Resolving alias name requirements

An alias name is defined in a host to represent a logical unit, logon mode table, or Class of Service (COS) name in another network.

The following method can be used to determine which alias names are required and to distribute the required alias name definitions to the correct gateway SSCPs. The alias names you choose cannot match the names of any resources in your network.

Create a table listing all of your LUs, even if they do not have cross-network sessions. You need not list every resource in your network if it is obvious from your naming conventions that certain names cannot be duplicated in any network to which you are connecting.

List all of the resources in other networks with which you communicate. If you use an adjacent SSCP list and do not specify the destination network, include all resources in all networks in the second column, even those with which you have no sessions. (This includes resources such as lines and physical units.) Otherwise, a resource might receive a session request that is intended for an LU that has the same name but is in a different network.

Table 1 illustrates this process:

Table 1. Network resource list example
All resources in your network (NETA)	All other network resources that communicate with owning network	Owning NETID for resources in other networks
ABLE	BAKER	NETY
CHARLIE	BAKER	NETZ
DOG	CHARLIE	NETX
FOX	EASY	NETX
EASY	JOAN	NETY
MARY	PETER	NETZ
ROGER	.	.

Find any duplicates in the table you have created.
In the example shown in Table 1, the duplicate names are CHARLIE and EASY. NETX.CHARLIE and NETX.EASY need alias names so you can distinguish them from resources in your network. Either NETY.BAKER or NETZ.BAKER needs an alias name so that you can distinguish them from each other.
For this example, the alias name definitions that you need to code for the NetView® alias name translation facility are the following definition:
```
ORIGNET     NETA
     LU     CHARLIE,NETX,ALCHARLI
     LU     EASY,NETX,ALEASY
     LU     BAKER,NETY,ALBAKER
```
ORIGNET always represents the network that knows the resource by its alias name. The network specified on the LU definition statement is always the network that knows the resource by its real name.

With these alias names replacing the real names, you now know every resource you communicate with by a unique name.

After every network goes through the preceding process, consolidate the results so that every network that is to request name translations has a complete set of alias name definitions for LUs. For example, if NETX has a NetView alias name translation facility, you should supply NETX with the following definition:

ORIGNET   NETA
     LU   CHARLIE,NETX,ALCHARLI
     LU   EASY,NETX,ALEASY

Similarly, if NETY has a NetView alias name translation facility, you should supply NETY with the following definition:

ORIGNET  NETA
     LU  BAKER,NETY,ALBAKER

If your network has a NetView alias name translation facility, you should keep a copy of all the definitions you created. In addition, other networks might give you alias name definitions that they created to see your resources. For example, NETX might give you the following definition:

ORIGNET NETX
     LU MARY,NETA,MARYX
     LU EASY,NETA,EASYX
     LU CHARLIE,NETA,CHARLIEX

By distributing the alias name definitions as indicated, you might find that several networks have the same definition. However, you are assured that LU names get translated at the first NetView alias name translation facility called, regardless of the direction of session setup.