NonStop Systems Introduction for H-Series RVUs

The NonStop Operating System
NonStop Systems Introduction for H-Series RVUs—540083-001
6-6
Network Operations
Through ETK, you can access tools to compile, run, and debug your programs.
Programs are written and compiled on the PC and transferred to the Integrity NonStop
server for execution. Using ETK, you do not need to remember specific command and
parameter names and all the various options. ETK greatly simplifies and streamlines
the entire program development process.
Network Operations
One of the most important characteristics of the NonStop operating system is that it
uses the same mechanisms to handle network operations as it uses to handle
operations in a local system.
By contrast, most other vendors build networking software on top of existing operating
systems that were designed for local operations only. The network software enables
the computer to communicate with other computers, but it imposes a burden of
software complexity on the computer’s operating environment.
This burden occurs because the networking software requires the computer to focus
on the outside world, while the operating system requires it to focus on local peripheral
devices. Two software systems are working at cross-purposes in the same computer.
By contrast, the NonStop networking environment is a simple extension of the local
operating system. Each node of the network is a computer that was designed for
networking from the outset.
The NonStop hardware architecture is explained in greater detail in the next section.
For now, it is sufficient to note that, as Figure 6-4 on page 6-7 shows, this computer is
already a network composed of multiple, independent processors and input/output
components, all linked by dual interconnection structures called ServerNet fabrics.
In fact, this internal network has a name: system area network, or SAN. (The
ServerNet system area network is described in Section 7, Integrity NonStop NS-Series
Server Architecture.) Processing capacity is easily expanded by adding more
processors to the SAN, and I/O capacity is easily expanded by adding more I/O
components (usually through ServerNet adapters) to the SAN.