Conference azur::mcc

824.0. "Lost in the big city (MCC)!" by SICKO::FRAZER (VISION operates on many levels...) Thu Mar 21 1991 16:46

    First, a brief description of the task at hand:
    
    I'm working in the MCI Telecom/EIS on the MCI Mail development group.
    We're currently working on spec-ing out the next generation of the
    MCI Mail product.  One of our goals in this process is to incorporate
    EMA and MCC concepts and functionality into the product for remote
    system management.  The networking stuff will be proposed pretty
    much as it is out of the box, but we also are going to need to "update"
    many Mail management functions so that they "talk EMA".  As we discuss
    how to go about this (currently we have two sets of documentation
    which we copied off the network (excluding the SRM of course)) and
    between two of us have spent about 20-30 man hours reading here and
    there to try to develop some understanding of the overall size of
    the task before us.  And, oh by the way, the functional spec is
    due in 3 weeks.  We've been unable to answer a couple of questions
    and don't want to include functionality that we can't easily deliver.
    I would greatly appreciate either a concise answer or a pointer to 
    more detailed discussions:
    
    1)	Part of the customer's requirements are that we provide real-time
    	monitoring graphs (i.e. bar charts) of some of the parameters of
    	the application modules which are running on remote nodes (i.e.
    	queue depth, transfer rate, etc.).  The three options that we see
    	to provide this functionality are:
    
    	  Write a graphing FM and pass the results to the DECwindows PM.
    
    	  Write a custom PM.
    
    	  At some point just call a command procedure to run a program that
    	  generates the display outside of the MCC environment.
    
    2)	We've found no documentation for how one goes about writing a
    	PM.  Is there any?  What are the differences from an AM or FM?
    
    3)	How does one go about creating new ICONS and specifying them
    	to be displayed at different points in the application?
    
    4)	Can we create custom input screens/forms within the context
    	of MCC that would be supported by the PM but would have uniquely
    	defined functionalities (i.e. "click here to display domain_A", 
    	"click here to show current memory utilization by the program", 
    	"input the specific component you want to monitor here and it will
    	be validated against a list of valid inputs") all on the same form?
    	This form would be displayed at some point as the user transverses
    	through the Iconic map (say 4-5 levels down).
    
    5)	We're currently looking at supporting up to 1000 vaxclusters
    	from one or more operations centers.  

    6)	Is there any other training/documentation besides the general
    	purpose documentation we provide to customers which outline
    	the "Digital Standard Methodology" for developing MMs and MCC
    	based applications (emphasis on non-travel related training)?

    7)	Is there any reason to look at writing our own "mini-director"
    	(the customer asked this question, I'm just the messenger)?
    
    Any or all input is appreciated...
    
    thanks in advance
    
    timf

    
    1) depending upon when you are trying to ship, I suggest that you read
    the phase 0 requirements for the V1.2 product which calls out the
    mandatory requirement on real-time graphs; this may meet your needs.
    
    2) there is no guide to writing a PM. The next guide to be writen will
    be a guide to writing an dFM. I know it is in the plans to get to the
    PM one some time in the not to distant future. And to your question,
    writing and FM is very much like writing an AM, the biggest difference
    to me is the entity modeling.
    
    3) How to put in your own icons I believe is described in the Director
    Use manual. I haven't done it my self but I believe you create one
    using your favorite DECwidows icon editor and then place it in the
    MCC_ICONS directory using a predefined naming convention (based on
    entity class I believe).
    
    4) The requirement you are stating is what we call "enrollable
    widgets", you will also see this item as a V1.2 requirements. Unluckily
    I don't have the spec with me to see if it is a mandatory or an
    desireable requirement. The mechanism is still in proposal state now,
    but would require you to supply the DECwindows code to handle you
    "click here to..."
    
    5) Is this a question? you can I believe register 100 nodes without a
    problem, and the domain FM should have no problem with the number..as
    to system requirements (memory...) we can only guess based upon what
    you plan on doing with the entities (lots of alarms...no alarms...)
    
    6) There is a thing called MCC College that you can attend. They just
    had a session here in LKG last week. As to when the next one is and
    what other training is coming (ed services is in the middle of writing
    a course) you would have to tell me where "local" is. Colorado V1.1
    training is in a few weeks.
    
    7) What and why would you want a "mini-directory". If they wanted
    something like that I would suggest using "callable-MCC" so that
    anything thy write will be integrated into MCC for when the decide
    having their own directory isn't advantageous but proprietary. (My
    opinion)
    
    Hope that this answers what you were looking for.
    jill callander