HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
NMMGR/XL Enhancements by Nancy DeVore Information Networks Division NMMGR has several enhancements with MPE/iX Release 4.0. These enhancements include Maintenance Mode simplification, new security features, NMMGR change notification and logging, IP Address format, and Gateway Configuration change. These enhancements to NMMGR/XL are documented in the NS3000/XL NMMGR Screens Reference Manual (36922-61003) dated June, 1992, Using the Node Management Services (NMS) Utilities (32022-61005) dated June, 1992, and HP 3000/XL Network Planning and Configuration Guide (36922-61023) dated June, 1992. Several new commands have been added to NMMGR Maintenance Mode to allow simplified batch configuration processing. Along with the new commands, the WRITECONF command has been modified to allow the use of either field names or numbers to identify which field to update. Two new commands for modifying the configuration files are ADDCONF and PURGECONF. These commands alter the number of records in the configuration file. DTC configuration has three new commands, ADDLDEV, LISTLDEV, and PURGELDEV, that modify a DTC's configuration. The SNA Node Transport can now be updated using ADDLU, LISTLU, and PURGELU commands. Another new command that aides in batch configuration is CONTINUE. CONTINUE can be used to stop job termination when NMMGR returns a bad status from a command. The scope of the CONTINUE command can be either through the entire job or only the next command. The final two new commands, NICONF and PURGENI, are for Network Interface updates. The new security features of NMMGR restrict access to and stop accidental deletion of configuration information. Access to configuration information can now be restricted. Through the use of password option, a user can view configuration information in browse mode, or update mode. Another new feature is validation upon the exit of NMMGR. After a subsystem is updated, NMMGR automatically validates that subsystem when the user exits NMMGR. The warning messages about validation of a subsystem can also be turned on or off. These features are implemented by including EXITVALIDATE, EXITWARN, and PASSWORD, which are new Maintenance Mode commands, in the file NMSTART.PUB.SYS. NMSTART.PUB.SYS is a file that is executed whenever NMMGR is started.
NOTE The new commands and security feature enhancements are released with MPE/iX Release 4.0 and are available for XL Release 2.2, 3.0, and 3.1 through patches.
Available for the first time on MPE/iX Release 4.0 is change notification and logging. NMMGR now notifies OpenView System Manager of the first time a configuration file is modified during an NMMGR session. In addition to notification, NMMGR logs changes to NMDUMP's logging facility. The types of changes that will be logged are: open/close and modification of a configuration file. The format for entering IP Addresses has been simplified for MPE/iX Release 4.0 NMMGR now accepts IP Addresses with or without the preceding alpha character. If an IP Address is entered with the wrong class alpha character (A, B, C, or E), NMMGR modifies the address to have the correct class. In addition, an IP Address can be entered in UNIX format, in other words without the preceding class letter and with periods between each octet. The default configuration value for store and forward buffers in the NETXPORT.NI.<ininame>.PROTOCOL.IP screen of NMMGR is set to zero. In previous releases, the default value was 20 buffers. The change was made so that the HP 3000 would not act as a gateway by default. This prevents packets, such as broadcast packets, from erroneously being forwarded. Implementing the change of disabling store and forward by default enables the HP 3000 to adhere to the Request For Change that outlines the standards for hosts--RFC1122. If an HP 3000 system is to be a gateway node, the Network Administrator must specifically reconfigure the default value of store and forward buffers to a non-zero number. (The recommended value for the store and forward buffers is 20.)