Communicator e3000 MPE/iX Release 7.5 PowerPatch 2 (Software Release C.75.02) (30216-90352)

Chapter 3

Technical Articles

Enhanced Host-Based DTC Management Functionality

by John Spitzer, MPE/iX Lab

Introduction

The HP e3000 uses the Datacommunications and Terminal Controller (DTC) to provide the hardware and

functionality to configure and establish connections to the HP e3000 via Asynchronous Serial ports and

X.25/PAD protocols. For the HP e3000 on all supported MPE/iX releases, the configuration and management

of the DTCs has been performed by the Open View DTC Manager (OVDTCMgr) workstation running on a PC

with Windows 95, or by functions of the DTS subsystem include in FOS with MPE/iX. When the OVDTCMgr

manages the DTCs it is known as PC-Based DTC Management and when the HP e3000 host manages the

DTCs it is called Host-Based DTC Management. Both PC-Based and Host-Based managed DTCs and HP

e3000 hosts can co-exist in any combination within any network.

Due to numerous issues, the Open View DTC Manager solution on the PC has been discontinued as of the end

of October 2002. This article describes enhancements made to the DTS subsystem on the HP e3000 in order to

provide the functionality needed to continue to support the DTC connectivity required by the HP e3000 users.

These added features were available on the OVDTCMgr platform when PC-Based DTC Management was

used, but not on the HPe3000 when Host-Based DTC Management was used.

This functionality was first released as two sets of patches. One set of patches was created for release 7.5 and

the second set was created for Release 7.0. With this delivery, the patches are now incorporated into MPE/iX

7.5 Power Patch 2 and will be included in all future patches of the subsystems that are affected by the

enhancements.

New and Enhanced Functionality

The following is a summary of the DTS subsystem’s DTC management features that have been enhanced. All

of this functionality was available when using the OVDTCMgr PC-based platform and is now available on the

HP e3000 host.

• X.25 System to Systems Switching – You can now configure the DTC to share X.25 connections from one

or more cards in a DTC to multiple HP e3000 hosts.

• PAD Switching – Connections from external PAD devices to the DTC can now connect to multiple HP

e3000 systems through a shared X.25 card in a DTC.

• PAD Security lists – These lists allow you to configure PAD Security more like the PAD security lists that

were available on the OVDTCMgr platform. On the OVDTCMgr platform these were known as the Node

Names List and PAD Access List.

• PAD Incoming Security – This table maps a PAD Security list to a set of incoming X.25 PAD addresses to

control access to the HP e3000 from PAD devices.

• Non-Nailed TIO devices – You can now configure non-nailed direct connect TIO devices when the system

is configured for Host Based Management. Previously, non-nailed direct connect TIO devices were only

available when PC-based Management was used on the HP e3000.

• RAFCP and Auto Restart – Routable AFCP on a front end DTC and Automatic Restart of X.25/PAD

protocols can now be enabled on the appropriate DTCs.