The manager application program for topology can be the NetView® program (Version 3 Release 1) or a manager application program you write yourself. The VTAM® topology agent is an agent application program for topology. It is a CMIP application program that resides on the VTAM host and runs internally to VTAM.

The manager application program for topology sends requests for the collection of different types of topology data to the VTAM topology agent. The VTAM topology agent collects topology information to send to a manager application program. Manager and agent application programs can reside on the same VTAM host or on different hosts.

CMIP services is used by both the topology manager application program and the topology agent application program (and other CMIP services application programs) to provide communication between the two application programs. Communication between the manager and agent application programs on different hosts is done by CMIP services-to-CMIP services communication using VTAM management services (MS) transport over LU 6.2 sessions.

VTAM CMIP services can communicate with CMIP services on platforms other than VTAM host platforms. For example, VTAM CMIP services can communicate with Communication Manager/2 (CM/2) CMIP services to allow host-based manager application programs to communicate with CM/2 agent application programs at workstations.