Avoid unnecessary name resolution for virtual nodes
Certain environments make use of "virtual nodes". These nodes are not physical nodes, meaning they do not have an IP address or an agent id. They are only used to associate messages to them which originate from non-IP network elements or from other HP BTO Software products such as HP Internet Services.
They are configured in the HPOM node bank by using an arbitrary name. Although virtual nodes do not have an IP ADDRESS and an agent id, the MessageActionServer per default tries to resolve them when initializing its node cache and each time they appear in a message. This unnecessary name resolution has a significant impact on startup time and on message throughput.
Currently HPOM node configuration does not allow to explicitly define a node as "virtual". Therefore the following convention is used to define virtual nodes. A node set up in the node database qualifies for being recognized as a virtual node when it meets the following prerequisites:
- Must not have an IP address and the name given should not be DNS resolvable at any time.
- Must not have an agent id
- Must not be configured for DHCP
- System type
- Operating system
If a node has been qualified as being a virtual node based on the property settings, then no name resolution will be performed during production and messages associated with the node will pass the message filter without further checks.
The value pair for virtual nodes is defined by values in the Node Cache Settings namespace in the Server Configuration dialog box. After you have changed a value, restart the OvEpMessageActionServer service for the change to take effect. The values, along with their possible settings, are shown below:
| Value | Possible Settings | Default Setting |
| Node system type for virtual nodes | KNOWN, UNKNOWN, ANY, TURNOFF | TURNOFF |
| Node OS type for virtual nodes | KNOWN, UNKNOWN, ANY, TURNOFF | TURNOFF |
Node system type for virtual nodes specifies how to qualify virtual nodes in dependency of their system types. If the value is set to "KNOWN", then system type must have been configured to a known system type (for example, Pentium Compatible, Power PC family, SPARC Family, PA-RISC Family, Itanium compatible) and must not have been configured as "Other".
If the value is set to "UNKNOWN", then system type must have been configured as "Other". If the value is set to "ANY" then any node qualifies independently of the System Type setting.
Node OS type for virtual nodes specifies how to qualify virtual nodes in dependency of their operating systems. If the value is set to "KNOWN", then the operating system must have been configured to a known operating system and must not have been configured as "Unknown". Supported operating systems are shown on the Software Support Online web site support matrix.
If the value is set to "UNKNOWN" then system type must have been configured as "Unknown". If the value is set to "ANY" then any node qualifies independently of the operating system setting.
NOTE:For qualifying virtual nodes, both values must be set. If none or only one of the values are set, then no virtual nodes will qualify.
The following examples show how the registry names described above are interpreted while evaluating whether nodes matching the prerequisites (no IP address, no agent id, not setup as DHCP node) qualify as virtual nodes or not.
| Node system type for virtual nodes | Node OS type for virtual nodes | Description |
| UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN | Node qualifies as a virtual node if system type has been defined as "other" and operating system has been defined as "unknown". |
| KNOWN | UNKNOWN | Node qualifies as a virtual node if the system type is not set to "other" and the operating system is unknown. |
| ANY | ANY | Node qualifies as a virtual node independently of system type and operating system. |
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