◆ Supervisor
Supervisor is an automated operations product which has its own Operations Programming Language (OPAL), designed specifically for A Series operations environments, which encompasses rules-based, lights-out and self-healing automated operations capabilities.
About Supervisor
- lights-out and self-healing automated operations capabilities.
- automates user defined operations tasks.
- provides resource control.
- event logging security monitoring
- handles exception conditions.
- provides tape control.
In the Unisys environment, SUPERVISOR is the only automated operations product that provides expert system technology to anticipate and circumvent system problems. As the front line of system support, operations departments are typically fast-paced, overworked, and crisis-driven.
Unfortunately, too much time is spent performing repetitive tasks. By allowing SUPERVISOR to handle predictable tasks and exception conditions, operators can concentrate on resolving end-users' problems and critical machine-related problems.
Relieve Operations Burden
- Alert the librarian to mount a tape.
- Control resources by enforcing priority of programs.
- Send user-defined urgent ODT messages on situations requiring immediate operator intervention.
- Control when, how, and where compiles are run.
- Schedule repetitive tasks based on calendar events, system events, and customized scheduling rules.
- Detect, log, and resolve waiting messages and other routine exception conditions without operator intervention.
- Recognize and notify operations of tasks hanging in the mix.
- Act on runaway tasks (those with infinite loops).
- Detect and act on real-time security breaches the MCP misses, such as privileged programs and unauthorized compiles.
- Check to see if a valid user code has been given to run a program. SUPERVISOR checks every program which comes into its mix.
Customer Solutions
SUPERVISOR allows operators and system administrators to access information which is normally internal to the MCP - without MCP patches. This is a significant advantage over other automated operations products which only sample system information in SUMLOG and therefore do not provide real-time information. With SUPERVISOR, the information can be immediately used by system administrators and operators.
- Supervisor is more efficient.
- has better response speeds.
- can prevent errors.
More than an information source, SUPERVISOR can be programmed to analyze situations as they occur in the computer operating environment and act on them to prevent or resolve problems. This is done using SUPERVISOR's built-in Operational Algorithmic Language (OPAL); OPAL was designed to handle the operational problems of A Series machines.
SUPERVISOR users can write OPAL programs that define and enforce site policies for their entire system (both local and remote sites running SUPERVISOR). For example, SUPERVISOR can facilitate performance optimizating by being programmed to rearrange the priorities of jobs in the mix based on response times. A significant advantage of SUPERVISOR is the fact that these OPAL solutions are user-defined. Rather than impose hard-coded responses to predefined definitions, OPAL makes it possible for each organization to customize SUPERVISOR to suit their needs.
Diagnose & Troubleshoot System Problems
In addition to being a tool for automating many operations activities, SUPERVISOR can facilitate system diagnostics. SUPERVISOR can be programmed to recognize exception situations when they occur and to generate detailed logs that capture information about what was happening in the computer when the exception occurred. Using this information, system analysts could save hours of debugging time.
In addition to debugging, the system view revealed through SUPERVISOR provides the opportunity to continually monitor, correct, and improve system operations - before problems occur.
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Tape Library Management (TRIM)
SUPERVISOR includes TRIM, a tape management system that efficiently and easily solves the problems of maintaining a tape library while allowing the site to control the use of tapes. Information about a tape and its history is maintained in a DMSII database. OPAL programs control the data collection before it is entered into the database, and define tape library systems, site operational policies, and reports. TRIM is a powerful rules-based system in which situations involving tapes can be identified, and appropriate actions taken.What SUPERVISOR can do for your site...
SUPERVISOR is as well-suited to the small, understaffed A Series shop as it is to the large corporate operations department. With SUPERVISOR you can solve a problem once, program a solution, and then, whenever the situation occurs, SUPERVISOR can handle it. If everyday at noon your operations staff performs the same computer task, SUPERVISOR can be programmed to handle it. Some users have reported saving as much as two to three hours a day by employing SUPERVISOR in this manner.
If there are specific events your operators look for and respond to in the same way whenever they occur, SUPERVISOR can be programmed to handle the response without any wait time. Your system users will be happier. Operators will be too. Users have saved as much as five hours a day by letting SUPERVISOR handle repetitive problems.
SUPERVISOR is the only automated operations product that provides expert system technology to anticipate and circumvent system problems.
