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.
The 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:
Display the configuration of partitioned
AlphaServers.
Utilize hotswap characteristics of the current hardware
platform.
Execute distributed commands among partitioned instances.
Reassign resources among soft-partitioned instances.
View resource-specific characteristics.
Shut down or reboot one or more instances.
Invoke additional management tools.
Create and engage Galaxy configuration models.
View online documentation.
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.