TMF Glossary (H06.03+)

TMF Glossary
HP NonStop TMF Glossary—540135-001
Glossary-16
server
server. (1) A process or program that provides services to a client or a requester. Servers
are designed to receive request messages from clients or requesters, perform the
desired operations, and return reply messages to the clients or requesters. A server
process is a running instance of a server program. (2) A combination of hardware and
software designed to provide services in response to requests received from clients
across a network. For example, the parallel servers in the NonStop range provide
transaction processing, database access, and other services. See also client,
requester, and server class.
server class. A group of duplicate copies of a single server process, all of which execute
the same object program.
single-threaded process. An application process that can deal with only one TMF
transaction during any given period of time. Having initiated a transaction, a single-
threaded requester cannot initiate another until it has terminated the existing
transaction. Similarly, having accepted a work request, a single-threaded server
cannot accept another until it has completed all of its work for the current request.
Subsystem Programmatic Interface (SPI). A common, message-based interface that can
be used to build and decode messages used for communication between requesters
and servers—for instance, in a management application. The interface includes
procedures to build and decode specially formatted messages; definition files in TAL,
COBOL, C, and TACL for inclusion in programs, macros, and routines using the
interface procedures; and definition files in Data Definition Language (DDL) for
programmers writing their own subsystems.
super ID. Defined as username super.super and userid 255,255, it allows the user to act as
the owner of any object on a given cluster.
swap file. A disk file used by the server for virtual memory.
system-defined transaction. A TMF transaction initiated by NonStop SQL either in a
program unit or in a requester on whose behalf the program unit performs database
operations. Contrast with user-defined transaction
.
Most Data Definition Language (DDL) and Data Manipulation Language (DML)
statements are transaction-initiating; the server automatically initiates a transaction
when the statement begins executing. The exceptions include DML statements
executing on nonaudited tables or under read uncommitted access on audited tables.
system failure. The failure of multiple server components (processors or disks) that causes
the entire server to become unavailable.