SystemView Design Considerations for a Real-time Performance Management Application

The SystemView structure for systems management is intended to improve the way that computer systems are managed. Systems management application developers will be able to take advantage of this structure to construct applications that operate in cooperation, i.e., that share access to common data and communicate using published interfaces. In this paper we describe a specific MVS performance managemement application in the context of SystemView. We focus on certain elements of the SystemView structure and their roles with respect to a simple OS/2 based application that conducts real-time performance monitoring, problem detection and limited diagnosis of a remote mainframe. Our treatment is limited; in particular, we are concerned here with aspects of the structure that are not immediately apparent to users of SystemView applications. For this reason, end-use design issues, while important and challenging, are not considered. Instead, we discuss the importance of the data model, and briefly describe the model employed in this application. The roles of a control information base (CIB), the enterprise information base (EIB) are outlined. The Common Management Interface (CMI), used to communicate data and control between managing and managed system (agent) is also discussed - together with the relationship between the data stored in the CIB and the data acquired over the CMI.