This chapter provides a brief overview of the individual software components of IRIXpro, and other information to help you use this guide. The following sections are provided in this chapter:
“Introduction to IRIXpro” provides a general overview of the IRIXpro component applications.
“The IRIXpro Databases” describes the databases used in common by the IRIXpro applications.
IRIXpro has been designed to be used in the Indigo Magic™ desktop environment provided on all Silicon Graphics workstations and graphics servers. The standard directory view of the /usr/IRIXpro directory, where the tools, applications, and many of the configuration files are installed, is available by issuing the command:
irixpro
The directory view looks similar to this:
For information on using the directory view and the Indigo Magic environment, see the IRIS Essentials guide in your InSight™ online documentation, or “User Interface Terminology” in this chapter.
The following sections provide a short introduction to the components of IRIXpro. Each piece of component software is described completely in a separate chapter in this book.
IRIXpro is made up of four related and interacting applications, and the SQL database query language. All of IRIXpro was written using the sgitcl programming language, and IRIXpro is completely configurable and extensible by the user.
Below is a brief description of the four IRIXpro applications.
The propel distributed system management application provides a convenient graphical interface to several databases, including the Host and Collection database described in this chapter. Support is also included for using these databases to disseminate software and system configuration file changes across your network. Using propel, you can automatically keep host systems updated to the correct revision level of applications or system software, and manage your system configuration files with ease. The propel application is described in Chapter 2, “Software Distribution, User and Host Management With propel.”
The proclaim network host ID management system allows you to dynamically assign and reclaim network IP addresses on an as-needed basis for your entire network and to configure a new system's networking parameters. The proclaim application is described in Chapter 3, “Dynamic Network Configuration With proclaim.”
The provision distributed system monitoring tools allow you to monitor the essential statistics and system states of each machine on your network from a central monitoring server. The provision application is described in Chapter 4, “Distributed System Monitoring With provision.”
The problema system administration request management application allows your users to submit requests for system administration services, and allows you to track each request. The problema application is described in Chapter 5, “System Administration Request Management With problema.”
The applications that compose IRIXpro each maintain various databases to hold and query the information specific to the application's needs. The Host and Collection databases, however, are used by all the IRIXpro applications.
The Host database holds the following information about each host on your network:
| Hostname | This field holds the name that uniquely identifies a system within an administrative domain. For example, the name of the system might be Wilmer. This should match the system hostname in /etc/sys_id. The system named in this field is called the named system in all descriptions of other fields in the IRIXpro databases. | |
| Domain | This field contains the NIS/BIND domain name of the named system. | |
| Aliases | This field contains a list of alternative names for the named system. These names must each also be unique within the administrative domain. For example, an alias for the named system might be labfileserver. | |
| IP Addresses | This field holds a list of software IP addresses for the named system. For example, software IP addresses have the form 123.45.67.890. If the named system has more than one network connection (as in the case of a network gateway or hub), then this field should contain all the addresses used by the machine. | |
| Lease | This field is not used by the editor, but exists for the use of the proclaim application. The field holds information about the expiration time of the system's IP address provided by proclaim. | |
| Location | This field holds the location of the named system. For example, the location of a system might be “Upstairs Lab.” | |
| Mail Exchangers |
| |
| MAC Addresses |
| |
| Manufacturer | This field describes the named system by the name of the hardware manufacturer. For example: SGI. The purpose of this field is to allow you to query the database and locate all machines by a given manufacturer for software update or inventory. | |
| Model | This field contains the manufacturer's model designation of the named system. For example: Indy. The purpose for this field is to allow you to query the database and locate all machines of a given model. | |
| OS Release | This field specifies the operating system software revision level on the named system. For example: IRIX 5.1. The purpose of this field is to allow you to locate all machines (perhaps of a given manufacturer and model) at the same operating system software revision level. You do not necessarily have to enter the operating system revision level in this field; you could also use it to track the revision level of any software you choose. | |
| Owner | This field names the person who is responsible for the named system. For workstations, this person is usually the primary user, and for servers the usual person is the administrator who acts as a point of contact for the server users (for example, Wilmer McLean). | |
| Server | This field identifies the slave distribution server system that distributes new software to the named system with the propel software distribution facilities. (For example, the slave server might be called distmachine.) | |
| System ID | This field contains the serial number of the system hardware. | |
| Comment | This is an open field that can be used for any purpose. It can be useful in queries to further categorize systems that are administered in a similar manner, such as development or test systems. |
The standard system host databases, such as /etc/hosts, /etc/ethers, and the named maps in /var/named can all be generated using the Host database as input. Under IRIXpro, administrators need only maintain one list of host information for the entire network. Individual system data files can be generated from this list, thus simplifying large domain host administration. See “The propel File Generation System” for complete instructions.
The Collection database holds records defining collections of hosts from your Host database. These can be arbitrary groupings, or groups generated by querying the Host database. The following fields are used in the Collection database:
| name | The name of the collection of hosts. Make this name unique from any hostname. For example, if you wish to make a collection describing all Silicon Graphics machines on your network, you might select the name sgihosts. | |
| collection | The query parameters to define the collection. You can query on any field or fields in the Host database. For a complete set of instructions on forming a database query, see the section titled “Additional Database Query Techniques” in Chapter 2. | |
| comment | Any notes you wish to make about the collection. This is an open field that can be used for any purpose. |
Information on creating, modifying, and querying entries in the Host and Collection databases is found in “The Host Database” and in “The Collection Database”.
In order to use many of the utilities and features of IRIXpro, each system on your network should be running the snmpd daemon. This daemon provides support for SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) and allows other systems to query the host for information about its configuration. This daemon is described in the section titled “The MIB Browser” in Chapter 4.
To obtain SNMP support, the IRIXpro distribution packages to install on each station are:
snmpd 01/04/95 SNMP Daemon with HP MIB Support snmpd.sw 01/04/95 SNMP Daemon with HP MIB Support snmpd.sw.agent 01/04/95 SNMP Daemon with HP MIB Support |
To configure a workstation so that snmpd is started automatically when the system is rebooted, install the packages listed above, and enter this command on the system while logged in as root:
chkconfig -f snmpd on |
To check to see if the daemon is already running, enter this command:
ps -e | grep snmpd |
If there is no output from this command, snmpd is not running. Become root and enter this command to start snmpd:
snmpd & |
Figure 1-2 and Figure 1-3 show examples of windows, with the window terms used in this guide noted.
The mouse buttons have these functions:
| left | Perform most basic tasks: click buttons, select an entry field to type into, select menu choices, select items in a display, select text to modify, and so on. | |
| middle | Reposition windows and icons. | |
| right | Access pop up menus. Pop up menus appear when you press the right mouse button in certain locations on the screen. |
This guide uses the following terms to describe the use of the mouse:
| press | Hold down a mouse button. | |
| drag | Move the mouse while a mouse button is pressed. | |
| click | Press a mouse button and immediately release it without moving the mouse. | |
| double-click | Press and release a button twice in quick succession without moving the mouse. | |
| select | The term “select” is used in the following ways:
| |
| deselect |
The graphical IRIXpro tools have a common look and feel for consistent operation and easy switching between tools. This guide assumes that you are familiar with using the mouse, working with windows, and using pulldown and rollover menus. These operations are described in the IRIS Essentials manual.
The sections below explain how to use additional components of the user interface that are common to several of the tools.
You can use scroll bars (see Figure 1-4) to change the area and scale of a viewing area and to display different lines or portions of lines in a display area. The size of the slider is proportional to the amount of the total that you are viewing. You operate scroll bars by pressing the left or middle mouse button when the cursor is in the scroll bar. There are several ways to operate the scroll bar:
Press the left mouse button on the slider, drag the cursor to a new slider position, and release the button.
Move the slider incrementally by clicking the triangles at each end of the scroll bar.
Move the slider up or down by positioning the cursor in the trough above or below the slider and clicking the left mouse button.
Move the slider to a specific position by positioning the cursor at that position and clicking the middle mouse button.
Editing text in the entry fields (see Figure 1-5) is the same as editing text in the entry fields of other applications:
Position the text insertion point by moving the mouse to the entry field and clicking the left mouse button.
Select (highlight) text by pressing the left mouse button at one end of the text that you want to select and dragging to the other end.
Select a word including a space or punctuation-delimited characters by moving the cursor to the word and double-clicking the left mouse button.
Select the entire contents of an entry field by moving the cursor over the entry field and triple-clicking the left mouse button.
Delete selected (highlighted) text by pressing the <Backspace> key.
Delete the character to the left of the insertion point by pressing the <Backspace> key.
Option buttons (on the left in Figure 1-6) let you select a numeric value from among a predefined set of choices. To use an option button, first press the option button with the left mouse button. A menu pops up (on the right in Figure 1-6). Move the cursor to your selection and release the mouse button.
File prompter windows (like the one in Figure 1-7) are used to specify filenames. You can choose a filename by double-clicking a name in the display area. You can also type the name into the filename entry field and press <Enter> or click the Accept button to complete your filename selection. You can change directories to the parent of the current directory by clicking the Up button, or return to the directory where you started the tool by clicking the Original button.
IRIXpro provides many online help files to help you as you learn to use the tools. You access these files from the Help menu in the menu bar of many IRIXpro windows (shown in Figure 1-8 on top) and from the Help button that appears in some IRIXpro windows (on the bottom in Figure 1-8).
When you choose “Help...” from a menu or click a Help button, a Showcase window appears and displays the first help card.
Some help files contain several cards. Page through these cards using the <Page Up> and <Page Down> keys in the cluster of six keys just to the right of the <Backspace> key or click the left mouse button on the arrows at the bottom of the pages. Make sure the cursor is in the Help window when you press these keys.
When you're finished reading a help file, you can close the Help window just as you close any other window, for instance, by double-clicking the Window menu button in the upper left corner of the window or by selecting “Quit” from the Window menu.