ViewPoint Manual

Functional Description
ViewPoint Manual—426801-001
5-6
Status
Status
Status reports on a selected set of objects are obtained by switching to the Network
Status Summary screen. After you switch to this screen, the status display is updated
automatically at intervals that you can specify, or you can update the display manually
by pressing a function key.
The status request is issued by one of the SCREEN COBOL programs running under
control of the ViewPoint TCP. This program forms a number of operating system
messages that are sent to status collection servers in one or more network nodes. Each
message is a request for one item (of up to 16 on a page). The status collection servers
forward these requests to the subsystems controlling the objects to be reported on that
page.
As status items are returned, they are received by the SCREEN COBOL program in the
ViewPoint TCP. When the update interval is complete for updating the Network Status
Summary screen, all items that are ready are displayed on your terminal.
The ViewPoint TCP runs a separate SCREEN COBOL program thread for each logged-
on operator, so this process can simultaneously manage status reporting for any number
of network operators.
Events
Notifications of events from subsystems are received by an event collector for a given
network node. The collector records notifications in an event log file as event messages.
A forwarding distributor in that node forwards the messages to the event collector in
the NCN for recording in the NCN event log file—along with events from various other
nodes. A ViewPoint event collection server puts the messages into a display cache,
such as the primary-events cache (for all operators) or into an alternate-events cache (for
a particular operator).
When you give a request from the Primary or Alternate Events screen, you can display
on your terminal a page of 16 events. These events are read from a cache.
Network Command Functions
The next four figures show the network command functions available when you use a
TACL command interpreter from ViewPoint. Figure 5-4 illustrates switching between
the ViewPoint TCP and the TACL command interpreter. Either of these two processes
controls your terminal and displays either a TACL or ViewPoint screen. A process
called the TACL switcher manages the switchovers between the TACL command
interpreter and the ViewPoint process. The operation is described in the next paragraph.
Assume you have been using the ViewPoint screens (for status or event functions), and
you now wish to switch to the TACL screen. You press the TACL function key (F1).
This action causes the ViewPoint process to send a message to the TACL switcher. The
message says your task in the ViewPoint process is done and that the TACL switcher
should activate the TACL process. The TACL switcher activates the TACL command
interpreter, which assumes control of your terminal and suspends your task in the
ViewPoint process.