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SupportConnect - Unicenter Mainframe Network Management Newsletter, Version 07.07

NOTE: E-News technical information is dynamic and links in archived copies of these technical newsletters may eventually become invalid as the products evolve. Please check the support web page for your product to get the latest technical information.

CA Mainframe Network Management Newsletter
Version 07.07
October 02, 2007

In This Newsletter

Product News

	>	GA Announcement
	>	Beta Notification
	>	Drop Support Notifications > New End-of-Life Notifications > New Stabilization Notifications > Existing Drop Support Dates

General Information

	>	Become a Network Management Superstar
	>	Best Practices for IP Infrastructure Monitoring
	>	Best Practices for Alert Management
	>	Survey

Special Events

	>	TCPaccess X.25 Server r7.0 Training
	>	Webcast - Best Practices: Learn How to Intercept and Manage Mainframe Network Events Using CA NetMaster® Network Management for TCP/IP

GA Announcement
Based upon the best-in-class NetMaster model, we are pleased to announce the general availability of the following:

CA SOLVE:Operations® Automation r11

CA SOLVE:Operations® Automation for CICS r11

CA NSM SOLVE:Operations Option r11

What's new in r11:

Audit logging - An audit facility has been added to help you meet corporate governance requirements and measure the amount of automation being performed by your CA SOLVE:Operations region. Audit records are externalized in the Activity Log and as SMF records, where SMF reporting tools can then be used to report on the data.
Move Tree Command - The Move Tree (MVT) command lets you move an entire resource tree from one system to another.
REXX Support REXX - Language support has been provided to help users develop in-house specific automation routines.
WebCenter SDK Support - A Software Developer's Kit is available to help users develop web-based pages that can be accessed through the WebCenter user interface.
Service Desk Integration - Supports the automatic problem ticket generation to Unicenter® Service Desk.
Persistent Global Variables - Users can set "persistent" global variables that will retain their values over region restarts.
AOMCMD SYSPARM Changes - Messages can be suppressed without the AOM command character being appended to the message. Additionally, support is now available for a one-character to eight-character command.
CMD Window Enhancements - The CMD line command for a resource supports the ability to issue commands other than MODIFY commands from the command window.
z/OS Symbols support in NCL - NCL supports the use of z/OS symbols.
EVARGET/EVARSET Macro Update - These macros have been updated to allow for variable substitution.
Scheduling Environment and WLM Resource Integration - Allows for the display and modification of the WLM application and scheduling environment from a SYSPLEX resource.
Line Command to Activate/Inactive Message Rules and Timer - Supports the activation and inactivation of message rules and timers through a line command.
New Critical Message Alerting - When a critical message is generated that has no existing rule processing, CA SOLVE:Operations will provide notification of this event.

We also encourage you to visit the CA SOLVE:Operations Automation product home page at SupportConnect^SM.

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Beta Notification
No notifications.

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Drop Support Notifications
New End-of-Life Notifications:
The following products will no longer be supported as of September 1, 2008:
CA NetMaster® File Transfer Management Agent - IBM AIX
CA NetMaster® File Transfer Management Agent - HP-UX
CA NetMaster® File Transfer Management Agent - Sun Solaris
CA NetMaster® File Transfer Management Agent - OS/400

New Stabilization Notifications:
The following products have been stabilized, effective immediately. There will be no new releases or enhancements implemented for these products, but they will continue to be supported:
CA NetSpy™ Network Performance for z/VM
CA NetMaster® Socket Management for CICS
CA NetMaster® Network Management for SNA (MSP)
CA SOLVE:Access® Session Management (MSP)
CA SOLVE:Access® Session Management (VOS3)

Existing Drop Support Dates:
March 31, 2008:
CA NetMaster® Network Management for TCP/IP r11 (z/OS)
CA NetSpy™ Network Performance r11 (z/OS)
CA NetMaster® Network Operations for TCP/IP r11 (z/OS)
CA NetMaster® Network Management for SNA r11 (z/OS)
CA NetMaster® Network Automation r11 (z/OS)
CA NetMaster® File Transfer Management r11 (z/OS)
CA SOLVE:FTS r11 (z/OS)

For more information, visit ca.com/supportconnect.

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Become a Network Management Superstar
CA NetMaster® Network Management for TCP/IP Best Practices

No time to read manuals cover to cover? Need a quick-start guide to power through your network management challenges? Wondering what more you could do to meet your network SLAs?

Written by the same people who wrote the software, the newly released CA NetMaster for TCP/IP Handbook is designed for novices and experienced network administrators, so anyone with network challenges can very quickly find the command or tool they need. The chapters are organized by use case and business challenge. For example, Chapter 12 is titled "Best Practices for IP Node Monitoring." Chapter 24 is titled "Can't Connect to An Application." This is a powerful tool you will get value from every day.

The first section, "Who should use this handbook and how," gets you going. Experienced users will start with the table of contents, but you will probably find that NetMaster has features and capabilities you need, which you hadn't realized were available. This isn't a replacement for your product manuals and guides; it is more of a quick-reference tool designed to help you manage your network efficiently and effectively.

To get your copy, contact John Klonaris, Product Line Manager.

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Best Practices for IP Infrastructure Monitoring
New to managing an IP environment? Just coming to grips with VIPA, stacks, and OSA cards? Have you just installed CA NetMaster® Network Management for TCP/IP and need to configure the IP Resource Monitor? This short guide helps you define your key resources, activate monitoring, and quickly get up to speed collecting performance information and managing alerts. Step-by-step instructions make configuration a snap!

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Best Practices for Alert Management
The faster you handle an alert, the more you minimize impacts to the availability and performance of your service levels. In an integrated product like CA NetMaster® Network Management for TCP/IP, alerts come from every component, including the SNA and File Transfer Management products. You need a way to easily group like alerts, customize the display to optimize your interaction with the monitor, and then pass alerts on to other products, to other people for resolution, or to an NCL procedure for handling. This short guide helps you quickly customize the Alert Monitor to help you manage alerts more quickly, automatically, and accurately. Meet those SLAs more easily by customizing your alerts.

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Survey
We have created a survey to help us better understand how you use the product, what direction your business is headed, and what your future business requirements are. Please take the time to complete the survey, which is available on SupportConnect^SM.

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TCPaccess X.25 Server r7.0 Training
We are excited to present the following three-hour in-depth training on the new features of TCPaccess X.25 Server r7.0.

In this course, you will be presented with an overview of OpenMax and the X.25 Server. You will also learn what's new in r7 and how to handle diagnostics. This three-hour training takes place Wednesday, October 3, from 9 a.m. EDT to Noon EDT. The presenter is René Sauvé.

Register here.

You can access the audio either through your computer or by dialing in.

Clients in NA and SA can use the following dial-in phone number:

Toll free: 1-866-376-6162
Toll: 1-660-422-5140
Pin: 753-559-8510

Clients not in NA and not in SA can look up their country code to find the toll free number, dial in, and then supply Participant Code 753-559-8510 to join the call.

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Webcast - Best Practices: Learn How to Intercept and Manage Mainframe Network Events Using CA NetMaster® Network Management for TCP/IP
Join us for this informative webcast on October 23, 2007, at 10:00 a.m. EDT.

CA NetMaster for TCP/IP has access to events from the IP network, the TCP applications, the MVS console and more. This webcast will cover the process of intercepting events - including performance exceptions - and what actions CA NetMaster can take when they occur.

This webcast will cover these and other related topics:

Using Event Detectors to report on FTP Failures, ICMP conditions, and MVS console messages
Writing your own NCL procedures to listen for NetMaster events, and taking your own custom actions
Customizing sample NCL procedure to receive SNMP events from other managers
Specifying Performance Attribute Alerts and alert actions
Storing SMF server and client TCP/IP Connection Events
Browsing and searching Connection Events

To register for this upcoming webcast, please click here.

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