Graphical User Interface › Class Editor -- Simple Appliances › General Tab (Class Editor)

General Tab (Class Editor)

The General tab describes the appliance class as a whole and also contains some advanced settings.

General attributes

Name

Class name. Defines the name of the appliance class. This name is shown in the bottom left side of each appliance shape on the canvas. If the appliance is placed in a catalog, the class name is also shown in the catalog. The name is a single word, case-sensitive, alphanumeric ([A-Za-z0-9_]).

Instance Name Template

Template from which appliance instance names are generated. When a template is specified, the first instance has the same name as the template. Subsequent instances have names that are comprised of the template followed by a number. If no template is specified, the name of the class is used as the template.

Category

Category of the appliance. The category is a short alphanumeric phrase describing the group (category) of appliances within a catalog that the appliance belongs to. If the appliance is placed in a catalog, all appliances from the same category are grouped in a section.

Description

Free text description of the appliance. Typically, the description contains the following information:

• Definition of the appliance function
• Some distinguishing details (separating an appliance from other similar appliances)
• Key software packages that are used inside the appliance

Documentation URL

Specifies the URL where the class documentation can be found.

Visual attributes

The following attributes determine the visual appearance of the appliance shape:

Color

The color of the appliance shape, as shown on the canvas and in the catalog.

Size

The width of the appliance shape when shown on the canvas.

OS Icon

The OS icon that is shown on the appliance shape, as shown on the canvas and in the catalog.

Note:

• Keep color choices consistent for each appliance category. This color scheme makes completed applications look better.
• Use shape size proportional to the importance and complexity of the appliance.
• The height of the appliance adjusts automatically based on the number of terminals.

Advanced attributes

The following attributes determine special and diagnostic features for the appliance class.

Virtualization Modes

Specifies the type of virtualization for the appliance. CA AppLogic® for System z supports the following virtualization mode: z/VM.

Boot Timeout

Specifies the default value of the boot time-out for the appliance. This value is the time, in seconds, allowed between the start of boot, and when the appliance has completed boot and is operational. See the Grid User Guide for details. We recommend that you leave this setting empty, so that CA AppLogic® for System z uses the systemwide default time-out.

Shutdown timeout

Specifies the default value of the shutdown time-out for the appliance. This value is the time, in seconds, allowed between the start of shutdown and the moment the appliance indicates that it has shut down. We recommend that you leave this setting empty, so that CA AppLogic® for System z uses the systemwide default time-out.

Field Engineering Options

Specifies a numeric value that enables diagnostic or other special features of CA AppLogic® for System z for the appliance class. This setting affects all instances of the appliance. Only enable this option under the direction of CA Support.

Billing Tags

Specifies a comma-separated list of name=value pairs that can be used for billing purposes. Do not use; reserved for future use.

Advanced Virtualization mode settings

The following advanced settings are available by clicking the Options button when the virtualization mode is set to Paravirtualized:

Console

Specifies the types of consoles that the appliance supports. The value of this setting is a comma-separated list of one or more of the following types:

• ssh:port - access console through SSH on the port.
• web:port - access management interface through HTTP on the port. This type allows appliance to expose an HTTP management interface on the default interface of the appliance. The interface is accessible using the manage operation from the CA AppLogic® for System z Editor.
• text - appliance exposes a text-based boot console.
• In addition, the strings can be prefixed with default: that specifies that the subsequent console type is the default login console for the appliance. For example, ssh:22,default:text specifies that the text boot console is the default login console for the appliance that is used in comp login comp_name. The default: prefix is not valid for web.

Command Line

Additional parameters to specify on the kernel command line when the appliance boots. This setting can be used to pass parameters to high-level drivers running in the appliance, such as file systems and network stacks. For Linux appliances, the kernel command line syntax is space-separated param=value pairs. This setting is optional and is typically empty.

Device Schema

• Specifies the schema by which the appliance operating system recognizes disk devices. The only device schema supported by CA AppLogic® is vaddr where each device is represented by a virtual address. CA AppLogic® uses the device schema to auto-assign devices to new volumes that are added to the appliance class. The devices are stored in the class descriptor and can be used by the appliance to access the volumes.