret...

Page 36: ...m Operator s Guide DSO 00001 00 Discusses many procedures important to the person responsible for the daily operation of the computer such as backing up adding new disk drives and many more AMOS System Operator s Guide to the System Initialization Command File DSO 00002 00 The system initialization command file defines the computer s hardware and software configuration This manual tells you how to...

Page 37: ...ams such as AlphaVUE do not recognize a Control C as an exit command instead you must use the exit command for that program if you want to return to AMOS command level Other programs do recognize a Control C however if an exit command exists for a program it is better to use that command than to press CTRL C Many programs perform various closing functions when you use their normal exit commands an...

Page 38: ... 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 If the line editor is installed on your computer you can use CTRL R to call up previous command lines make changes to them and then submit them again This is a great convenience if you want to enter a serie...

Page 39: ... cleaning 3 2 environment 3 1 rebooting 2 5 turning off 2 4 turning on 2 4 ventilation 3 1 Connectors rear panel 2 3 Contacting Alpha Micro 4 2 Control characters A 1 Controls front panel 2 1 Correcting typing mistakes 5 2 CPU board 1 2 D DAT drive 3 2 cleaning 3 3 using 3 7 Data backing up 3 4 Defining user names 5 4 Device name 5 4 and logging 5 8 DEVTBL command 5 5 Diagnostic programs DSKANA 3 ...

Page 40: ...2 Memory amount 1 2 Mistakes correcting 5 2 MUSER command 5 4 N Navigation A 1 Network interface 1 2 O Optional devices 1 3 Organizing the disk 5 7 P Password 5 3 Power light 2 1 Power switch 2 1 PPN command 5 6 Problems troubleshooting 4 1 R RAM amount 1 2 Rear panel 2 3 Rebooting the computer 2 5 warm booting 3 8 REDALL command 3 9 Reset switch 2 1 2 5 Root account 5 3 S Safety procedures 3 4 wa...

Page 41: ...bility 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 U User name 5 3 5 4 V Ventilation 3 1 W Warm booting 3 8 ...

Page 42: ...rs Amount of Memory Disk Drives Backup Device Connected to Network Yes No If Yes IP Address Modem Phone Number and Speed AMOS Version Main Application Software and Version Other Software and Versions ABOUT YOUR DEALER Dealer Name Address Phone Number Fax Number E mail Address Contact Other ABOUT ALPHA MICRO Alpha Microsystems AMOS Web site www amos online com Technical Assistance Center Phone Numb...