VMS Operating System Utilities
VMS utilities vary depending on the operating system release. For detailed information on utilities supported by your system, see your operating system guides (or online help).
help
The VMS online help facility (help) provides information on the specified command. The syntax is help command.
monitor
The VMS monitor utility returns dynamic information about VMS system performance for a specified component. Some of the most useful components to monitor are:
• monitor system — monitors system statistics
• monitor process/topcpu—monitors the process currently using the most CPU
• monitor process/topdio—monitors the processes that use the most disk I/O
• monitor process/topbio—monitors the processes that use the most buffered I/O
• monitor process/topfault— monitors the processes that cause the most page faults
• monitor pool—monitors non-paged pool statistics
show
The VMS show utility returns process and other VMS system status information on a specified component. Qualifiers (/qualifier) are used on certain components, as shown in the examples that follow. Some useful forms of the VMS show command appear in the following list.
• show system or show system/full—displays status information about current processes. Here is a sample output:
date and time stamp
process ID number
process name and identification with UIC
processing state
priority
total process I/O
cumulative cpu time used
cumulative page faults
amount of physical memory being used
type of process
OpenVMS V8.4-2L3 on node VMS01 7-DEC-2021 08:32:21.88 Uptime 26 20:48:23
Pid Process Name State Pri I/O CPU Page flts Ph.Mem
000018E1 II_GCC_BB_18E1 HIB 6 261 0 00:00:15.71 609 832
00000AD1 II_GCN_BB HIB 6 37516 0 00:00:57.09 661 877
00000AD2 II_IUSV_BB_AD2 HIB 6 20651 0 00:00:03.15 1 1453 12413M
00000AD3 DMFACPBB HIB 6 3266 0 00:00:02.15 2468 2926
00000AD4 II_DBMS_BB_AD4 HIB 6 1917796 0 0 00:04:31.58 32909 34006M
00000AD6 II_DASV_BB_AD6 HIB 6 175 0 00:00:22.27 2376 2665
• show system /out = filename—outputs to a file. This provides a record of the current status.
• show process—displays information about a process and subprocesses. This command requires the GROUP privilege to show other processes in the same group or the WORLD privilege to show processes outside your group. If no qualifier is entered, only a basic subset of information is displayed:
date and time stamp
process terminal
user name and UIC
node name
process name and process identification
priority
default directory
allocated devices
Some of the show process qualifiers you can use are:
/memory—displays the process’ use of dynamic memory areas. This qualifier is allowed only for the current process.
/quotas—displays, for each resource, a quota or a limit. The quota values reflect any quota reductions resulting from subprocess creation. Limit values reflect the resources available to a process at creation.
/priv—displays current privileges for the process.
• show cluster—monitors and displays cluster activity and performance.
• show cpu—displays the current state of the processors in a VMS multiprocessing system. This command requires a change of mode to the kernel (CMKRNL) privilege.
The show cpu qualifiers are:
/all—selects all configured processors, active or inactive, as the subject of the display.
/full—produces information from the summary display and also lists the current CPU state, current process (if any), revision levels, and capabilities for each configured processor. The display indicates which processes can execute only on certain processors in the configuration.
• show device—displays the status of a device on the system. You can use the following show device qualifiers:
/allocate—displays all devices currently allocated to processes.
/file—shows all open files on the device, together with the process name and the process ID that opened the file.
/mounted—displays all devices currently having volumes mounted.
• show logical /full—displays all logical names in one or more logical name tables, or displays the current equivalence strings assigned to specified logical names, with iterative translations.
• show memory /full—displays status information on VMS system tables and system swap space.
• show symbol—displays the current value of a local or global symbol. Ingres symbols are defined by running the following:
II_SYSTEM:[INGRES.UTILITY]INGSYSDEF.COM – Defines Ingres system administration, DBA, and user symbols.
II_SYSTEM:[INGRES.UTILITY]INGDBADEF.COM – Defines Ingres DBA and user symbols.
II_SYSTEM:[INGRES.UTILITY]INGUSRDEF.COM – Defines Ingres user symbols.
• show users—displays status information on current users.
• show working_set—displays the working set limit, quota, and extent assigned to the current process.
sysgen
The VMS sysgen utilitty displays system configuration parameters. To run this utility, execute the following command at the operating system prompt:
run sys$system:sysgen
For a full description of the system definitions, see your VMS System manual.