Software/hardware solution eliminates need to scan all consoles in datacenters

Review by Shawn Gordon

TelaConsole is software (and optional hardware, if required) that allows you to connect multiple devices such as your HP 3000 host computer, multiport engines, or any device capable of transmitting a serial signal, all to a single PC for management and reporting. TelaConsole eliminates the need to constantly visually scan all the consoles and devices in your computer center. Since all messages that go to the console are stored, there is never the possibility of missing a message because it scrolled off the screen.

TelaConsole’s features allow you to:

1. Track all console messages — or only those you choose to see.

2. Filter out repetitive, non-informational messages and give the operators only what they need to perform their jobs.

3. Consolidate critical messages into a single window.

4. Create automatic responses to certain messages.

5. Scan console logs to find out when certain events occurred.

6. Optimize operator efficiency by providing online, user-written procedures to access when problems occur.

7. Create timed tasks that perform commands on host systems at intervals that you can define.

8. Broadcast commands to the host systems based on any triggering event, including time.

How does it work?

Depending on how many ports you want to hook up, you can either use the serial ports on the PC, or use a Multiport Expansion Board. The TelaConsole manual goes into great detail on installing a DigiBoard for this purpose.

I simply used the serial ports on the PC to hook up two HP 3000s. In this configuration, you simply have a splitter from the console cable coming from your 3000. One end connects to the physical console, and the other end connects to the PC running TelaConsole. Once properly connected, you are ready to start letting TelaConsole grab your information.

Once the data stream is coming into TelaConsole, you are able to apply your various agents, filters, and logging, which I will describe in a moment. Figure 1 shows a snapshot of the application’s main startup screen.

Features

TelaConsole is built around the following concepts:

Connections: This is the driving force behind TelaConsole, where you can name and define the ports and communications defaults. Later you can assign Agents and Filters to this Connection. See Figure 2 for an example of what can be configured.

Console Agents: This agent is the direct connection to the input flow from the console. It monitors all messages that would normally go to the system console, and when used in conjunction with filters, it can be adjusted to display only those messages that are important for the operator to see, such as REPLIES and security violations. See Figure 3 for an example of a Console Agent where I’ve applied filtering.

Log Agents: The log file is the permanent storage site for messages. By utilizing filtering, this can show either the entire stream coming to your console or something totally different containing just the information you requested.

Event Agents: These are designed to alert the operator that a significant event has occurred. As TelaConsole scans each message that comes in from the console, it determines if the message meets any of the criteria that you have defined. If the message meets any criteria, TelaConsole places information in the event agent concerning the message.

Filters: These are used to trap messages that can either be routed to an event agent or excluded from the console. Filters are assigned at a connection level so that they are sitting above the agents to provide maximum flexibility.

Filters are one of the most powerful features of TelaConsole. By making use of the sophisticated token feature, you can re-order and parse messages that come in, putting them into a different display format. You can even assign colors so that certain types of messages will stand out in your display. Figure 4 shows an example of some of the types of filters you can select from.

TelaConsole has been set up to be very modular. This takes a little getting used to for some people, but it provides great flexibility. Think of each of the Agents and Connections as objects. You really need to create Connections first, but you can create as many as you need. Next you can create your various types of Agents, and apply whatever filtering you need.

When you create an Agent, you can select one or more connections for it to apply to. Each connection can have any number and type of Agent applied to it. This allows you to define global reusable Agents, and also to create connection-specific agents as required. The more you think about it and work with it, the more you will start to abstract your requests so that they apply at a more macro level. This is a very cool feature.

Installation and Documentation

The software installation is quite easy, as it is wholly resident on the PC. The only real challenge can be in physically connecting the splitters to the console cables. If pins 2 and 3 are crossed it can be a big challenge which kind of cable is which. Telamon attempts to address this issue by including every type of tester, null modem adapter cable terminator known to man. This helps make the process pretty painless, but sometimes it will take a little trial and error on your part to get it right.

The documentation weighs in at 85 pages and is very well written and easy to read, with lots of screen snapshot examples. Even the rather complex section on implementing regular expressions and using the token feature is written to minimize misunderstandings. While the manual has a table of contents, there is no appendix. The manual is organized well enough that this wasn’t a problem.

The TestDrive

I had just a bit of a challenge getting the hardware right, but got it resolved quickly. Telamon is very responsive and knowledgeable. I hooked up two HP 3000s to get a feel for the multi-machine workings of the product. The connections were easy to configure, and agents were easy to create and apply.

I basically went through and created agents and applied them in a sporadic fashion to see if there was anything that might break the product. I was never able to generate a crash in TelaConsole, so that’s good news. The more I worked with the product, the more ideas it gave me.

Configuring TelaConsole is an evolutionary process. I found that you don’t want to get mired down trying to think of everything up front. Just start working with it and applying agents, and as issues come up, apply more of them. Eventually you will probably get to a point where you will rarely make changes in the configuration.

I really found the filtering useful in creating a log of LOGON and LOGOFF records which allowed me to trace logon times for certain sessions. Being able to send an event back to the HP based on messages was also very handy.

I didn’t make use of the expression parsing on filters, but as long as you can do what the manual indicates, you have a very powerful tool for scanning, parsing, and reformatting any line of text that comes through. These are Unix-style standard expressions, which can be fairly confusing, but the manual does a credible job of explaining them.

There are a lot of options and permutations you can go through because of the flexible architecture. I exercised a number of them, but by no means all of them.

Conclusions

I have only one complaint about TelaConsole. If you want to be able to manage your HP 3000 through TelaConsole (have true HP terminal emulation if required), then you must be using Reflection 1 version 6.0 or later. I personally think this is a problem. Many shops that I’m aware of never upgraded from version 5.0, and many other shops use the MiniSoft terminal emulator. Keep in mind that this in no way keeps you from using the product as it is primarily intended, it just limits your ability to have TelaConsole directly manage your HP 3000. You can still make use of the Broadcaster feature.

While I didn’t test the integration with TelAlert, it’s a great option, and a natural extension for TelaConsole.

TelaConsole is really a nifty product. There are some conceptual hurdles to get through initially, but the flexible design is really great. I’m not aware of a competing product for the HP 3000 (but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one). If you want to get a datacenter under control and make your operators’ lives easier, then it’s worth spending some time looking at TelaConsole.

Shawn Gordon, whose S.M. Gordon & Associates firm supplies HP 3000 utilities, has worked with 3000s since 1983.