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Overview  



The HP Graphical Configuration Manager (GCM) for OpenVMS is a portable, client/server application that provides a visual means of viewing and controlling the configuration of partitioned AlphaServer systems running OpenVMS. The GCM client is a Java-based application that can run on any operating system that supports the JavaTM run-time environment (JDK V1.2.2 or higher) and a TCP/IP network. A GCM server runs as a detached process on each partitioned OpenVMS instance on one or more AlphaServer systems. You use GCM to configure and manage Galaxy systems in much the same way that you use GCU: the difference is that GCU is a DECwindows Motif application and GCM is a Java-based one.
NoteThe GCM client is not supported on Java JDK Version 1.3 or greater at this time.

All network communication performed by the HP OpenVMS Graphical Configuration Manager uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). The GCM administration database is encrypted.

From a GCM client, an OpenVMS system manager can establish a secure connection to one or more GCM servers, and perform the following functions:

An association is a group of OpenVMS instances, each of which has the GCM server installed and shares a common GCM administration database. By defining associations, system managers can use a wide range of deployment strategies to meet their operational needs. For example, you can create hard partitions on a large system to serve different corporate departments or divisions. Within these hard partitions, you can create soft partitions to further segregate individual work groups or user groups. A complex environment such as this may have many separate system managers, each responsible for a different set of hard and soft partitions. In addition, you can define an overall management function with responsibility for either all or a subset of the partitions. GCM allows you to define specific associations and authorize specific access privileges to individual users.

In the most simple deployment, a single GCM server runs on the single soft partition of a single hard partition. Association records in the administration database identify the hard partition (and its soft partition) as a unique entity that is to be managed as an individual system.

In the most complex deployment, a GCM server runs on each soft partition within each hard partition of many different systems (GS series, ES40, 4100, 8xxx ). Association records in the administration database identify the group of systems that form the combined entity to be managed. When an association consists of multiple systems and partitions, each GCM server identifies itself to every other GCM server in the association, thereby establishing a secure communications grid that allows you to perform advanced distributed management functions.


 
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