 


            README

      *Web-based System Manager for AIX 5L Version 5.2.0.30*

------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

*Limitations*
 

  # Various preference file problems have been discovered.

      # Depending on the features used, preference files may not be
        compatible between AIX 5L Version 5.1 and Version 5.2. When an
        incompatibility exists, you will receive an information dialog
        during startup: "Unable to load preferences from ...". In this
        situation all of your preferences will be reset to their default
        settings. If you do not want to modify the preference file saved
        on disk (in case you want to use the preference file on a 5.1
        system), be sure to not save the file on exit, or use* Save As
        *to specify another preference file name.
      # If your managing server does not have the monitoring application
        installed but you are managing a machine that does have the
        monitoring application, such that it is downloaded onto the
        managing server, then any preferences saved may cause Web-based
        System Manager to display the dialog "Unable to load preferences
        from..." the next time it is started from that managing server.
        This is because the data stored in the preference file cannot be
        fully interpreted by the applications local to that machine.
        Either install the monitoring application on the managing
        server, or choose one of the possible solutions listed in the
        previous bullet.
      # The preference file used by the monitoring application may not
        be compatible between AIX 5L Version 5.1 and Version 5.2. This
        may result in warning dialogs being displayed which contain
        exceptions. This problem can be resolved by deleting the
        monitoring preference file from the user's home directory. The
        monitoring file is named *wsmmonitoring.data*.

  # The 'All Users' and 'All Groups' plug-ins only work with locally
    defined users and groups. Virtual NIS users and groups defined in
    NIS, NIS+ and other similar services are ignored.
  # The Configurations/Classes plug-in of the Workload Manager
    application is not dynamically refreshed when the applicable
    configuration has changed inside a configuration set. To show the
    effective current configuration, select the reload icon on the tool
    bar from within the Configuration/Classes plug-in.
  # Cluster Systems Management is a new application to manage clusters.
    More information can be found in the document: /IBM Cluster Systems
    Management for AIX 5L Administration Guide Version 1.3,/  order
    number: SA22-7918-05 .

        * The new plug-ins to manage a CSM cluster only appear in
          Web-based System Manager under the following conditions:
              o The managing server must be at an AIX 5.2 level.
              o The machine selected from the Web-based System Manager
                navigation area must be an AIX 5.2 machine configured as
                a CSM management server. At that point the new CSM
                cluster plug-ins are discovered and are available for use.
        * Visual monitoring is supported in the Web-based System Manager
          navigation area for the children (which are the nodes defined
          in the CSM cluster) of the new CSM Nodes plug-in. This visual
          monitoring only occurs after the Nodes plug-in has been
          loaded/selected.
        * Clicking on a Tips link for a CSM plug-in results in the wrong
          Java^TM help section being displayed. After clicking on the
          Tips link, click the Back arrow button in the Java^TM help and
          the correct help section will be displayed.

  # There is no compatibility with releases prior to: sysmgt.websm.rte
    5.1.0.15


*Managing a Remote Machine*

Web-based System Manager may be used in any of the following
Client-Server management modes:

    * From a local display on AIX: manage one or many AIX or HMC systems
      by adding the host names to the Management Environment within
      Web-based System Manager.
    * From a Windows or Linux system using the Web-based System Manager
      Remote Client application.
    * From a Windows or Linux system using  Java^TM Web Start.
    * From a Windows system using applet mode from either Netscape or
      Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. Performance is slower than
      using Remote Client or Java^TM Web Start and there are limitations
      due to the applet security model.
    * Remote XServer (exporting DISPLAY from one AIX system to another
      AIX system): Performance is slower than using a local display.
      This is due to a Java^TM 2 design problem.

The following steps must be performed to enable remote management:

    * On every machine: the server portion of Web-based System Manager
      must be configured to accept remote connections.
    * On every machine designated as a /*managing server*/:
          o To serve the client download pages, Java^TM Web Start
            download pages, applet pages, and online extended helps: an
            HTTP Server must be configured.
          o If you install additional plug-ins, you will need to install
            the documentation, message and helps filesets that come with
            each plug-in so that they can be shared with the other
            machines in the management environment.
          o *NOTE* that the first machine in the Navigation area must be
            configured as a /*managing server*/ in order for the online
            helps to be delivered properly.

Configuring HTTP and Web-based System Manager Servers

The wsm_remote software bundle is available (*smitty install_bundle*) to
install the IBM HTTP Server and required Documentation Library services
software. Upon successful installation of the software, the bundle's
post installation processing script consolidates the steps needed to
configure and initiate remote access and document serving capabilities
for Web-based System Manager and the Documentation Library remote
services. This multi-media install bundle requires the customer to have
the AIX Expansion Pack media available to install the IBM HTTP Server
and the AIX base media to install the Documentation Library filesets.

If your machine is set up to use a remote machine for the Documentation
Library already, the *wsm_remote* bundle installation will reset your
machine to retrieve documentation from the local machine. In this
situation you will want to reset your documentation server. You can do
this using the SMIT fast path command *smitty change_doc_search_server*.
The fileset *bos.docsearch.rte* is required for this SMIT task to succeed.

When using a web server other than the IBM HTTP Server, the following
manual configuration steps are necessary to enable remote management:

    * Install the web server onto the machine designated as a /*managing
      server*/.
    * Configure web server using the SMIT fast path command *smitty
      change_doc_search_server* and select *Local - this computer* as
      the value for "Documentation search server LOCATION"
    * Enable the AIX system to accept remote connections:
            */usr/websm/bin/wsmserver -enable* To automatically restart the web server at system restart, add the
    * web server startup command to /etc/inittab using the *mkitab*
      command if desired.
    * Start the web server if desired.

Additional Configuration Required to Support 5.1 Systems

If either your managing or managed server is a 5.1 system, you may want
to install Netscape Communicator using the *Netscape* software bundle
*(smitty install_bundle)* or the *Mozilla* browser on your client
machines so that you can display help messages.

*Mozilla for AIX* is available on the "Mozilla 1.4 Web Browser and
Application Suite for AIX" CD that can be ordered through feature 0976
of the AIX SPO. Mozilla is also available for download at
http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/aix/browsers. Installation instructions are
contained in the README.HTML available on the download page or on the
installation CD.

Clients prior to 5.1.0.35 will not be able to view help messages from a
5.2 system.

To be able to view 5.1 help messages on Windows or Linux systems, make
sure that a default browser has been set. This is accomplished when the
remote management configuration has been completed as directed above.

Problems rendering Extended or Tips Help from 5.1 systems can be
encountered if the configuration is not complete.

*Recommendations*

    The suggested minimum memory configuration to run a Web-based System
    Manager session is 512 MB. You may require additional memory if you
    run multiple sessions simultaneously, such as multiple Web-based
    System Manager sessions running the Monitoring plug-in. The minimum
    suggested clock speed of Intel-based machines is 1Ghz.

    Reliable Scalable Cluster Technology (RSCT), which includes the
    Web-based System Manager Monitoring application, is contained in a
    separate software package, *rsct.core*, which is installed by default.

    For more information about the Monitoring application, refer to *the
    file: /usr/sbin/rsct/README/rsct.core.README.*

*New Features*

    Following are features that are new or have been modified from the
    previous release, and which are not included in the current product
    documentation.

        * The Filter Dialog has been significantly changed. Using the
          *Advanced* tab you can now add more than 3 rules and you can
          choose whether the rules are combined using logical *AND* or
          logical *OR*. In addition, you can disable the filter without
          loosing the filter rules. The documentation currently states
          that you can have a filter from both tabs (*Filter* and
          *Advanced*), however this is incorrect. Your filter will be
          set to whatever rules were set on the last tab that either the
          *Apply* or *OK* button was pressed. Finally, the *contains*
          operator has been changed to the *matches* operator. The
          *matches* operator provides a more flexible pattern matching
          syntax than was provided by *contains*. See the next bullet,
          below.

        * The pattern matching syntax in the Find and Filter Dialogs
          have changed to be more flexible. Now, in addition to
          performing a substring match,  the '*' wildcard character can
          be used to specify where characters can be ignored (similar to
          the shell).  In 5.1 a pattern of *abc* would match any string
          that contained *abc* within it. In 5.2, you can specify that a
          string begins with *abc* by using the pattern *abc*. * You can
          use as many wildcard characters as you like. The character's
          case is ignored for the pattern match.


            Examples of new 5.2 Find/Filter pattern syntax

     *Pattern*

    	
    *Effect*

    abc* 	Match any string that begins with *abc*
    *abc 	Match any string that ends with *abc*
    *abc* 	Match any string that contains *abc*
    abc 	Match any string that contains *abc*
    *a*b*c 	Match any string that has the characters *a*, *b* and *c* in
    it and in that order. The string must end in *c*


            Java^TM Web Start

        * Beginning with this release (5.2.0.30), users of the Linux or
          Windows client now have the choice of using Java^TM Web Start
          instead of installing the client via InstallShield. The URL
          for downloading the remote client is:
          *http://<hostname>/remote_client.html*

          The page displayed will allow the following choices:
          InstallShield 	This remote client is installed via an
          InstallShield wizard and it must be re-installed to obtain
          updates. This client is useful when running the Web-based
          System Manager over a broadband connection (cable modem or
          DSL), because updates to the console are not automatically
          downloaded.
          Java^TM Web Start 	This remote client is loaded by Java^TM Web
          Start, which must be installed on the client system prior to
          installing the remote client. This version of the remote
          client will check for updates on the server every time it is
          invoked and download updates automatically.


                  Installation of Java^TM Web Start on Linux

              o When using the Mozilla browser on Linux to download the
                remote client files, make sure you are using Mozilla 1.6
                or later.
              o After selecting the Java^TM Web Start link from the
                browser, you will be prompted to install Java^TM Web
                Start (if it is not already on your system) before you
                can download the remote client. If it appears to hang
                the browser window, it is trying to open the rpm rather
                than download it. Go back to the URL and right-click on
                the link, then select *Save Link Target As. . .* and
                save the rpm to disk.
              o Once the image has been downloaded to the Linux system,
                run the command *rpm -i  ibm-linux-jre.i386.rpm* to
                install the IBM jre.
              o cd to */opt/IBMJava2-141/jre/bin* and execute
                *webstart_install.sh*. After this step, Java^TM Web
                Start is installed and the browser is configured to
                handle the *jnlp* URLs. 


                  Installation of Java^TM Web Start on Windows

              o If Java^TM Web Start is not already installed on the
                Windows system, you will be prompted to install it.
                After it is installed and you have selected and
                installed the Windows remote client, the following steps
                are necessary to create the desktop shortcut and icons:
                    + Open Java^TM Web Start and view the Preferences
                      from the File menu. Click the Shortcut Options
                      tab. The default for creating shortcuts is "prompt
                      on the second launch". Keep this default setting
                      and click OK.
                    + Click View, then Downloaded Applications.
                      Highlight "Web-based System Manager" within the
                      Applications: Downloaded Applications box and
                      press Start. Web-based System Manager will launch,
                      creating the shortcuts.
                    + The only supported Web Start configuration is with
                      the supplied IBM JRE. 


            Accessibility Improvements using Windows Remote Client

        * Several improvements to accessibility have been added. Most of
          these changes are transparent, but users may notice some minor
          changes in appearance or behavior:
              o Installation of the remote client now automatically
                installs the IBM Accessibility Speech Interface V1.2 and
                IBM ViaVoice TTS Runtime V6.740. This technology preview
                provides for a limited voicing capability of Web-based
                System Manager. In order to run with Voicing enabled,
                the startup file *wsmsvk.bat* sets the required
                environment variables and launches Web-based System
                Manager.
              o The startup file *wsm.bat* that starts Web-based System
                Manager without voicing turned on and *wsmsvk.bat* are
                located in the bin sub-directory of the Web-based System
                Manager install directory (normally *C:\Program
                Files\websm\bin*).
              o The desktop shortcut that was created above launches
                Web-based System Manager without voicing turned on. You
                can create a copy of that shortcut and change the
                startup file to *wsmsvk.bat* if you would like to be
                able to launch the voicing version of Web-based System
                Manager using a short-cut.
              o Read only fields can now receive focus. This was done to
                enable those fields to be voiced.
              o The number of mnemonics assigned to buttons, menu items,
                etc. has been reduced for the following reasons. The
                remaining mnemonics are consistent with IBM's
                accessibility requirements for mnemonics.
                    + Previously, many non-standard mnemonics were used
                      and have now been removed.
                    + Large numbers of mnemonics were difficult to learn
                      and presented numerous translation issues.
                    + Compatibility problems were occurring because
                      mnemonics changed with each release.
                    + When managing several machines at different
                      release levels, mnemonics for the same plug-in
                      could differ for each machine/level. 
              o More of Web-based System Manager is now keyboard navigable.
              o Better tracking of focus has been implemented.
              o Changes have been made in colors, font sizes, etc.
              o Web-based System Manager now supports the Windows
                'Native' theme on the Windows client:
                    + The 'Native' theme causes Web-based System Manager
                      to inherit a number of desktop theme properties.
                    + When you set your theme type to 'Native' and you
                      subsequently run Web-based System Manager on a
                      non-Windows client, your theme will be set to
                      'Classic'. As long as you don't change your theme
                      (and save your preferences), Web-based System
                      Manager will remember to set the theme back to
                      'Native' when you run again from a Windows client.
                    + If you run an older version of the Web-based
                      System Manager client and save your preferences,
                      then any 'Native' theme setting is lost and will
                      not be remembered the next time you launch
                      Web-based System Manager using that preference file.
                    + The windows theme will allow Web-based System
                      Manager to pick up the font size and color choices
                      of the desktop. Web-based System Manager must be
                      restarted after changing themes. 


*Known Problems*

    Following are problems that have been identified and are being
    addressed. Current workarounds, recommendations, and problems
    identified after this version of the product is released will be
    posted to the Web-based System Manager Web Site. <#Other>


            General

        * Viewing Remote Queue status using the *All Print Queues* view
          for AIX remote printers can inaccurately indicate a problem.
          Check the actual status of the queue from the command line by
          entering the following command: *enq -q -P queue*. If the
          command returns the status that the queue is ready, printing
          will function normally.
        * There are known Java problems with using PC-Exceed that result
          in random size dialogs (and other problems). A suggested
          workaround is to (in Exceed):
                set: *Protocol->Enable Custom Vendor String*
                to: "*eXcursion*"
                For further information, see Java bugs 4340199 & 4279670
                at http://java.sun.com There may be a delay encountered between the time that the
        * system name is selected in the navigation area and the
          username and password are requested. This is a performance
          issue and will be addressed in a future release.
        * When connection problems occur with a Host, there may be a
          delay before feedback in the form of an error message is
          returned to the user. This is a performance issue that is
          being addressed.
        * If the following message is encountered: *The wizard script
          file, tguides/.../...sgs, was not found or could not be
          opened*, there is an inconsistency between the managed machine
          and the managing server where the taskguides are not installed
          on both systems.
        * Out of memory or out of virtual memory. You can change the
          heap size for out of memory problems by setting the Web-based
          System Manager environment variable *W_HEAP_MAX_SIZE*. The
          default maximum heap size is 1/2 of the physical memory of the
          machine with a maximum of 256MB. For example, to change the
          maximum heap size in AIX the user would need to export the
          following variable at the command line: *export
          W_HEAP_MAX_SIZE=380m* where m is megabytes. To set in
          gigabytes then *export W_HEAP_MAX_SIZE=20g* where g is gigabytes.
        * Out of memeory may also occur if the hard limit of data area
          is reduced. To correct, run (as root user):
                * ulimit -Hd unlimited * 


            Management Environment

        * Due to support for applet mode, a fully qualified host name is
          not equivalent to a non-fully qualified host name. For
          example, "foo" and "foo.austin.ibm.com" are not equivalent. A
          Java security exception would occur in applet mode if the
          InetAddress class was used to determine if "foo" and
          "foo.austin.ibm.com" are equivalent. Because of this, it is
          possible to have multiple entries for the same machine
          (differing in case or domain specification). 


            Remote Client Mode

        * Supported Windows platforms are Windows 2000 Professional
          version and Windows XP Professional version.
        * Supported Linux distributions are Red Hat Enterprise Version
          3, Suse 8.0, Suse 8.1, Suse 8.2, and Suse 9.0 using desktops
          KDE and GNOME only.
        * The popup menu (right mouse click) will in some contexts
          deselect all objects except the one under the cursor. The
          workaround is to use the pull-down menus from the toolbar
          instead of using a popup menu.


                  Security for Remote Client Mode

          Web-based System Manager Remote Client security provides for
          secure operations in Remote Client mode.   You must install
          the Web-based System Manager Remote Client on your client
          system before you install Web-based System Manager Remote
          Client Security.

          To install Web-based System Manager Remote Client Security,
          you must first install the *sysmgt.websm.security* and/or
          *sysmgt.websm.security-us* filesets on a Web-based System
          Manager server. These filesets are available on the AIX
          Expansion Pack. The steps for downloading and installing
          Remote Client Security are similar to the procedure for the
          Remote Client:

             1. Enter the following web address in the client web browser:
                *http://<hostname>/remote_client_security.html*

                where *<hostname>* is the name of the Web-based System
                Manager server configured for Web-based System Manager
                Remote Client Security installation.

             2. If your remote client is a Windows system, click the
                Windows link that appears on the web page. This will
                download the *setupsec.exe* file to your client. If your
                remote client is a Linux system, click the Linux link
                that appears on the web page. This will download the
                *setupsecl.exe* file to your client.
             3. Run the downloaded file (*setupsec.exe* on Windows,
                *setupsecl.exe* on Linux) to start the installation
                wizard. To complete the installation, proceed through
                the installation wizard by clicking Next on each panel. 

          To establish secure connections in Remote Client mode, you
          must copy the public key file (SM.pubkr) of the Certificate
          Authority you used to configure security on the server to the
          Remote Client codebase directory on your client system. Follow
          the instructions in the Web-based System Manager
          Administration guide for configuring Web-based System Manager
          security on your servers.


                  Security for the Java^TM Web Start Client

          For the Webstart client, SSL support is automatically
          downloaded with the client if the Web-based System Manager
          security filesets (*sysmgt.websm.security*,
          *sysmgt.websm.security-us*) are installed on the system that
          you downloaded the client from. The certificate authority's
          public key (SMPubkr.zip) is also automatically downloaded from
          the */usr/websm/codebase* directory of this server. When you
          define the certificate authority using the Web-based System
          Manager security configuration application, the CA's public
          key is written to *SMpubkr.zip* and *SM.pubkr* in
          */var/websm/security/tmp*. You need to copy *SMpubkr.zip* to
          the codebase directory (*/usr/websm/codebase*) of the server
          that you downloaded the webstart client from. You will notice
          that when you install the security filesets, an empty
          *SMpubkr.zip* is created in the codebase directory. This is
          necessary to avoid error messages during the webstart client
          download before you have copied the *SMpubkr.zip* for the CA
          you define. There is a script,
          */usr/websm/bin/wsmwebstartsslcfg* which creates the empty
          *SMpubkr.zip* and sets the links to the *jnlp* files for
          downloading the appropriate SSL support. You can run this
          script to restore these links to a sane state if you think
          they are incorrect.


            Applet Mode

        * Netscape 6 is not supported. Use Netscape 4.79 or Internet
          Explorer 5.x (or newer).
        * The following problems have been identified and are being
          addressed:
              o Applet Mode does not run with Netscape 4.79 on Windows XP.
              o Applet Mode does not run on a Pentium 4 machine. 
        * When the  javahelp system is invoked from applet mode,  a
          dialog appears with the message: "An applet would like to
          print.  Is this OK?"  In order to dismiss this dialog press
          either "Yes" or "No".  This is a javahelp system bug that will
          be fixed in an upcoming update.
        * The initial load time is significant, particularly when the
          class files are not cached. Setting your browser's cache size
          to a large value (10M or more) will help on subsequent
          launches of Web-based System Manager.
        * If you encounter difficulty using applet mode, review the
          following document:
          http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/1.3/troubleshooting.faq.html
        * Problems have been found with the proxy configuration in
          Internet Explorer 5 that prevent use of Web-based System
          Manager. If IE's proxy configuration is not correctly
          specified, a *"load: class <X> not found"* error will appear
          in IE's status bar when you try to access *wsm.html* in applet
          mode. You may get this error even though IE appears to
          function correctly with regular http files.

          If you experience this problem, carefully review your proxy
          settings. To view your proxy settings in IE 5, select:
          Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections -> LAN Settings.

          Notice that you can specify a single proxy server that will
          supply the needed configuration info for every protocol (i.e.
          http, ftp, etc.) or, through the "Advanced" button, you can
          specify a proxy server for each protocol individually.

          Make certain that if you specify servers for each protocol
          separately, they are correct.

        * Problems such as screen flicker can occur in some situations
          while using applet mode. The problem seems to be a
          configuration problem of the browser, or operating system,
          since it does not consistently give trouble on all similarly
          configured machines. If you encounter such problems, you
          should consider changing browsers.
        * Currently the Web-based System Manager requires the 1.3.1_04
          Java plug-in. The plug-in should be automatically installed if
          it is not on your system already. This version can be found at
          http://java.sun.com/products/archive/j2se/1.3.1_04/index.html
        * Web-based System Manager may be unviewable in applet mode
          after installing java 1.4.x on the PC (see bugs ids 4904444
          and 4783788 at the java site for details -
          http://developer.java.sun.com/servlet/SessionServlet?url=/developer/bugParade/index.jshtml
          ).


            License agreements

        * In AIX 5.2.0.30 the Web-based System Manager Software task
          "Update Software to the Latest Level" and the Network
          Installation Management task includes a new option to accept
          license agreements. This option is not available on earlier
          releases, so if you are updating a previous level of AIX and
          the update includes licensed products, you will not be able to
          complete the update using the  Web-based System Manager.
          Instead, you should use SMIT, i.e. enter "smitty update_all"
          on the command line.


*Other Useful Information*

    See: http://www.ibm.com/servers/aix/wsm/ for information about
    Web-based System Manager.

    Vendors needing information about how to integrate their product
    with Web-based System Manager can contact their IBM representative
    for more details.
     

------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Hardware Management Console (HMC)*
 

    The HMC, or Hardware Management Console is the controlling hardware
    for the eServer p690 system. The HMC system provides the basic
    functionality needed to configure and manage the eServer p690
    system. The HMC provides partition management, service, and problem
    determination software for maintaining the eServer p690 system. For
    more information about the HMC see the publication: /IBM Hardware
    Management Console Installation and Operations Guide/,  order
    number:  SA38-0590-07.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hardware Management Console and Web-based System Manager are products of
International Business Machines (IBM) Inc.

Java^TM and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Sun
Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both.

Copyright  1997, 2002, 2004 International Business Machines.
11400 Burnet Road, Austin, Tx 78758.
All rights reserved.

