HP-UX SNAplus2 General Information (October 1998)

42 Chapter 2

Introducing SNAplus2

Beneﬁts Provided by SNAplus2

NOF API

All SNAplus2 administration tools, including the Motif

administration program and the command-line

administration program, use the NOF API to conﬁgure

and manage SNAplus2 resources. You can use the NOF

API to implement your own administration functions.

Conﬁguration information is stored in a plain text ﬁle that can be

modiﬁed using standard HP-UX utilities such as vi, awk, and sed. In a

network that contains many machines with similar conﬁgurations, an

administrator can produce conﬁguration ﬁles for all machines by using

one conﬁguration ﬁle as a template.

Client/Server Operation

Client/server conﬁguration provides the following beneﬁts:

• Concentrating SNA resources on servers reduces the load on clients,

improving client performance and minimizing the storage needed to

provide SNA services to clients.

• A single data link can be shared by multiple users on different

machines, eliminating the need for each machine to have a physical

SNA network connection.

• Multiple servers can provide redundant connectivity (for example, by

having multiple servers providing access to the same host). Having

multiple paths to an SNA resource enables load balancing across the

different servers and provides immediate backup in the event that a

particular server or link fails.

• By using LU pools across multiple servers, the administrator can

easily conﬁgure and add servers and users.

• Having fewer links and PUs for host connectivity reduces the size of

the host VTAM deﬁnition.

• Administration utilities can be used to conﬁgure and manage both

node resources (for any computer in the domain) and shared

resources. The client/server support provided by SNAplus2

administration tools enables transparent administration of all

domain resources from any computer in the domain.