REXX Support in the Unicenter Mainframe Network Management Suite Release 11

Products

CMDB for z/OS NetSpy Network Performance NetMaster Network Automation SOLVE NetMaster Network Management for SNA NetMaster Network Management for TCP/IP NetMaster File Transfer Management SOLVE:Operations Automation SOLVE:Access Session Management SOLVE:FTS

Issue/Introduction

Environment

Release: UNSMON00200-11-Network and Systems Management-NetMaster Option
Component:

Resolution

The next release of products in the Unicenter Mainframe Network Management Suite will support the REXX language. This article discusses what this change will mean to the NetMaster user, and the extent of the changes made in Release 11.

The introduction of REXX offers NetMaster users the choice of programming in NCL or REXX, depending on the user's familiarity and specific needs. REXX delivers new functionality previously unavailable in NetMaster, while also allowing many customer-written NetView REXX programs to run under NetMaster unchanged.

The implementation of REXX in the Release 11 products is GREXX, which is CA's implementation of REXX. GREXX is used by many CA products and has some minor differences to TSO REXX. In a majority of situations, the differences will not be apparent to the REXX programmer. Differences will be noted in Release 11 documentation.

ADDRESS NM

To facilitate the use of REXX as an alternative to NCL, the ADDRESS NM environment will be delivered. ADDRESS NM allows a REXX program to make use of some standard NetMaster facilities. Of major importance, a REXX program will be able to use ADDRESS NM to call any program written in NCL. The list of NetMaster facilities available from ADDRESS NM are as follows:

NetMaster Facilities supported by ADDRESS NM in Release 11:

CALL	Call an NCL or OML procedure for execution
CMD	Issue a NetMaster command
GLOBALV	Access a NetMaster global variable
VARTABLE	Access and manipulate vartables
WRITE	NetMaster WRITE command
EXECIO	NetMasters implementation of EXECIO

NetView Emulation

Unicenter NetMaster Release 11 will provide emulation of many commonly used NetView commands, functions and PIPE stages. This allows many customers REXX programs that use the ADDRESS NETVIEW and ADDRESS NETVASIS environments to run under NetMaster without change. Additionally, an NCCF "look-alike" facility provides a familiar user interface to users who may be experienced with NetView's NCCF.

NetView Emulation is an aid to users who are experienced in programming NetView REXX. Full support of NetView REXX under NetMaster will not be provided, we have focused our attention on the most commonly used commands which will provide maximum benefit to our customers. As a result the number of NetView REXX programs that can run unchanged under NetMaster will vary from site to site.

NetView Emulation offers long term NetMaster users completely new functionality which can simplify complex programming tasks. For example, the PIPE command, and its associated stages, is now available in NetMaster. PIPE provides the capability to solve a complex problem by dividing it into a series of smaller steps. Users with no experience with NetView should consider PIPE, and other emulated commands, when writing code under Unicenter NetMaster Release 11.

The following tables can be used to determine the extent of NetView Emulation delivered in Release 11:

NetView commands supported in Release 11:

AFTER	ALLOCATE	AT	BFRUSE	CALC
CLEAR	CLOSE	D,F,V	DATE	DEBUG
DISPFK	DOM	EVERY	EXCMD	FREE
GLOBALV	GO	LIST	LISTA	LOGOFF
MSG	MVS	NETVASIS	NM	PARSEL2R
PURGE	RMTCMD	SUBMIT	WAIT	WTO
WTOR

NetView functions supported in Release 11:

APPLID	ASID	ATTENDED	AUTCONID	AUTOTASK
CGI	CGLOBAL	CMDNAME	CURSYS	DCO
DISC	DISTAUTO	DOMAIN	FNDMBR	HCOPY
LU	MVSLEVEL	NETID	NETVIEW	OPID
OPSYSTEM	PANEL	PARMCNT	PARTID	STCKGMT
SUPPCHAR	SYSPLEX	TASK	TGLOBAL	TOWER
TYPE	VTAM	VTCOMPID	WEEKDAYN

NetView PIPE stages supported in Release 11:

$STEM	<	BETWEEN	CASEI	CHANGE
CHOP	COLLECT	CONSOLE	CORRWAIT	COUNT
DELDUPES	DROP	DUPLICAT	ENVDATA	EXPOSE
FANIN	FANINANY	FANOUT	HOLE	JOINCONT
KEEP	LITERAL	LOCATE	LOGTO	LOOKUP
MEMLIST	MVS	NETVIEW	NLOCATE	NOT
PICK	PIPEND	PRESATTR	QSAM	REVERSE
SAFE	SEPARATE	SORT	SPLIT	STEM
STRIP	SUBSYM	TAKE	TOSTRING	VAR
VARLOAD	VTAM

Notes:

These lists are subject to change, and will not be finalized until Release 11 development and QA processes are complete.
Some NCCF commands will not support all operands. Operands are generally unsupported if they are not pertinent to the NetMaster environment. Documentation of the level of support will be provided with Release 11.
If specific capabilities are not supported, the user will need to convert their REXX to NCL, or convert their REXX program to use supported REXX functions.

REXX Analyzer

In Release 11, a REXX Analyzer program will also be available for execution from the Unicenter NetMaster environment. This will interrogate customer NetView REXX libraries and generate reports detailing:

The number of programs that will be supported by NetMaster
The specific programs supported by NetMaster
Detail of whether specific NetView REXX programs has executed in any active NetView Address Space
Programs not eligible to run under NetMaster with a list of entities that are not supported within the procedure.

Unsupported NetView capabilities

NetView message processing infrastructure such as MSGVAR and TRAP will not be supported by NetMaster. Message processing can be accomplished by converting REXX using these capabilities to emulated PIPE stages. Alternatively, the simple call of an NCL program to issue a command and extract variables from a response can be implemented.

NCCF Messages

It is not possible to replicate the message id of NetView NCCF messages. All messages produced by NetMaster will be documented. The user will find the last 4 characters of a NetMaster message will be the same as the equivalent NetView 1.3 message.

Emulated NetView Release

NetView 1.3 was the base for NetView emulation in Release 11. This means that the emulation of NetView commands, functions and PIPE stages will have similar characteristics to their usages under NetView 1.3.

ADDRESS TSO

Like NetView, the ADDRESS TSO environment will not be supported by NetMaster.

Calling other programs

ADDRESS LINK and ADDRESS ATTACH can be used to call 'standard' IBM programs using standard linkage. They allow you to execute an IBM utility such as IEBCOPY. NetMaster supports these environments as per the TSO/REXX description of ADDRESS LINK/ ADDRESS ATTACH.