Familiarizing yourself with TOM in a simulated environment

The best way to become familiar with TOM and how it manages the workloads and objects in your sysplex is to create a simulated environment (playpen or simulation) that is separate from the TOM that manages the actual objects in your sysplex. You can use these simulated environments to train your operations staff without affecting your actual running objects and system. We recommend setting up a simulated environment at a new site before configuring the production instance. 

Best practice
We recommend using the playpen instead of the simulation mode.

Related topics

TOM-best-practices

Recommended TOM utilities

Using-the-AATWAIT-program-for-testing-Continuous-State-Manager-or-the-Total-Object-Manager

Playpen

The playpen consists of a TOM Product Address Space (PAS) and a BMC AMI Ops Automation PAS. If BMC AMI Ops products are already installed, you can use the existing Coordinating Address Space (CAS) for the playpen. Otherwise, you must create a CAS. 

Best practice
When setting up a playpen, make sure that you define each OpsA PAS and TOM with a unique ID. 

The playpen uses dummy Started Task Management (STM) Extension objects instead of actual STC objects (such as TSO, JES, and Db2) on the system. You can define dummy STM objects in the same way as actual objects. Dummy objects use the AATWAIT program and the TOMSCMOB cataloged procedure, both of which are available with the product. Each STC that uses AATWAIT consumes minimal CPU and storage resources. For more information, see Using-the-AATWAIT-program-for-testing and Using-the-AATWAIT-program-for-testing-Continuous-State-Manager-or-the-Total-Object-Manager.

Building a Definition Base with dummy objects

You can build a Definition Base with dummy objects by using TOMCSMOB or AATWAIT with one of the following methods:

  • If you are implementing TOM for the first time, the easiest method to get started is to use the Infrastructure Discovery component. The Infrastructure Discovery component displays the discovered STCs on your running system, which you can then use to create dummy layer objects in a new Definition Base. For more information, see Discovering-and-creating-TOM-objects.
  • If you have an existing TOMPLEX, use the REXX EXEC MAMEXPRT with the variable replace_values=Y. This creates an import EXEC to define dummy objects.
  • You can use the Installation Verification Procedure (IVP) to dynamically create a Definition Base. You can save the Definition Base by specifying the KEEPBASE=YES parameter. For more information about IVP, see Verify-installation-with-Installation-Verification-Procedure-IVP.
  • You can create a Definition Base from scratch, object by object, by using the object add or edit dialog or the TOMEXEC FUNC(ADD) API request in an REXX EXEC.
  • You can create objects in the Definition Base that represent started tasks in the system (TSO, NET, JES2, etc). Make sure that you specify the appropriate dependency information for the objects.

Best practice
When choosing object names, use the recommended conventions in Naming-conventions-for-objects-and-items. Although you can easily change dummy objects or dummy layer objects into ones that can manage the actual object, the only attribute of an object that you cannot change is the object name. This is why even though the object starts out as a dummy in a playpen, it should still have a name that follows the naming conventions.    

Important

We recommend that you use the Layering application in the playpen and in your actual environments. The Layering application makes administration and change management easier, especially in a large enterprise with many sysplexes. For more information, see Getting-started-with-layering.

You can use the playpen to experiment with TOM operator commands, such as STOP, LOCK, BLOCK, START, and RESET. TOMEXEC API commands issued in EXECs for TOM operator commands should include either the TOMID or TOMPLEX parameters. 

To practice IPLs in the playpen, use the activate-Definition Base request with the RESETOPT parameter request. Another way to practice an IPL is to stop the playpen and restart TOM by using the optional F (FORCEIPL) startup parameter.

When you use FORCEIPL, the following message is displayed in the TOM job log: 

TX3006I Forcing IPL mode

You can also use the playpen to analyze and experiment with dependency structures and trees and to gain experience with administrative tasks such exporting a definition base or the contents of TOM's journal. In the event of a problem, BMC personnel might request information such as the active definition base or the journal containing an audit trail of activity in TOM.

Although it is discouraged, custom automation is sometimes required in some enterprises. If so, you can use the playpen as a testing environment for your automation. For information about custom automation best practices, see Custom-automation-recommendations.

Simulation

TOM provides a simulation mode to help you observe TOM's behavior of certain operator commands without affecting the actual objects. You can specify a date and time on START, STOP, and IPL to observe the influence of object schedules. You can also specify IPLLEVEL and OMODE for IPL simulation. Simulation of START and STOP objects is only available on the UI views, which you can select in the operator START and STOP command dialogs. You can simulate IPL by using the SIM action on the TDEFBS view.

 

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