View figure.
The GUI version of the System Partitioning Aid provides a dynamic view of the system partitioning layout, allowing you to modify the layout interactively.
The command spsyspar brings up the window shown in Figure 38. This window consists of five screen areas:
Figure 38. System Partitioning Aid main window
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In Figure 38, the Nodes and System Partitions panes are empty. If an SDR exists, spsyspar treats the active system partitioning layout as the current target, and pictures it in the object panes. So, on an active system, spsyspar does not come up with empty panes. The Nodes pane contains the frames and nodes of the system, and the System partitions pane contains system partition icons.
Figure 39. Sample 1-frame system (1 wide, 10 thin, and 1 high nodes)
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For example, assume you invoked spsyspar on the control workstation for the 1-frame system pictured in Figure 39, where there is 1 wide node, 10 thin nodes and 1 high node. If the active system partitioning layout has the bottom half of the frame in system partition Alpha and the top half in system partition Beta, then spsyspar presents the window shown in Figure 40. A single frame is presented in the Nodes pane, with the nodes pictured as defined (thin, wide, or high) in the SDR. Icons for partitions Alpha and Beta are shown in the System partitions pane.
Figure 40. Main window for sample system
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The spsyspar window is a standard window which you can move and size like any other window. The Nodes and System partitions panes become scrollable when appropriate. Also, the division of real estate between these two panes is controlled via the small box located between them and at the right side of the window; that box is called a sash.
In Figure 40, notice that the title of the window contains " - k22s". "k22s" is the name of the control workstation of the target system. Also, if you look closely at the "System partitions" pane of Figure 40, you will see that the Alpha partition is marked with a "lightening bolt". This signifies that Alpha is the active partition. Any partition-specific activity, such as assignment of nodes, would be done for objects in partition Alpha. In addition, the brighter colored "System partitions" pane is the pane of focus. This determines the choices available from the Tool Bar and the Pull Down Menu - items not applicable to the current focus are grayed out and not accessible.
The Tool Bar consists of several icons which allow you to execute important actions. These actions are also available through the Pull Down Menu Bar.
The availability of the icons of the Tool Bar is generally affected by the nodes and system partitions previously selected. Actions which are not available appear grayed out. For example, if you click on node 8 in the Nodes pane, then select the first Tool Bar icon, which pictures a notebook, a new window comes up named "View Node 8" containing data relevant to node 8. This window appears in Figure 41.
Figure 41. Notebook for node 8 of sample system
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If you instead click on partition Alpha in the system partitions pane, then select the notebook icon, you get a window named "View/Modify System Partition Alpha", which contains data for system partition Alpha. This system partition notebook is more complicated than a Node notebook, and contains each of the following pages, which are shown in Figure 42 for this example:
Figure 42. Notebook for partition Alpha of sample system
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You can modify each attribute on the "Definition" page of the partition notebook, except the number of nodes. The other pages of the notebook are read-only.
Select the second icon on the Tool Bar to display available system partitioning configurations. The resulting dialog box appears in Figure 43 and displays the configurations that you can select. Clicking on one of these configurations expands that configuration to show the corresponding layouts available - both those shipped by IBM and the ones created by users. In Figure 43, configuration 8_8 has been expanded showing there are three layouts available under this configuration.
If you click on a layout, then the Open button, spsyspar now treats that layout as the target system. This makes spsyspar useful in planning for future expansion. If the layout is for a configuration that matches the real system, you have a choice of seeing nodes pictured as defined in the SDR. The default, the only possibility if the SDR is not available, is to show only thin nodes with all slots populated. Since spsyspar cannot know the correct node types to show, it depicts all nodes as thin.
Figure 43. Alpha Notebook for sample system
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You also have the opportunity to read the description of a layout or delete a layout created by a user. By looking at the description for layout.3 under configuration '2 system partitions, nodes: 4_28', you would see it is equivalent to the layout depicted in Figure 40.
You can set the active partition by selecting a partition in the System Partitions pane and then choosing "Select Active". Then, under the "Actions" pull down, select "System Partitions". (See also the description for the fifth icon below.) Once an active partition is set, you may select nodes in the nodes pane and then select the third icon. This moves any selected nodes into the active partition. In addition, any nodes attached to the same switch chip(s) as the node(s) selected are also placed in the active partition. A message appears informing the user that this has happened.
In our example, if Beta is the active partition, and node 1 is selected, then clicking on the third icon moves nodes 1, 5, and 6 from partition Alpha to partition Beta.
The fourth icon checks whether the current system partition layout is equivalent to one which already exists, and if not, builds the corresponding layout in the appropriate location on disk. Then this new layout may be chosen as the active configuration at a later time.
The fifth icon provides an alternate way of setting the active partition. This is equivalent to choosing "Select Active" under the "Actions" pull down. The current active partition is marked with a lightening bolt.
The sixth icon brings up a "Define System Partition" dialog box which is actually the "Definition" page in a new system partition's notebook. You can specify the name, description, and color of the new partition. Of course, this new partition has no nodes yet, because you must first perform a "Place selected nodes..." for this new partition. The new partition is also set as the active one to prepare for specifying member nodes.
The seventh icon deletes the selected system partition from the current layout. If the selected partition has nodes assigned and is currently the active partition, you cannot delete the partition until all nodes of the partition have been reassigned to another partition(s). If the selected partition has no nodes assigned and is currently the active partition, it cannot be deleted until a different partition becomes the active partition.
The eighth icon sorts the node or system partition objects in the respective pane, depending on which pane is currently active. For the Nodes pane, this makes sense and is only available for use if the icon view of the nodes has been set via the "View" Pull Down Menu item. The icon view dispenses with frames and simply represents all the nodes as independent entities. The icon view of the Nodes pane has been selected in Figure 44, and the nodes have sorted in descending order.
Figure 44. Descending sort in Nodes pane (icon view)
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The ninth icon allows you to define a filter, and uses that filter to control which objects in the active pane are seen. In our example, if the node pane is selected, specifying the filter "1*" for inclusion as shown in Figure 45 causes the frame to be redrawn with only nodes 1, 10, 11, 12, and 13 shown. Alternatively, you may select those nodes in the Nodes pane, and choose the "Filter by what is selected" option on the "Filter Nodes" dialog window.
Figure 45. Filter menu with "1*" filter specified for Nodes pane
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If you select the System partitions pane, specifying the filter B* for inclusion results in only the Beta system partition being shown: both in the Nodes pane and the partitions pane. A filter may be imposed on each pane.
The tenth icon undoes any filtering for the currently active pane.
The eleventh icon applies only to the Nodes pane. It marks all the nodes as if they had been sequentially selected. Then, you may deselect nodes one at a time to achieve the desired combination.
The twelfth icon also applies only to the Nodes pane. It clears all selections from the pane so you can start from the beginning again.