PMDF System Manager's Guide

Some PMDF channels, such as PMDF's multithreaded TCP/IP channels or Lotus Notes channels, include resident server processes that process incoming messages---such servers handle the slave (incoming) direction for the channel. In addition, remote clients using protocols such as POP and IMAP download their messages by connecting to PMDF's POP or IMAP servers.

The PMDF Dispatcher handles the creation of such PMDF servers. Dispatcher configuration options control whether such servers are available at all, and if available, how many such servers are created and when, and how many connections each server can handle. Most sites, for instance, will choose to have the Dispatcher always keep at least one SMTP server process resident.

The PMDF PROCESS utility can be used to show current PMDF processes, including PMDF server processes as well as currently executing PMDF channel jobs. Or the DCL command SHOW SYSTEM/NET can be used to show network processes, which will include such PMDF servers, as in the sample output shown in Figure 35-1. Except for PMDF sites that do not use any Dispatcher services, for all other PMDF sites the Dispatcher, indicated in the figure as (1), should always be present during normal operation of PMDF.

Figure 35-1 Output of SHOW SYSTEM/NET

OpenVMS V6.2-1H2 on node THOR 15-NOV-2012 15:24:03.22 Uptime 5 08:31:23 Pid Process Name State Pri I/O CPU Page flts Pages 22A01A23 <DISPATCHER-01> HIB 6 201411 0 00:03:33.05 103992 389 N (1) 22A0271A <POP3-01> HIB 6 9207 0 00:00:08.55 21729 389 N (2) 22A01A69 <LNMASTER-02> HIB 6 9736 0 00:00:05.81 9918 296 N (3) 22A01FE2 <LNSLAVE-01> HIB 6 5917 0 00:00:08.23 1545 606 N 22A02691 <IMAP-01> HIB 6 57475 0 00:01:45.56 2940 1033 N (4) 22A025D1 <IMAP-02> HIB 6 67728 0 00:01:30.59 1859 1278 N 22A029A1 <SNADS-02> HIB 6 146 0 00:00:00.79 5849 76 N (5) 22A029A2 <HTTP-02> HIB 6 12367 0 00:00:03.36 6135 83 N (6) 22A024A3 <WEB500-02> HIB 6 156 0 00:00:00.75 6181 82 N (7) 22A028A5 <SMTP-01> HIB 6 35128 0 00:01:03.10 22624 501 N (8)

1. The Dispatcher should, at most PMDF sites, always be present. It controls the creation of PMDF server processes.
2. One or more POP3 server processes can be present at sites using the PMDF POP3 server.
3. Sites using PMDF-LAN Lotus Notes channels should have one LN master and one LN slave process present per Lotus Notes channel.
4. One or more IMAP server processes can be present at sites using the PMDF IMAP server.
5. Sites that are using the PMDF HTTP server to serve out PMDF documentation or PMDF monitoring information can have an HTTP server process present.
6. Sites that are using the PMDF Web500 server to provide web browser access to an X.500 directory can have a Web500 server process present.
7. Sites using the PMDF multithreaded TCP SMTP channel can have an SMTP server process present. Indeed, most such sites will want the Dispatcher configured so that there is always at least one SMTP server process present.

If the PMDF Dispatcher has been configured but is not present, it can be started with the command

$ PMDF STARTUP DISPATCHER

If the PMDF Dispatcher is present but some expected server is not present, check whether the Dispatcher has been configured to handle that service and if so, what the MIN_PROCS option value is for that service. For services with a MIN_PROCS value of 0, the server will only be created and present at times when a local client or remote site actually has a connection open; but for services with a MIN_PROCS value greater than or equal to 1, there should always be at least one such server process present.

See also Section 11.7 for a discussion of monitoring what connections are currently active to the Dispatcher.