Pathway/XM System Management Manual

Overview of Configuring and Managing Pathway/XM
Compaq NonStop™ Pathway/XM System Management Manual—426761-001
3-3
Managing a Pathway/XM Environment
PXMCFG then configures multiple instances of the components as required by your
specified configuration parameters. Later, at run time, PXMCOM and other
Pathway/XM components create instances of some components, such as screen
programs and server processes, as needed by your running application.
Because configuration of a Pathway/XM environment occurs offline, you can prepare
multiple versions of your Pathway/XM configuration and manage these as you would
manage multiple versions of an application program. For example, you can run
alternative versions of your configuration on different days or at different times of the
year. You can create new configurations and try them out, while saving your earlier
configuration to reload if needed.
Managing a Pathway/XM Environment
After you have defined your configuration and used PXMCFG to build a SuperCTL file,
you start up, monitor, and manage your Pathway/XM environment by using PXMCOM.
The PXMCOM program allows you to start up, shut down, monitor, and perform other
online operations on your running application based on the contents of the SuperCTL
file. Through the SuperCTL file, PXMCOM provides a single point of control for the
entire Pathway/XM environment.
Figure 3-2
shows a Pathway/XM configuration as it appears after you have started it by
using PXMCOM.
As shown in Figure 3-2
, a Pathway/XM environment can include multiple PATHMON
processes and their subordinate objects. When you enter the command to start the
Pathway/XM environment, PXMCOM starts PATHMON processes as directed by the
configuration in the SuperCTL file and sends control information to each PATHMON
process in parallel by using nowait I/O operations. It automatically sends management
commands to the appropriate PATHMON processes; often a single PXMCOM
command causes multiple commands to be sent to multiple PATHMON processes.
PXMCOM collects status and statistics information from multiple PATHMON
processes and reports it as if it came from a single PATHMON process.
PXMCOM provides all the online management functions needed in the Pathway/XM
environment. PATHCOM commands are not needed and should not be used.