Pathway/XM System Management Manual

Compaq NonStop™ Pathway/XM System Management Manual—426761-001
D-1
D
Summary of Differences Between the
Pathway/XM Environment and the
PATHMON Environment
The following basic characteristics of a Compaq NonStop™ Pathway/XM environment
make it different from a PATHMON environment:
•
You configure a Pathway/XM environment offline, by preparing a source file and
running the PXMCFG utility, before any PATHMON processes are started. This
feature allows you to maintain and manage multiple configurations.
•
You start up and manage the environment online by using the PXMCOM utility.
PXMCOM enables you to make temporary configuration changes, but you can
always easily return to your original configuration.
•
A Pathway/XM environment can accommodate a much larger number of terminals,
server processes, and other managed objects than are possible in a PATHMON
environment. (For details, refer to Appendix C.)
•
The central point of control in a Pathway/XM environment is the SuperCTL file
(rather than a PATHMON process and its PATHCTL file).
•
A Pathway/XM environment can include multiple PATHMON processes.
Pathway/XM creates the PATHMON processes automatically as needed; you do not
create (run) them explicitly.
•
You configure the attributes for your TCPs in a TCP template that can apply to
multiple TCPs. Pathway/XM configures additional TCPs automatically as needed
to balance terminal workload.
•
You can configure distributed server classes for load balancing and online
reconfiguration. Distributed server classes have a central queue for transaction
requests, managed by a link control service (LCS) process. Links for distributed
servers are granted by a process broker (PB) process.
•
You can define logical groups of server classes and terminal tasks to be operated on
by a single command. This feature simplifies object naming and allows you to use
fewer commands.
•
For distributed server classes, Pathway/XM includes a configuration option to allow
interfacing to a user’s $CMON process, if any, on creation of new server processes.
•
Because configuration information is processed offline and processors are assigned
automatically, because shutdown is performed globally, and because of other
operational differences, some PATHCOM commands and object attributes are not
used in the Pathway/XM environment.