IBM Tivoli NetView for zOS 6.1 Automation

IBM Tivoli NetView for z/OS helps you maintain the highest degree of availability of your System z networks. It offers an extensive set of tools for managing and maintaining complex, multivendor, multiplatform networks and systems from a single point of control. The full IBM Tivoli NetView for z/OS 6.1 Workshop ILT consists of four courses:

• IBM Tivoli NetView for z/OS 6.1 Fundamentals (TZ203), which covers the key concepts, components, and user interfaces associated with NetView for z/OS 6.1. Lectures are supplemented with hands-on exercises.
• This course, NetView for z/OS 6.1 Automation, where you learn about the automation facilities of IBM Tivoli NetView for z/OS. You learn the architecture of NetView as a message processor and explore the message flows in an IBM Tivoli for z/OS environment. Also, you learn how NetView can manage screen commands that are issued by operators from z/OS Multisystem Console Support (MCS) consoles. You use the information presented in class in a practical environment during hands-on lab exercises.
• IBM Tivoli NetView for z/OS 6.1 REXX (TZ223), where you learn how to write REXX EXECs using NetView for z/OS. Restructured Extended Executor (REXX) EXECs can be written to simplify tasks that an operator might need to perform and to provide automation, both proactive and reactive. Topics include the NetView facilities that are provided to support the REXX language: NetView REXX functions, global variables, and WAIT processing. Lectures are reinforced with hands-on lab exercises.
• IBM Tivoli NetView for z/OS 6.1 PIPEs (TZ233), where you learn how to code NetView PIPEs within REXX EXECs to simplify operations and perform automation by using NetView for z/OS. Topics include an overview of PIPEs, PIPE stages supplied by NetView, issuing commands (NetView, MVS, and VTAM) in a PIPE and processing their output, and some complex PIPE stages. Lectures are reinforced with hands-on lab exercises.

All four courses are also taught as a single, five-day offering. See course TZ243 for further details.

This intermediate-level course is for Administrators who are new to NetView for z/OS or are moving to version 6.1 from a previous version. SA z/OS customers who want to learn about NetView automation - NetView and customers who want an in-depth introduction to NetView automation will also benefit from this course.

You must be familiar with:

• networking concepts and practices and the techniques for monitoring a complex environment

Familiarity with previous versions of NetView is helpful, but not required.

• Identify event types that can be processed and the way that they arrive in NetView for z/OS
• Identify what actions are possible and where they can be routed
• Describe the functions provided by the message processing facility (MPF), the message revision table (MRT), and the command revision table (CRT)
• Implement Automation Table statements to automate messages
• Structure the Automation Table
• Manage the Automation Table
• Describe how to improve the efficiency of an Automation Table
• Use NetView timers to proactively monitor resources

Unit 1: Introduction to NetView automation

• Lesson 1: Overview of automation concepts
• Lesson 2: Events and tasks

Unit 2: Message Automation topics

• Lesson 1: NetView and z/OS messages
• Lesson 2: Extended Message Management
• Lesson 3: Message Assignments

Unit 3: NetView commands to facilitate automation

• Lesson 1: NetView-to-NetView communication
• Lesson 2: Command routing
• Lesson 3: Timer commands
• Lesson 4: z/OS command management

Unit 4: Managing the NetView Automation Table

• Lesson 1: Automation Table overview
• Lesson 2: Automation Table management

Unit 5: NetView Automation Table coding

• Lesson 1: Automation Table coding
• Lesson 2: Management Services Units (MSUs)