NPDA (was: How to suppress some informational VTAM messages ?)

On Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:31:33 -0500, Scott Ford
<scott.ford@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

... I think if my memory serves me correctly that
NPDA was designed for usage with IBM modems....right ?
...

One very small part of NPDA dealt with running tests on IBM modems.

The basic function of NPDA is/was to display hardware-generated
event data for devices in an SNA network. The format of the the
event data went through several interations. I've forgotten more
than I ever knew about the first 2 - RECMS and RECFMS. ("Record
Management Statistics" and "REcord Formatted Management
Statistics" maybe?) There are still some hooks in MVS that convert
logrec OBR records to one of those.

The 3rd type of event record - still actively used - is definied as
part of the SNA architecture - SNA Management Services major
vector x'0000' - ALERT which is delivered in the SNA Request Unit
NMVT - Network Management Vector Transport.

The Alert vector has thousands of architected code points for
description
possible causes
recommended corrective action
etc.
in predefined subvectors that hardware and software use to
describe exceptional conditions or resolutions from such conditions.

You can think of this as the SNA equivalent of SNMP.
Except the is no pretense that it is "simple".
And it's not limited to SNA devces. MVS's DB2 generate these alerts.
So do some IBM printer abd DASD subsystems.
And there is a set of user code points and the NetView GENALERT
commands that lets you build your own for any situation you want.

Oh. This was supposed to be about NPDA. NPDA displays this data.

Pat O'Keefe





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