NET/MASTER Network Control Language (NCL) Reference Manual

Operations Available Through NCL
Introduction to NCL
1–6 106126 Tandem Computers Incorporated
Executing Distributed
Systems Network
Management (DSNM)
Commands
You can execute DSNM commands from an NCL process. This includes the standard
set of DSNM commands in addition to others supported only by NonStop
NET/MASTER MS. This allows you to start and stop objects from an NCL process.
You can write an NCL procedure to automatically monitor objects.
For more information on DSNM commands, refer to the User’s Guide to DSNM
Commands.
Intercepting and
Processing Event
Messages
You can write NCL procedures to intercept and process the many event messages that
report system management and network management information. NonStop
NET/MASTER MS is supplied with examples of the following three system-level NCL
procedures that deal with event messages:
EMSPROC, which is an NCL procedure that intercepts and processes Event
Management Service (EMS) messages.
LOGPROC, which is an NCL procedure that intercepts and processes messages
destined for the NonStop NET/MASTER MS activity log.
MSGPROC, which is an NCL procedure that intercepts and processes messages
destined for an OCS window.
System-level NCL procedures can edit, discard, act upon, or forward an event
message. A system-level NCL procedure can execute another NCL procedure to deal
with a certain message if further processing is required.
Using NCL, you can also generate an event message to send to the destination you specify,
such as EMSPROC or $0.
Maintaining Online
Documentation
You can use NCL procedures to maintain online documentation in the form of a series
of comments. Comments are NCL statements that are not executed when an NCL
procedure is executed.
Replacing NonStop
NET/MASTER MS
Commands
You can replace a NonStop NET/MASTER MS command with an NCL procedure of
the same name. This is called command replacement.
Command replacement allows you to tailor NonStop NET/MASTER MS commands.
For example, you may decide to replace the NonStop NET/MASTER MS
SHUTDOWN command with an NCL procedure called SHUTDOWN. You may
decide you want to include a timer command in the NCL procedure that warns users
at one-minute intervals that shutdown is imminent.
When using command replacement, the command replaced by an NCL procedure
operates in exactly the same way in the NCL procedure that replaces it.