Oracle Utilities NMS 1.11, How Is It In Java?
Oracle Utilities NMS 1.11 has been generally available for a few months now. Since then, I have had an opportunity to work with it. In this new version, older technology (X-Motif) is retired and the NMS is a Java based product. When using the new NMS, it is important to not expect it to look exactly like it used to. Now that it is in Java, it will not. Gone is the Environment Manager (Eman) as a separate tool. There is now a toolbar that is used to start NMS tools. The buttons on the toolbar all have details display when you hover them that clarify their purpose. When first using the new NMS version, it will take some time to find the new button to access the features desired, but as time goes, familiarity increases. All the main functionalities are there, it may just take some time to learn the new button locations. Once familiar, it is just as fast to work with if not faster.
Yes, there are some minor functionalities that are
gone. For example, the SqlX tool no
longer exists. This is not a problem for
a couple reasons. Firstly, this is a
tool used only by system administrative users, and is not for dispatcher
use. Secondly, tools such as TOAD and
Oracle SQL Developer always were superior tools to use instead. Other functionalities may work mostly the
same, but not 100%. An example of this
would be Hide/Display. Hide/Display
functionality still exists for the viewer, but the Java version has some
limitations the X-Motif version did not.
The loss of this minor function is made up for with gains
elsewhere. For example, the Java
environment allows users to hover over icons/buttons and see explanation of the
button. The Java environment allows
users to have multiple Work Agenda tools running so that 2 separate filters can
be loaded concurrently. There is also an
outage summary on the top of the product Work Agenda. The summary shows counts of numbers out,
calls, and other information. Another significant gain is the new 'help'
pages that are available from each tool.
For the most part, administration of the NMS has gotten easier. Since X-Motif is deprecated, it is no longer necessary to maintain and synchronize 2 sets of configurations. There is only the one set (Java). Also, adding or moving a button/label/field is simpler too. In Java, the configuration can be simply deleted or pasted in their new place. There is no need to concern with assigning proper index numbering to assign sequence. There is no need to concern over how or to what a button/label/field is attached to another button/label/field. There is no risk changing one column of a table will affect other columns. The changes are not without some drawbacks. In the past, tool configuration changes could be done with less impact to NMS users. Sometimes it would not be necessary to have users see any downtime at all. Now with the Java only NMS, system downtime is needed in most cases to deploy changes. There are very few exceptions to this.
Occasionally, Oracle may have made oversights when converting functionality from the old X-Motif format to the new Java format. If any logic, expected functionality or expected behavior seems missing, write the SR with Oracle. It may be possible to fix it by making your own change, but alert Oracle to this issue too.
What have been your experiences with 1.11? If you have and tips or observations, please share. I would love to hear them.
