TotalNET Advanced Server 5.2 Administration Guide

TNAS

TNAS Structure

You can configure and administer TAS with TotalNET Administration Suite (TNAS), an HTML-based menu and dialog system that allows end users without extensive UNIX administration skills to take advantage of UNIX capabilities. You should configure one TAS host as the "master" server (see"2.1 Configuring the TotalNET Master Server"). All other TAS hosts act as clients of this master. The clients periodically check in with the master server, giving it information about themselves and acquiring information about the rest of the enterprise. This mechanism, among other activities, enables users to log into TNAS on any of the other TAS hosts in the enterprise, once they have TNAS sessions on their TAS hosts. On TAS hosts on which you have the same UNIX user name and password, this login process requires no reauthentication.

TNAS runs on a UNIX host, on which TAS constitutes one TNAS sphere. TNAS generates each HTML page interactively; that is, your input on one page generates the icons, menus, text, graphics, buttons, text fields, and selection boxes that appear on subsequent pages (see the figure below). TNAS screens may vary slightly from browser to browser.

You can administer your system, licenses, and TotalNET products through TNAS. You will primarily use TotalAdmin, the TAS administration sphere of TNAS, with this guide. TNAS comes in four parts: the control frame, the sphere frame, the menu frame, and the work frame.

control frame -- The TNAS administration frame. It includes the following parts:

server selector -- The icon you click to generate a list of active TNAS servers, from which you can choose the server to administer. When you click the server selector, it displays a list of other TAS systems on the network, provided you have configured a TotalNET master server (see "2.1 Configuring the TotalNET Master Server"). The list appears in a new browser window and contains the names of active servers. Clicking a server name activates menus for configuration and administration of that server in the current window. It does not require that you reauthenticate yourself, provided you have the same user name and password on the new host as on the old one. When you use TNAS on a different server, your session on the original server remains active in the original window. All sessions remain active until you log out or they expire. Closing a window does not deactivate a session.

server name -- The name of the current server.

"Disable Session" icon -- The icon you click to exit TNAS.

TNAS administration icon -- The icon you click to view active TNAS sessions, manage licenses, and set TNAS time-out and expiration times.

sphere frame -- Icons representing each TotalNET product on the server. Clicking on an icon leads you to configuration and administration of the product it represents. Each sphere encompasses a collection of menus that allows you to perform a logical set of system administration tasks. With this guide, you will use the TotalAdmin sphere.

menu frame -- Configuration activities for the selected sphere. If you click the TAS icon at the top of the menu, the menu extends to include sub-links. Only options relevant to the system's configuration appear in this menu. For example, if you do not configure the AppleTalk realm, the AppleTalk Realm menu option does not appear.

work frame -- Menus, sub-menus, and input forms for step-by-step configuration and administration.

TNAS Terminology

TNAS -- TotalNET Administration Suite, a task-oriented graphic administration and configuration interface for TotalNET product administration, licensing, and system administration. TNAS includes the TotalAdmin sphere for administering TAS.

icon -- A graphical representation of an object or process. This manual describes the function of each clickable icon.

button -- A control that executes an action or changes an attribute or feature.

sphere -- A collection of menus that allows you to perform a logical set of system administration tasks. You can add or delete these "plug-in" or "snap-in" spheres on the host server.

sphere icon -- An icon in the sphere frame to open a menu in the menu frame for configuration and administration of the sphere it represents.

TNAS session -- A way for TNAS to identify users and manage their activities separately. A session starts when a user logs in and ends when it expires or the user logs out.

TotalAdmin -- The TAS administration sphere of TNAS, also called the TotalAdmin sphere. It comes bundled with TAS.

TotalAdmin menu frame -- The menu for TAS configuration. It appears when you click the TAS icon in the sphere frame.

TotalNET system manager -- The daemon that performs general management of the TotalNET system.

TNAS Icons and Buttons

TNAS icons and buttons help you navigate easily. While in TNAS, do not use your browser's navigational buttons, as they will cause TNAS to lose session state and result in unpredictable behavior. Most TNAS icons have pop-up text boxes explaining their functions for browsers that support this feature; that is, browsers with support for the HTML "ALT" tag.

	server selector -- Allows you to choose the server to administer.
	"Disable Session" icon -- Logs you out of TNAS.
	TNAS administration icon -- Takes you to a menu for viewing current TNAS sessions, managing licenses, and configuring TNAS.
	TAS sphere icon-- Opens the TotalAdmin menu frame when clicked in the sphere frame; collapses and expands the menu when clicked in the menu frame.
	"Start" button -- Starts a wizard.
	"Up" button -- Takes you up one level in the menu hierarchy. Use this instead of your browser's Back button.
	"Help" button -- Takes you to a help screen for the adjacent attribute.
	Administer -- Takes you to a menu of configuration choices.
	Cancel -- Cancels the current activity.
	Delete -- Deletes the selected item.
	Finish -- Concludes a wizard.
	Modify -- Takes you to a screen for modifying the attributes of the selected object.
	Next -- Takes you to the next step in a wizard.
	OK -- Carries out or accepts the action indicated.
	Previous -- Takes you to the previous step in a wizard.
	Reset -- Sets all attributes on the screen to their original values.
	Submit -- Enters your configuration attributes into the system.
	View -- Displays detailed information about the selected object.