This document covers the following topics:
The Entire Systems Management Adapter is a Software AG product that makes operating system information and system services available to the user, whether it be an application developer, system programmer, or computer operator.
The Entire Systems Management Adapter does this by providing a logical view of the operating system in much the same way as a database management system provides access to a database such as Adabas . For this reason, the Entire Systems Management Adapter is often referred to as a virtual database for system data management. With the Entire Systems Management Adapter, a comprehensive number of views are made available, the following table lists only a sample selection:
| View Name | Description |
|---|---|
READ-FILE
|
Read data from any specific file. |
WRITE-FILE
|
Write data to any specific file. |
VTOC-UPDATE
|
Perform VTOC maintenance functions. |
ACTIVE-JOBS
|
Access active job information. |
SPOOL-QUEUE
|
Access spool queue information. |
CONSOLE
|
Access operator console. |
SEND-MESSAGE
|
Send message to a specific user. |
SUBMIT
|
Submit a batch job. |
With its large array of views, the Entire Systems Management Adapter constitutes a major enhancement to sites that use Natural, the proven and powerful 4th generation development environment from Software AG which enjoys world-wide renown. This yields an important two-way benefit:
Operating system information and services are made available to application programmers using standard Natural statements (Find, Process);
Full Natural functionality is extended to data center and operations personnel.
One of the most important distinguishing features of Natural's 4th generation technology is the strict distinction it makes between the logical level and the physical level of data processing, that is, between the application logic and the structure of the database on which corporate information is physically stored. For example, entries in a personnel file are assigned fixed attributes such as surname, first name, age, and sex. Natural programs can refer to these attributes that are defined as fields in the logical view of the file, and the information is then extracted from the database regardless of the file structure.
The Entire Systems Management Adapter mirrors this approach by separating the application logic from the internals of the operating system on which the application runs. For example, a Natural program can access active operating system job information through the Entire Systems Management Adapter by referring to such assigned fixed attributes defined in the logical view of active jobs as job-name, job-number, type and priority, account number or the predefined maximum time the job can use.
With this in mind, the implications of introducing the Entire Systems Management Adapter to a Natural environment are immense and constitute a major technological advance.
Whereas before, application programmers could only access the database from Natural programs without knowledge of the physical structure of the database, Entire Systems Management Adapter now also allows them to access operating system information and services using the same syntax. At the same time, the introduction of 4th generation technology to the data center means that system programmers need not program in Assembler any more, but can use Natural, which is distinguished by its flexibility and ease of use.
Again, the twin advantage of this technology becomes apparent immediately:
Natural programmers now have the capability of managing their own files and accessing other operating system services, enabling them to write much more powerful applications without the need for special knowledge of and/or further training in operating system issues;
System programmers and computer operators can now write their own site-specific (Natural) applications based on Entire Systems Management Adapter to automate or simplify their tasks. For example, programs are easily written for operations such as disk and dataset maintenance, file and catalog management, job and printout information retrieval. Programs can even be written for resource management, for example, ensuring optimal use of disk space.
The following figure illustrates the use of the Entire Systems Management Adapter:
Both data center personnel and application developers benefit from the Entire Systems Management Adapter, as it allows them to react much more independently and flexibly to their work requirements. Using Natural, program development is much faster, while the run-time performance of Natural programs compares favorably with programs written using 3rd generation technology.
Always willing to prove its point, Software AG itself has already realized ready-for-work application solutions based on the Entire Systems Management Adapter in the following areas of data center tasks:
Production management:
Planning and automatic scheduling of batch jobs and online tasks (Entire Operations, formerly Natural Operations);
Event management:
Console message filter and automatic response to system events (Entire Event Management, formerly Natural Console Management);
Output management:
Automatic bundling, separation, distribution and archiving of output (Entire Output Management, formerly Natural Output Management).
This subsection gives a brief overview of the tasks that programs based on the Entire Systems Management Adapter can perform. The tasks mentioned are only a selection from a wide array of possible implementations.
The primary use of the Entire Systems Management Adapter lies in the areas of spool management, file and disk management and system maintenance, as illustrated by the following figure:
Spooling System:
Using the spool management group of views, programs can be written that allow the user to write procedures to submit jobs anywhere in the computer network, track each job's progress and inspect return codes and output files. One good example of the use of this functionality is in applications that issue long requests to the operating system: the online application can trigger a batch job that performs the request. The application can continue work, and it can look into the spool to check the job's progress and check its result. The views used for this example are Submit, Spool-files and Read-spool.
File and Disk Management:
The views that provide file management functionality allow the allocation, deletion and editing of files, as well as the copying of files from one library into another. In a computer network, files can be maintained anywhere in the network, and file transfer can be performed from one computer to another, regardless of the operating system. For example: whereas before, supplying data to a remote location involved creating a tape, taking it to the remote location and reading it there, the Entire Systems Management Adapter makes file transfer a simple online operation using the Copy-File view.
Useful disk management operations using the Vtoc-update view include the renaming, scratching and purging of catalog entries, as well as releasing unused space.
System Maintenance:
System maintenance functions offered by the Entire Systems Management Adapter include the Console view which provides an image of the operator console and allows the user to issue operator commands to the operating system. The Send-Message view allows messages to be distributed to users around the network.
Another important use of system maintenance views, is the
ability to execute operating system functions (for example
ARCHIVE) with standard Natural syntax. Operating system utilities
can be given a uniform user interface, and no special knowledge of operating
system internals is required.
On the hardware side, if a new computer is added to the network, no changes to the applications of the installation are required. All that is needed is a new Entire Systems Management Adapter node on the new machine.
Making operating system services and information available to multiple types of user raises security issues. The Entire Systems Management Adapter supports standard security. The introduction of the Entire Systems Management Adapter to your installation has no effect on the authorization levels in place at your site: before the user is given access to any operating system data or service, authorization is derived from the external security system. This means that the user has the same authorization level for these items with or without the Entire Systems Management Adapter.
Additionally, with Natural Security, access to operating system resources and information can be controlled in the same way as the logical views of Natural of the database are protected: each Entire Systems Management Adapter view can be given a specific authorization profile.
During the installation of the Entire Systems Management Adapter, no restart of the operating system is necessary. There are no "hooks" into the operating system. The clearly defined and stable interfaces provided by the operating system (UCON, LMS, etc.), together with the modifiable startup parameters make the Entire Systems Management Adapter easy to customize to changing conditions at your site. No maintenance work is required, the Entire Systems Management Adapter provides you with a 24-hour a day, 7-day a week service.