Objects

An object is an entity that you define in TOM. TOM manages (starts and stops) the object based on the options and functions that you select for the object's attributes. You can define the following different types of objects in TOM:

Normal
Transient
Model
Layer
Restart-only

Note

In addition to the following sections, the introduction to Creating-and-managing-objects, and Managing-objects-across-sysplexes-with-layering also contain information about objects.

Normal objects

A normal object is a MVS started task, USS process or Workload Manager resource whose availability is managed by TOM. By default, a normal object is active at all times.

Availability of a normal object can depend upon other objects or a defined schedule entry. If the dependency on other objects or the defined schedule is not met then the object is stopped by TOM. When the defined dependencies are once again met then TOM will start the object. If the object abnormally terminates TOM can restart it.

TSO, CICS regions and JES are examples of normal objects.

Transient objects

A transient object is a started task, USS process or Workload Manager resource that is started by TOM once during the life of a system IPL.

Transient objects can start, perform a batch process, and terminate normally when the job is complete. The status of the transient object is set to COMPLETE when it terminates normally.

TOM monitors the transient object until it stops and its status changes to COMPLETE. At that point it will not automatically restart the object during the life of the IPL.

Models

It can be very labor intensive to create complex definitions for an object. This is especially true when you need to define many similar objects that will run on many systems within a plex.

Using models can significantly reduce the effort needed to define large number of objects with identical attributes.

A model is an object that is either managed or not managed by TOM. The attributes stored in the model's definition can be inherited by other objects in the same definition base.

An object that needs to inherit attributes names a model containing the required attribute in its definition. Specify the model's name in "MdlFrom" attribute.

One of the advantages of using a model is that when an update is made to an attribute in the model's definition that change is automatically reflected in all of the objects naming the model in their "MdlFrom" attribute.

TOM distributes many model definitions, representing software products from BMC as well as other vendors. These model object definitions can be added to your Definition Base from the TMDLDIST view. For more detailed explanation of Models, see Types of objects.

Layer objects

With layer objects, you can easily generate objects for many systems within many sysplexes that are also running TOM.

Layer objects are part of a larger process that is described in Managing-objects-across-sysplexes-with-layering.

Restart-only objects

A restart-only object is a normal or transient object not started by TOM during system startup. Users designate an object as restart-only by setting the 'Restart Only' attribute in the object's definition to a value of 'Y'.

A restart-only object remains in a status of WAIT-START until started by a process outside of TOM such as the COMMND00 PARMLIB member in MVS. Once an object defined as restart-only is started by the external process its status changes to ACTIVE or COMPLETE.

After the object's status changes to ACTIVE or COMPLETE it will be managed by TOM. The object can be stopped/started by either a user request or a schedule. If the object abnormally terminates TOM will restart it.