Introduction to NonStop Operations Management

Application Management
Introduction to NonStop Operations Management–125507
11-14
Case Study
Case Study
Developing application requirements can help reduce application down time and
improve operator productivity. The following case study shows how a Chicago-based
savings and loan institution established application requirements to cope with a
consolidation of systems and applications from a distributed environment to a
centralized environment.
Business Background
North American Savings and Loan (NASL) is a financial institution with over 200
offices located in North America, including New York, Boston, Toronto, and Montreal.
NASL has been making several changes to its Tandem computers’ operations. Probably
the most significant is the consolidation of several distributed locations consisting of
Tandem NonStop VLX systems into multiple G-series systems in three locations in
Chicago. This evolution also changed the way in which their applications were
managed—from multiple systems running one or two major applications to a few central
data centers that run multiple applications.
The systems were consolidated into central data centers. Subsequently, the applications
were physically consolidated. That is, they shared the same system. They did not,
however, share processors or disks. They also did not share operations environments
such as job executors, change control procedures, or data files. A physical consolidation,
but not a logical one, resulted.
In the old distributed environment, the systems and applications were under the control
of the department that used them. That department was responsible for all aspects of that
application, including operations. Each department had its own operators and support
staff, as well as its own standards. Each standard met the requirements of the bank
auditors and of the department; but each was, and still is, different.
Remote Server Call (RSC) Facilitates client/server computing by allowing workstation
applications running in Microsoft Windows, Windows NT, MS-
DOS, OS/2, UNIX, Winsock, and Apple Macintosh operating
environments to access Pathway server classes and Guardian
processes.
SeeView Server Gateway
(SSG)
A Tandem host process that provides a command and control
server gateway to NonStop Kernel command interpreters on
Tandem host systems, allowing users to access command
interpreters from workstation client applications. The
DSM/NOW product uses SSG/CSG as its underlying
mechanism for exchanging commands and responses with host
processes.
Subsystem Control Facility
(SCF)
Allows operators to monitor and change the characteristics of
data communications lines without having to take the NonStop
system down.
Table 11-2. Client/Server Processing Tools (page 2 of 2)
Product Function