Planning Volume 2, Control Workstation and Software Environment

Software overview

The SP system software infrastructure includes:

• AIX 5L 5.1 or AIX 4.3.3, the base operating system
• PSSP, the higher-level set of support programs and interfaces that enables you to take advantage of the powerful parallel processing features of the SP system
• Other IBM system and licensed programs
• Independent software vendor products

AIX

AIX is an integrated UNIX operating environment conforming to industry standards for open systems. It provides the basic operating system functions such as the AIXwindows user interface, extended real-time support, network installation management (NIM), advanced file system support, physical disk space management, and a platform for application development and execution. AIX capabilities that some PSSP components use for system management include the following:

• The Network Installation Management (NIM) environment provides the ability to install an AIX mksysb image over the network.
• The Logical Volume Manager (LVM) improves data management productivity, enables files to span multiple disk drives, and provides, with the disk mirroring and concurrent logical volume support, a high availability option for critical data.
• The System Management Interface Tool (SMIT) provides a single, consistent, and expandable interface to system management commands.
• The System Resource Controller (SRC) simplifies the management of subsystems and daemons.
• AIX device support lets you add and delete devices at any time without disrupting the system.

PSSP

PSSP is a comprehensive suite of applications to manage an SP system as a full-function parallel processing system. It provides a single point of control for administrative tasks and helps increase productivity by letting administrators view, monitor, and control system operation. Most functions are base components of PSSP while others are optional: they come with PSSP, but you choose whether to install and use them. As of PSSP 3.1, the following are available as optional components:

• High Availability Control Workstation (HACWS) lets your control workstation be a single point of control while keeping it from becoming a single point of failure.
• The virtual shared disk management components:
  • IBM Virtual Shared Disk makes data on physical disks accessible from multiple nodes in virtual shared disks that you create; otherwise, the data is accessible only from the node connected to the disk.
  • Recoverable Virtual Shared Disk makes virtual shared disks automatically recoverable on the event of a failure.
  • Hashed Shared Disk stripes your data across multiple virtual shared disks and multiple nodes.

See the book PSSP: Administration Guide for a summary of the PSSP components.