Compaq NonStop™ Pathway Products Glossary Abstract This glossary defines technical terms used in the manuals for the Compaq Pathway products, which include Compaq NonStop™ Pathway/XM, Compaq NonStop™ Pathway/iTS, and Compaq NonStop™ Transaction Services/MP (NonStop™ TS/MP). It is intended for users of these products and their manuals. Product Version Pathway/XM 1.5 Pathway/iTS 1.
Document History Part Number Product Version Published 426762-001 Pathway/XM 1.5 Pathway/iTS 1.0 NonStop™ TS/MP D44 October 2000 Ordering Information For manual ordering information: domestic U.S. customers, call 1-800-243-6886; international customers, contact your local sales representative. Document Disclaimer Information contained in a manual is subject to change without notice. Please check with your authorized representative to make sure you have the most recent information.
Compaq NonStop™ Pathway Products Glossary Glossary What’s New in This Glossary iii Glossary Information iii New and Changed Information About This Glossary iii v Related Publications v Your Comments Invited vi Notation Conventions vi Glossary Compaq Computer Corporation —426762-001 i
Contents Compaq NonStop™ Pathway Products Glossary —426762-001 ii
What’s New in This Glossary Glossary Information Compaq NonStop™ Pathway Products Glossary Abstract This glossary defines technical terms used in the manuals for the Compaq Pathway products, which include Compaq NonStop™ Pathway/XM, Compaq NonStop™ Pathway/iTS, and Compaq NonStop™ Transaction Services/MP (NonStop™ TS/MP). It is intended for users of these products and their manuals. Product Version Pathway/XM 1.5 Pathway/iTS 1.
What’s New in This Glossary Product Changes This manual merges the glossaries for all manuals for the Pathway products (which are listed in About This Glossary) and also incorporates the following changes.
About This Glossary This glossary defines technical terms used in the manuals for the Compaq Pathway products, which include: Compaq NonStop™ Pathway/iTS Compaq NonStop™ Transaction Services/MP (NonStop™ TS/MP) Compaq NonStop™ Pathway/XM It is intended for users of these products and their manuals. The glossary consists of an alphabetic list of terms and their definitions.
Your Comments Invited About This Glossary NonStop™ TS/MP System Management Manual NonStop™ TS/MP Management Programming Manual Compaq NonStop™ Pathway/XM System Management Manual Describes the interactive management interface to the NonStop™ TS/MP product and describes how to configure and manage NonStop™ TS/MP objects. Describes the management programming interface for NonStop™ TS/MP objects in the PATHMON environment.
Glossary A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W $ A absolute pathname. A Compaq NonStop™ Kernel Open System Services (OSS) pathname that begins with a slash (/) character and is resolved beginning with the root directory. See also OSS pathname, relative pathname, and root directory. accept operation. An operation in which a screen program waits for a response from the terminal and allows data to be input into the program data area from the terminal. advisory message.
ATMI Glossary ATMI. See Application-Transaction Monitor Interface (ATMI). attributes. Those characteristics of an object that influence the operation of that object and establish its capabilities. audited file. A database file that is flagged for auditing by the TMF subsystem; auditing is the monitoring of transactions in preparation for recovery efforts. audit trail. A record of database changes that can be used by the TMF subsystem to rebuild a database in the event of a hardware or software failure.
CISC Glossary used in the event of a takeover by a backup process to allow the backup process to maintain fault-tolerant operation. CISC. See complex instruction-set computing (CISC). client. An application program that requests services to be performed.
command file Glossary command file. A file that serves as a source for command input. For example, you can prepare a command file containing PATHCOM, PXMCOM, or SCREEN COBOL Utility Program (SCUP) commands. You can then cause the commands in the file to be executed by issuing the OBEY command in PATHCOM, PXMCOM, or SCUP and specifying the name of the file. Alternatively, you can specify this file as the input file when you run PATHCOM, PXMCOM, or SCUP. command interpreter.
configuration source file Glossary configuration source file. A file of PXMCFG statements that define and add the Pathway/XM objects required to support an application. The PXMCFG utility processes these statements and uses them to build the SuperCTL file. See also SuperCTL file. configured TERM object. In a PATHMON environment, a TERM object that is explicitly configured with a PATHCOM ADD TERM command. Such a TERM object exists until it is explicitly deleted.
conversational mode Glossary conversational mode. (1) A terminal operating mode in which data is read from the terminal and displayed on the terminal screen one line at a time. See also block mode and intelligent mode. (2) The mode of communication that enables an ongoing dialog between a client (or requester) and a server. Data is sent and received in an iterating fashion without return to the transaction monitor until the application dialog is completed.
database management system (DBMS) Glossary database management system (DBMS). A product, such as Compaq NonStop™ SQL/MP or Enscribe, that serves as the interface between a user or program (for example, a Pathway server) and the database. Among its many functions, the DBMS controls access to and organization of data within the database. Data Definition Language (DDL). (1) The set of data definition statements within the Structured Query Language (SQL).
descriptor Glossary descriptor. For each elementary data item, the SCREEN COBOL compiler builds a data structure that describes the size, type, usage, and dependencies of the item. All of the information that pertains to a given item makes up the descriptor for that item. For example, the PICTURE specification is included in the descriptor. The descriptors are passed to the TCP in the pseudocode and provide a dictionary of information for interpreting and handling incoming data.
distributed transaction processing (DTP) Glossary distributed transaction processing (DTP). The coordination of transactions among application servers residing within a Compaq Expand network and possibly accessing different database management systems (SQL/MP and Enscribe). DTP allows the coordination of multiple, autonomous actions as a single logical unit of work. double-byte character. A character represented in two bytes. See also double-byte character set (DBCS). double-byte character set (DBCS).
Event Management Service (EMS) Glossary Event Management Service (EMS). A part of DSM used to provide event collection, event logging, and event distribution facilities. It provides for different descriptions of events for people and for programs, lets an operator or application select specific eventmessage data, and allows for flexible distribution of event messages within a system or network. EMS has an SPI-based programmatic interface for reporting and retrieving events. See also event message.
F Glossary F fault tolerance. The ability of a NonStop™ Himalaya system to continue processing despite the failure of any single software or hardware component within the system. field-characteristic clause. In SCREEN COBOL, an ordered set of characters that specify the characteristics of a screen field. file identifier (file ID). In the Guardian environment, the portion of a file name following the subvolume name.
G Glossary G gateway. (1) A process, such as the Transaction Delivery Process (TDP) that is part of Compaq NonStop™ Remote Server Call/MP (RSC/MP), that manages communications between dissimilar environments (for example, a workstation and a NonStop™ Himalaya system). A gateway process both transfers information and converts it to a form compatible with the protocols used by the destination environment.
intelligent device Glossary intelligent device. A device such as an automated teller machine, a point-of-sale device, or a communications line, or a process such as a Guardian process or a web client, that can communicate with the Pathway environment through the intelligent device support (IDS) facility, the RSC/MP product, or the Pathsend procedure calls. intelligent device support (IDS) facility. A feature of the TCP that supports access to Pathway server classes by intelligent devices.
K Glossary K keyword. A word in a command string or programming language that must be spelled and positioned in a prescribed way, usually to indicate the meaning of an adjacent parameter. L LCS process. See link control service (LCS) process. library. A set of related files or common files that can be accessed by multiple programs or processes. linear expandability. See scalability. link. (1) An open of a server process within a server class.
link manager Glossary link manager. A process that requests links to server processes and provides link access after the link is granted. TCPs, LINKMON processes, router processes, and link control service (LCS) processes are the link managers in the Pathway environment. See also link access and link granting. LINKMON process. A Guardian process that supports access to servers in the Pathway and NonStop™ TUXEDO environments.
Message Section Glossary clauses in the Procedure Division to interact with the intelligent devices or front-end processes. See also screen-oriented requester. Message Section. A section in the Data Division of a SCREEN COBOL source program that describes the data type, size, and relative position (sequence) of each field in a message template. This section also defines the editing and conversion that must be performed on each field. See also message-oriented requester. migration plan.
no-early-reply rule Glossary no-early-reply rule. The rule that states that when a server process reads a request message, it should completely process the request before it replies to it. nondedicated device. A term formerly used for a terminal or other input/output device on which a Pathway application could be started from PATHCOM with a RUN PROGRAM command. The RUN PROGRAM command results in the creation of a temporary TERM object to control the terminal.
NonStop™ TUXEDO server Glossary NonStop™ TUXEDO server. A server process or program managed by the NonStop™ TUXEDO system administrative facilities. See also Pathway server. NonStop™ TUXEDO system. Compaq’s implementation of the BEA Systems, Inc., TUXEDO enterprise transaction processing system.
online migration Glossary online migration. See rolling configurations. online transaction processing (OLTP). A method of processing transactions in which entered transactions are immediately applied to the database. The information within the database is readily available to all users through online screens and printed reports. The transactions are processed while the requester waits, as opposed to queued or batched transactions, which are processed at a later time.
PATHCOM Glossary PATHCOM. (1) The command interface to the PATHMON process, through which users enter commands to configure and manage Pathway applications when Pathway/XM is not used. (2) The process that provides and supports the PATHCOM interface. In a Pathway/XM environment, PATHCOM processes are used internally only, to interpret management commands directed to individual PATHMON processes.
pathname Glossary pathname. See OSS pathname. Pathsend procedures. The set of Guardian procedure calls that provide general access to Pathway server classes from any process on a NonStop™ Himalaya system. Pathsend process. See Pathsend requester. Pathsend program. A Guardian program, written in C, C++, COBOL85, Pascal, pTAL, or TAL, that makes calls to Pathsend procedures to request services from a Pathway server. A running Pathsend program is called a Pathsend requester or a Pathsend process.
Pathway object Glossary Pathway object. An object in the Pathway transaction processing environment. The set of Pathway objects is a more inclusive set than the set of PATHMON-controlled objects: for example, a LINKMON process is a Pathway object but not a PATHMON-controlled object. See also object, PATHMON-controlled object, and Pathway transaction processing environment. PATHWAY object.
Pathway/iTS gateway Glossary Pathway/iTS gateway. A program, provided as part of the Pathway/iTS product and implemented as a Pathway/iTS IDS requester under the control of a TCP, that manages communications between a Pathway/iTS web client and a Pathway server. It handles requests from Pathway/iTS web clients, validates user access, and performs such functions as beginning and ending transactions, user conversion routines, and send operations to Pathway server processes. See also Pathway/iTS web client.
process Glossary process. (1) A unique execution of a program in the Guardian environment. (2) An entity in the OSS environment consisting of an address space, a single thread of control that executes within that address space, and the system resources required by that thread of control. See also process type. process broker (PB) process.
pseudocode file Glossary pseudocode file. A file containing compiled code that is interpreted by software instead of being executed by the hardware. The SCREEN COBOL compiler produces pseudocode to be interpreted by the TCP. See also object file. pseudo Pathsend procedure. In the Extended General Device Support (GDSX) software, one of the TSCODE-supported procedures that have Pathsend procedure counterparts. pTAL. See Portable Transaction Application Language (pTAL). PWY2TUX translation server.
Remote Duplicate Database Facility (RDF) Glossary Remote Duplicate Database Facility (RDF). The Compaq software product for NonStop™ Himalaya systems that assists in disaster recovery for OLTP production databases, monitors database updates audited by the TMF subsystem on a primary system, and applies those updates to a copy of the database on a remote system. Remote Server Call/MP (RSC/MP). See RSC/MP. replicated server class.
reserved word Glossary reserved word. A word that can be used only as a keyword. resources. The components of a computer system that work together to process transactions. Terminals, workstations, CPUs, memory, I/O controllers, disk drives, processes, files, and applications are examples of resources. response time. The amount of time it takes to receive a response from the system after initiating a request message (for example, by pressing a function key). retryable operation.
SCOBOLX Glossary SCOBOLX. The object file for the SCREEN COBOL compiler program. This name is given in a TACL command to invoke the compiler. See also SCREEN COBOL. screen. A group of data fields that represent formatted data to be displayed on a terminal. A screen is defined by a screen description entry in the Screen Section of a SCREEN COBOL program. There are two types of screen: base screens and overlay screens. See also base screen, overlay screen, and screen description entry. SCREEN COBOL.
server class Glossary combination of hardware and software designed to provide services in response to requests received from clients across a network. For example, Compaq’s NonStop™ Himalaya servers provide transaction processing, database access, and other services. (In the Pathway manual set, the word “server” is generally used only when definition 1 is meant; for definition 2, “system” is usually used instead of “server.”) See also client, requester, client/server model, and requester/server model.
socket Glossary socket. A communications endpoint in the NonStop™ Kernel implementation of the Berkeley Software Distribution’s Sockets API, used for communications between two processes using the TCP/IP protocol. special register. A data item defined by the SCREEN COBOL compiler, rather than explicitly in the program. Each special register has a particular purpose and should be used only as defined.
subtype 30 process Glossary subtype 30 process. A nonprivileged process that simulates terminals and communications devices. subvolume. A related set of files, as defined by the user, within the Guardian environment. The name of a subvolume is the third of the four parts of a file name. SuperCTL file. The file that provides centralized configuration and control for a Pathway/XM environment.
TCP template Glossary TCP template. In a Pathway/XM environment, a template of object settings used to configure TCPs. See also terminal control process (TCP). TCP/IP. A communications protocol commonly used for communications between heterogeneous systems in a multinetwork environment. TDA. See terminal data area (TDA). TEDIT. A Compaq text editor that runs on NonStop™ Himalaya systems and is used to create or modify a source text file. Also called PS Text Edit. tell message.
TERM object Glossary TERM object. A definition of a task that uses a SCREEN COBOL program to control an input/output device such as a terminal or workstation, or an input/output process such as a front-end process. A TERM object can be either explicitly configured (with a PATHCOM ADD command or a PXMCFG ADD statement) or created at run time through a PATHCOM or PXMCOM RUN PROGRAM command or an SPI START PROG command. TERM objects created by the latter method are called temporary TERM objects.
Transaction Application Language (TAL) Glossary Transaction Application Language (TAL). A systems programming language with many features specific to stack-oriented NonStop™ Himalaya systems. See also Portable Transaction Application Language (pTAL). transaction backout. A TMF subsystem activity in which the effects of a partially completed transaction are canceled. Transaction Delivery Process (TDP). A multithreaded gateway process, part of the RSC/MP product, that runs on a NonStop™ Himalaya system.
U Glossary U UMP. See unsolicited-message processing (UMP). unsolicited message. A message that is sent to a SCREEN COBOL program and includes application-dependent information to be processed by the program. Although the program does not do anything to initiate the message, the message must conform to the format defined by the program. The message is sent first to the TCP.
Glossary well-known named PATHMON process well-known named PATHMON process. In a Pathway/XM environment, the one PATHMON process (if any) that has an external process name. This process is named in the PROCESS attribute when the PATHMON object is configured, and is the process used to field LINKMON requests generated by Pathsend requester processes. All other PATHMON processes have internal process names assigned by Pathway/XM. See also PATHMON process. $ $RECEIVE.
