Networking tasks‌

For details on network configuration, see Network administration.

 Network nodes types

  • Server node

    Accesses the database, can host item libraries and work/deployment areas, and includes the command-line client.

  • Listener node

    Can host item libraries and work/deployment areas but has no access to the database. Includes the command-line client.

  • Client node

    Clients only.

Optimize network performance‌

Database processes should run on the fastest node in the network and, if possible, the node should have no Dimensions CM logins on it. Also, the OS parameters should be optimized with as much RAM as possible for each Dimensions CM network node in the network. If a single user workstation is used on the network, appropriate resources may need to be significantly increased to reduce paging/swapping.

In addition to providing networking facilities to permit operations across both a homogeneous and heterogeneous environment, a Dimensions CM network is able to spread the processing load. See the section on using and configuring library cache areas in the Administration Guide.

Network disk distribution‌

Disk access speed can significantly affect performance. We recommend splitting server configuration across multiple disks to improve performance.

Summary of Multi-Disk Configurations

To provide the best disk performance, do the following:

  • Windows Microsoft SQL Server, four disks:

    Disk1 Windows System disk

    Disk2 Page and swap file

    Disk3 User files

    Disk4 Database files only (RDBMS)

  • With Oracle Enterprise on Windows or UNIX, five disks:

    Disk1 UNIX or Windows System disk

    Disk2 Page and swap file

    Disk3 User files

    Disk4 Database files only (RDBMS)

    Disk5 Redo log files (RDBMS), if applicable

Detailed Multi-Disk Configurations

The following tables display recommend disk usage in a number of configurations. The goal is to balance the load across all available disks.

  • Windows Microsoft SQL Server RDBMS.

      One Disk Two Disks Three Disks Four Disks
    System disk D1 D1 D1 D1
    Page and Swap files D1 D1 D3 D3
    User files D1 D2 D2 D2
    Database files D1 D2 D3 D2
    Dimensions CM programs D1 D1 Any Anywhere but the system disk.
    Item libraries D1 D2 Not D1 Anywhere but the system disk.
    Database programs D1 D1 Any Anywhere but the system disk.

  • UNIX or Windows Oracle Enterprise RDBMS

      One Disk Two Disks Three Disks Four Disks Five Disks
    System disk D1 D1 D1 D1 D1
    Page and Swap files D1 D1 D3 D3 D3
    User files D1 D2 D2 D2 D2
    Database files D1 D2 D2 D2 D5
    Redo log files D1 D1 D3 D4 D4
    Dimensions CM programs D1 D1 Any Anywhere but the system disk. Anywhere but the system disk.
    Item libraries D1 D2 Not D1 Anywhere but the system disk. Anywhere but the system disk.
    Database programs D1 D1 Any Anywhere but the system disk. Anywhere but the system disk.

    The database files are associated with separate tablespaces PCMS_TEMP, PCMS_RBS, PCMS_DATA, and PCMS_IDX.

Item library host performance

Item libraries should be hosted on nodes that can handle the load and that are local to the users that most often require access to them.

Work with NFS networked disks‌

Important: If the Dimensions CM installation is on a UNIX NFS network and it is not intended to use a Dimensions CM network, the NFS disks must be UNIX mounted with root setuid access permitted.

Grant root access to NFS

A UNIX NFS (Network File System) does not allow root access from any other system unless it is specifically enabled; however, enabling root access for NFS client systems may be an unacceptable security risk on some servers. If the Dimensions CM listener nodes hosting the item libraries are granted root access to the NFS, this access must be enabled on the Dimensions CM server's disk, as the client systems are running 'setuid to root'. The NFS server disk must be mounted with the 'suid' option set or the 'nosuid' option not set (for example, in /etc/ vfstab for SUN).

Assign socket numbers

You must assign numbers to the Oracle listener (used by Oracle NET8) and various Dimensions CM network sockets on the server as well as on any clients. Add the following socket assignments to the file /etc/ services on each Dimensions CM physical node:

pcms_replicator 2091/tcp
pcms_sdp 671/tcp

Check the following:

  • All nodes on which the Dimensions CM network is installed have the same socket number. If you have Network Information Service (NIS) running on your system, you can make this change to the central services file and then perform a make instead of making this change on all nodes under NIS.

  • Root access is established in /etc/exports on the server.

Enable the root user to start and stop the listener

If all client systems use a common Dimensions CM server on an NFS disk, the root user from each client accesses the server. In such an environment, always use the root user to start Dimensions CM listener node from client systems—do not use dmsys (the user that owns the Dimensions CM files).

To allow the user root to start and stop a Dimensions CM listener node, run the following commands on each client as the user dmsys:

chmod 755 $DM_LICENSE/license
chmod 4500 $DM_PROG/dmstartup $DM_PROG/dmshutdown

This sets setuid so that when the system is booting root performs the Dimensions CM listener node start up and changes uid to the dmsys user.