Working With System Image Definitions › How You Implement System Images

How You Implement System Images

You define the operations requirements of the resources to be managed on a system in a system image. You must create a system image definition before you can define the resources you want to manage.

Note: For information about creating your initial system image, see the Administration Guide.

You define a system image by giving it a name and assigning a version number. You must also nominate a home system on which the image can be loaded.

Note: If you are defining a system image for a subordinate region in a multisystem environment, the image name is restricted to that specified during the linking operation.

You assign different version numbers to create different views of the managed resources in the knowledge base. For example, the current live version of an image is version 0001, the new version (which contains changes that are not yet implemented) is version 0002, and the old version (a view of the image as it was before the changes in the current version were implemented) is version 0003.

You can also use the version to reflect the creation date of the system image, for example, 0705 for May 2007.

Note: The $TEMPLAT system image name is reserved for templates. For more information about how to work with templates, see the Administration Guide.

Example: Implement System Images

You are responsible for the IS department of the eastern branch of a company, and you have defined a development system image called EASTTEST 0001. When the branch needs to add or change some definitions, you copy EASTTEST 0001 to a new image called EASTTEST 0002. You change the contents of EASTTEST 0002 and test it until it is working properly.

When the changes are working, you copy EASTTEST 0001 to a new image called EASTTEST 0003. This new image can be used as a backup if EASTTEST 0002 fails for any reason. You then load EASTTEST 0002 to make it temporarily the current image and delete EASTTEST 0001. You can then copy EASTTEST 0002 to a new EASTTEST 0001 and load this EASTTEST 0001 image.

The next time you want to update the current system, you update EASTTEST 0002, test it and back up EASTTEST 0001 to EASTTEST 0003. You then proceed as before to create a new EASTTEST 0001 by copying the tested EASTTEST 0002.