Network Administration

From CometWiki

Advanced Network Administration Tools

for Comet2002 and CometServe

Overview

Several advanced network administration tools are now available for Comet2002 and CometServe. These tools return information about the active users, active programs, active files, and locked (extracted) records. Two of the tools are standard Comet utility programs (WHOHAS and NETINQ), and one of the tools is a subprogram you can call from your own application/utility in order to inquire on the status of your CometServe server.

Here are the minimum requirements for these tools:

· Comet2002 Build 307

· CometServe32 Version 2.69 or CometServeNLM 1.69/2.69

· REL directory version 02.02

· UTL directory version 02.02

· XTL directory (utility source subset) version 02.02

Note

These new programs will run in a network that contains a mixture of Comet products (e.g., Comet98, Comet2000, Comet2002), however the node running these programs must be running Comet2002.

Note for NLM1 users

These new programs will run with NLM1, however the feature that reports the name of the program running in each partition is a feature of NLM2. Therefore, if you run NETINQ and/or use the SNAPSHOT subprogram with NLM1, you will see meaningless program names in the partition records.

WHOHAS utility

The WHOHAS utility program (#21 on the Comet Utility Programs menu) returns information on who has a specified file open and, if applicable, who has what records extracted (locked) in that file. The program displays the following prompts:

File name:
                                                                                                                                                                                  .
Directory name:
                                                                                                                                                                                .
Listing device:

To inquire on a specific file, enter the file name and its directory, and then enter the listing device for the program output (the default output device is the screen).

If the specified file is not open by any users, the following message is displayed:

Currently, no Cometsrv users have this file open!

If the file is open by at least one user, the following information is displayed:

·         Node name(s) where the file is open
.
·         Network address of the node(s), including the port number that CometServe uses to communication with Comet

For each node where the file is open, the following information is displayed:

·         Partition(s) where the file is open  
.
·         Logical unit number(s) where the file is open
.
·         Key value(s) of extracted record(s) (if any)

NETINQ utility

The NETINQ utility program (#22 on the Comet Utility Programs menu) takes a "snapshot" of the Comet file server and creates a CometServe activity log. The log is displayed in HTML format, and contains the following items:

· Information on all CometServe connections, including partition and terminal values, and the network address of the node

· For each connection, information about all of the partitions, including the partition number, the name of the program running in that partition, and the current value of ENTERLEVEL (values greater than 0 indicate that a subprogram is running in the partition)

· For each partition where logical unit numbers (besides 0) are open, information about the logical unit numbers, including the file name and the key value(s) of extracted records, if any

If you are connected to multiple CometServe servers, the program displays the following message and prompt:

You are connected to the following servers:

.

.

.

Enter the name of the server for this inquiry:

Once you have selected the server, or if you are connected to only one server, the program shows all of the active connections (nodes) and displays the following prompt:

Enter connection number or "ALL" for inquiry:

To view the activity log for one node, enter the corresponding connection number. To view the activity log for all nodes, enter "ALL".

The following prompt is displayed:

Enter name of HTML printer for output:

This program requires a configured HTML printer. The default printer name is LPH.

The program displays the activity log in HTML format. The log is organized by node, partition, and logical unit number. The HTML page contains hyperlinks that help guide to you through the activity log information.

SNAPSHOT subprogram

The SNAPSHOT subprogram (located in the UTL directory) is a subprogram you can ENTER from your own application/utility in order to inquire on the status of your CometServe server. The subprogram takes a "snapshot" of the Comet file server and creates a CometServe activity log (a keyed file).

To get CometServe to generate the activity log file, create a keyed file with a record size of 1024 and a key size of 64. This file should be located in any directory on the server you want to inquire on. Open the file on logical unit number 32, and then ENTER "SnapShot", DIR="UTL". For example:

FileName$ = "NETDATA"  ! sample file name

DirName$ = "DSK"  ! sample directory (located on target server)

ERASE FileName$,DIR=DirName$,EXCP=CreateLogFile

CreateLogFile:

CREATE FileName$,1024,K,64,DIR=DirName$

OPEN (32) FileName$

ENTER "SNAPSHOT", DIR="UTL"

.

.

.

When control returns to your program (following the ENTER statement), the keyed file will contain either snapshot records or it will return an error message in a record keyed by "*".

There are four types of snapshot records:

· Connection record, keyed by "C" and the connection number, which includes the node name (profile name), network address, number of partitions, name of first partition and terminal, and workstation ID

· Partition record, keyed by "P" + connection number + partition number, which includes the name of the current program and the value of the ENTERLEVEL system variable

· LUN status record, keyed by "L" + connection number + partition number + logical unit number, which includes the path, name, and directory of the open file, and the value of the extracted key (if any)

· Version record, keyed by "V", which includes the server type (CometServeNLM or CometServe32), the CometServe version, and a date/time stamp

The key to each record is the first 64 bytes of the record.

The SNAPSHOT.INC file in the XTL directory is an include file that contains FORMAT statements for the four record types, along with definitions of all of the fields returned by the SNAPSHOT subprogram.