In keeping with the traditional VMSHARE MEMO XMASGIFT (VMSHARE was the old "forum" system used for community networking before the Internet was widespread), a new gift to the community:
Sine Nomine has written a System V-style startup daemon for VM that is intended to run as part of a VM system initialization and control the startup and availability of services and guest systems automatically. The code we've written provides the ability to automatically start up and shut down virtual machines using standardized processes or custom (ie per-virtual machine) instructions, provide standardized status indications for global and local variables that can be set and queried from other startup processes, and automatic dependency-based sequencing of startup and shutdown. We also included the capability for unprivileged userids to issue privileged commands based on an authorization file (the VM Programmable Operator is a awsome thing). Virtual machines can be grouped into run-levels (which can have useful names like MINIMUM or DEFAULT or MAINT as well as the standard Unix 0-9 runlevel names), and the system can be sequenced to different configurations of running services by a single command (example: TELL AUTOLOG1 RUNLEVEL DEFAULT will sequence the system such that the virtual machines defined in runlevel DEFAULT will be brought online and others will be shut down cleanly without human intervention). User virtual machines (ie machines not defined to S5VINIT) are not affected. The (IMHO) best part of this gadget is the dependency checking allows specifiying that within a specific runlevel, a particular virtual machine must start after a list of virtual machines are already available, or stop after a set of virtual machines have shut down. Control can be exercised from local userids or remote userids if RSCS connectivity is available (if TELL works, then you can do it from that site), and the SHUTDOWN and SHUTDOWN REIPL commands are trapped and provide special handling for graceful shutdown without the necessity of giving a large number of userids elevated privileges (eg, TELL AUTOLOG1 SHUTDOWN or TELL AUTOLOG1 SHUTDOWN REIPL perform a controlled shutdown). It also opens the possibility of product installation tools being able to insert items in the startup list automatically, and assign themselves to specific runlevels All this is accomplished with the help of a lot of built-in CMS functionality: the VM Programmable Operator (PROP), some REXX action routines, XMITMSG (allowing easy internationalization) and a lot of NAMES files. The source is included, and comments are welcome. We realize that the documentation is still a bit sparse, but hey, contributions are always accepted...8-) If anyone does do a internationalization of the message repository, we'd be happy to distribute it with appropriate credits to the contributers. (I'd really like somebody like Shimon to do a Hebrew version just for the sheer coolness value of it, or a Chinese/Japanese version if someone can do it; I want to see if I really understand DBCS or not...8-)) You can download this new goodie from www.sinenomine.net -- there is a pointer to the new download package from that page. Like the SSL Enabler, we ask that you register to download the code -- we like to know who has it in case we find a problem. If you already registered to download the SSL Enabler, use the same userid and password. There's no charge for the code itself, but if you find it useful, consider chipping in a few bucks using the donation button at the bottom of the download page to help Adam and I pay the bills and develop additional neat stuff like this. There will be a session at the Miami z/Expo on this code -- come tell us how you use it (assuming of course, that Miami is still *there* in November...8-)). If you have questions or suggestions, please send them to [EMAIL PROTECTED], and we'll do our best to help you out. Kudos to Adam Thornton for heading up the development of this goodie (and putting up with lots of "no, it should work *this* way" from me...). Have fun, and happy (early) holidays! David Boyes Sine Nomine Associates ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
