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OS/2* Distributed Systems Management
LAN NetView Family of Products
The IBM LAN NetView family of products provides a framework and
applications to implement OS/2-based distributed systems management
solutions. The LAN NetView framework utilizes industry standard
interfaces and protocols that allow an OS/2 system to manage
hetrogeneous systems in a LAN environment. An OS/2 system may also
be managed by other systems that conform to the same standards.
LAN NetView Structure and Resources
The product family includes a set of products that form the strategic
framework upon which the system management functions can be built. These
framework products provide the common infrastructure, services, and support
elements that:
o Create the managing system environment on OS/2 2.0 in which
management applications are built
o Create the managed system environment in OS/2 2.0, DOS 5.0, and DOS
5.0 with Microsoft Windows** 3.1 that allows resource agents to
manage system resources
o Provide the resource agents to manage the operating system resources
for the supported systems and the OS/2 subsystem resources for LAN
Server, Communications Manager, and Database Manager.
Through use of these framework services, the task of creating systems
management applications and resource agents is greatly simplified.
Developers can focus their attention on delivering valued-added
applications, and not on duplicating these common elements. Greater
consistency and interoperability between applications and agents is
also achieved. Among the common elements provided by the set of
framework products are:
o Common user interface services
o Communications services supporting multiple protocols and transports
o Event and metadata services
o Common programming interfaces
o Discovery and topology services for LANs
The LAN NetView family of products includes the following set of products
that form the framework for management applications:
o LAN NetView Manage: the set of common services that form the
framwork upon which to build management applications. The open
industry standard programming interface X/Open Management Protocol
is supported. Protocol support for CMIP and SNMP are included among
the framework's common services, so SNMP devices (such as bridges and
routers) can be managed, as can the CMIP-based resource agents
provided. Also included are Topology and Discovery Services that
determine and depict the relationships between the system and network
resources.
o LAN NetView View: the graphical user interface component for dispaying
managed resources and interfacing with LANfocus system management
application functions that support those resources. The common user
interface conforms to SystemView Integration Level 2 and CUA-91. A set
of enabling services allows easy extension of the presentation
metaphor to include functions provided by system management
applications. These services are made available via the System Object
Model (SOM) programming interface of OS/2 2.0.
o LAN NetView Enable: managed system services that are provided for OS/2
2.0. These services are a subset of those provided in the managing
system; they allow the systems to be managed by the applications on
the managing system.
o LAN Netview Agents: CMIP-based agents are provided for OS/2 2.0, OS
5.0, and DOS 5.0 with Windows 3.1 that allow the operating system
resources to be managed. Agents allow the managing system to request
data about the resource managers, and manage the resource manager by
setting and changing values.
o LAN Netview Agents Extended: CMIP-based agents are also provided or
managing the OS/2 subsystem resources contained in the Communications
Manager, Database Manager, and LAN Server.
IBM is also developing system management applications to run on the
managing system framework, LAN NetView. These system management
applications include:
o LAN Netview Monitor: system performance management for DASD, RAM,and
processor monitoring of the OS/2 workstations and servers, based on
System Performance Monitor/2 technology.
o LAN NetView Fix: system fault management for reporting hardware
and software failures with some fix recommendations.
o LAN NetView Tie: NetView gateway service for collecting and
transforming OSI performance and fault events for transmission to
host-based NetView*** system.
o LAN NetView Start: an administrative system management tool for
planning and managing the configuration of OS/2 software resources
in an environment implementing IBM CID conventions for remote
software installation. The initial release of this product will
precede delivery of LAN NetView Manage, and therefore it will run
as a standalone product.
LAN NetView Monitor
Based on the current SPM/2 technology, IBM is developing, for the OS/2 2.0
environment, a SystemView-compliant performance management solution that
runs on LAN NetView. This solution will support the collection
and analysis of a rich set of metrics for OS/2 2.0 performance-critical
resources. In addition to the base operating system, metrics from IBM
system extensions such as the LAN Server/Requester, Communications
Manager, and Database Manager will also be supported.
Several functions, all written to the X-OPEN Management Protocol
Application Programming Interface, will be provided to assist in graphing,
recording, reporting and analyzing performance data collected in a SQL
database. These functions will work in tandem with OS/2 2.0 resource
manager agents, which are contained in LAN Netview Agents and LAN NetVie
Agents Extended, to satisfy performance management requirements such as
threshold detection, alert generation, and data summarization.
This performance solution will enable system administrators of an OS/2 LAN
environment to monitor system performance, analyze performance trends and
problems, and use this solution as an aid for performance tuning, load
balancing and network growth management. Application developers will be
able to better analyze designs, verify performance objectives, and optimize
application performance for the OS/2 2.0 environment. This solution will
also aid capacity planners in benchmarking and performance modeling
exercises.
LAN NetView Fix
The IBM LAN NetView Fix program is intended to provide automated
problem determination for selected IBM subsystems. Each supported
subsystem would be represented as a LAN NetView Extended Agent on the
client workstation. The Fix program would receive fault notifications
across the LAN, correlate the nofifications into problems and determine
probable cause.
LAN NetView Tie
The LAN NetView Tie program is intended to enable the host-based NetView system
operator to receive notifications from resources managed by the IBM
LAN NetView Manage program. The Tie program transforms notifications
from the OSI alarm format to the SNA alert format and forwards the alert
to the host-based NetView system.
LAN NetView Start
It is IBM's intent to migrate the configuration management tool, LAN
NetView Start, shipped initially as a standalone product in conjunction
with CID, to the LAN NetView Manage framework.
Start is an object-oriented OS/2 2.0 application offered as a tool for
planning and managing the configuration of software in a LAN environment.
It provides a graphical user interface for building network "topologies";
workstation software is managed within the context of the topology. To
enable remote (across-the-LAN) installation of software, Start generates
output as defined by the IBM Configuration/Installation/Distribution (CID)
process: Response Files and Installation procedure files.
A Response File is an ASCII file containing keywords and parameters that
direct the installation and/or configuration of software without end-user
involvement. In the generation of Response Files, Version 1.0 of Start/2
supports the following software: LAN Server 3.0--Entry and Advanced,
Extended Services, and Network Transport Services/2 1.0.
Installation procedure files are OS/2 REXX command files containing the
commands to invoke the install programs of the software targetted for the
workstation. These files are designed to be interpreted and processed
by the LAN CID utility component of NTS/2. In the generation of these
files, Start/2 1.0 supports CID-enabled applications as well as the IBM
OS/2 subsystems listed above.
Enhancements for the second release of Start/2, the one integrated with
Manage, will include support for configuring additional connectivities ,
further simplified configuration administration, and greater integration
with NetView Distribution Manager in support of CID.
Topology/Discovery Services
These common services are provided as part of the LAN NetView Manage and
View products, but they also bear mentioning as applications. The system
environment that LAN NetView is intended to manage is comprised
of a collection of LAN-connected workstations. Therefore, it is useful to
build and maintain topological information about which objects are located
where, and how they interrelate.
Topology Services enables the creation and maintenance of topological
information that is necessary to create topological views of the
managed objects, and to display topology maps through use of the
SOM-based presentation services. Topology information is maintained
separately from the user interface services to facilitate sharing of the
topology information.
Discovery Services allows for the gathering of topological information by
initiating network searches. The results from discovery searches can be
used by Topology Services to prime the topology information base and to
maintain the integrity of its topological information.
Customer and Vendor Involvement
IBM has initiated a beta program for the LAN NetView family
of products. The first is a limited beta and consists of the framework
and agents. This will provide feedback from customers developing
their own LAN NetView compliant applications. The second phase in
January will include some applications. Product content and
availabilty decisions for the applications will be made as a result
of this customer evaluation program.
While IBM is developing the framework and these applications, other
applications will be supplied by leading vendors of systems management
products. IBM is actively soliciting specific applications as well as
generally encouraging vendors to develop their applications on the
LAN NetView framework. To this end, IBM is providing documentation
detailing what is involved in developing an application (or porting
an existing application) to run on this framework. IBM is also providing
technical assistance. One such example of a vendor-developed LAN NetView
application is the integration of NetWare Services Manager for OS/2
function to allow the full management of Novell**** networks from
LAN NetView. Over time, existing IBM applications will be ported to
this LAN NetView framework environment as well.
IBM is also encouraging vendors to provide agents for their system
resources which would allow LAN NetView to manage them, and is
supporting those efforts with technical assistance as well.
The combination of IBM's open system management framework and a full suite
of systems management applications and resource agents provided by IBM
and other leading vendors will make LAN NetView the most comprehensive
Distributed Systems Management solution available for LAN-based systems.
* Registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
**Trademark of Microsoft Corporation
***Registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
****Registered trademark of Novell, Inc.