Pathway/XM System Management Manual

Managing a Pathway/XM Environment
Compaq NonStop™ Pathway/XM System Management Manual—426761-001
7-12
Information in the Control Files
Information in the Control Files
After you have used PXMCFG to build the SuperCTL file, it contains all of the process
and other object definitions needed to start your Pathway/XM environment. However,
no processes or objects are created until you run PXMCOM, open the SuperCTL file,
and issue the necessary START commands.
When you issue the START PATHWAY command, the PXMCOM process uses the
object definitions in the SuperCTL file to start up the process broker (PB) processes and
the PATHMON processes.
While your Pathway/XM environment is running, the SuperCTL file retains initial and
current configuration information about your Pathway/XM environment. The initial
configuration information is the data about global environment parameters and object
attributes that you specified in your PXMCFG source file. The current configuration
information is information about changes made at run time through PXMCOM
commands (such as CONTROL commands). The current configuration information is
not preserved when the Pathway/XM environment is shut down.
After the START PATHWAY command is issued and the PATHMON processes are
created, each PATHMON process maintains additional information about the
Pathway/XM objects under its control. This information is contained in the PATHMON
configuration (PATHCTL) file for that PATHMON process. The PATHCTL file
associated with a PATHMON process has the name CTLxxxx, where xxxx is the
name of the PATHMON process with the dollar sign ($) omitted.
When you use PXMCOM to cold start or cool start the Pathway/XM environment, each
PATHMON process uses information stored in the SuperCTL file to create its operating
environment and its own PATHCTL file. When you warm start the Pathway/XM
environment, the PATHMON processes use the existing PATHCTL files rather than
creating new ones. More detailed information about cold start, cool start, and warm start
are provided in the following subsection, Specifying the START PATHWAY
Command.
Specifying the START PATHWAY Command
There are three options for the START PATHWAY command: COLD, COOL, and
WARM. Which one you choose depends on the task you want to perform.
•
Cold starting a Pathway/XM environment
To start a Pathway/XM environment with a new or revised PXMCFG configuration,
or to start a previously used configuration without saving changes made during
PXMCOM operation, you specify the COLD start option. The COLD start option
directs the PXMCOM process to create a new Pathway/XM environment from the
initial configuration specified in the SuperCTL file.
•
Cool starting a Pathway/XM environment
Note. The Pathway/XM environment, as configured in the SuperCTL file, includes one or
more PATHMON processes, one or more NODE objects, and the objects configured and
controlled by the PATHMON processes: TCPs, TERM objects, PROGRAM objects, and
SERVER objects.