Automatic Configuration for Control Units
Original Publication Date: 1993-Nov-01
Included in the Prior Art Database: 2005-Mar-21
Publishing Venue
IBM
Related People
Carlson, BA: AUTHOR [+2]
Abstract
This disclosure provides the means by which a more flexible system management environment can be provided for serially switched I/O attachment mechanisms. It provides automated detection and inclusion of system resources without operator intervention, both at system initialization and during system operations. It also provides system reconfiguration without manual manipulation of physical resource information.
Automatic Configuration for Control Units
This
disclosure provides the means by which a more flexible
system management environment can be provided for serially switched
I/O attachment mechanisms. It provides
automated detection and
inclusion of system resources without operator intervention, both at
system initialization and during system operations. It also provides
system reconfiguration without manual manipulation of physical
resource information.
The Figure
describes the proposed system structure to be used
for automatic I/O configuration by this disclosure:
System configuration for automatic I/O configuration
Terminology:
CHSC Channel Subsystem Call: the mechanism by which S/390
CHSC
CHSC
CHSC
channel subsystems are
dynamically updated.
CM Configuration Manager (described below)
CM
CM
CM
CPC Central Processor Complex
CPC
CPC
CPC
CSS Channel Subsystem
CSS
CSS
CSS
CU Control Unit
CU
CU
CU
PCE Processor Controller Element: a service processor directly
PCE
PCE
PCE
attached to an S/390 CPC.
The components described below provide the primary
functions required
by the invention described in this disclosure.
The
Configuration Repository contains customer configuration
constraints against the physical system configuration. In other
words, it defines what portion of the physical I/O configuration is
to be actually configured. Typically,
the contents of this
repository are driven by performance and availability requirements
and are manually entered by the customer.
This disclosure assumes
that such data resides in the Processor Controller Element (PCE).
The Configuration Manager provides the following functions:
o Retrieves physical link configuration data from CSS
o Initiates communication with each I/O subsystem
o Consolidates
configuration data from each I/O subsystem into a
single set of configuration records
o Initializes the channel subsystem
o Monitors I/O
subsystems during system operations to detect and
process any changes to system
configuration
This disclosure assumes that the Configuration Manager
resides in the
Processor Controller Element (PCE).
The I/O
subsystem configuration process provides the following
functions:
o Collects I/O
subsystem configuration data at time of
initialization
o Monitors I/O
subsystem configuration data during system
operations
o Responds to
requests for information from the configuration
manager
o Automatically
reports detected I/O subsystem configuration
changes to the configuration manager
It is located in an I/O control unit and is a required
component in
each I/O subsystem.
A dynamic
switch control unit serves as the physical level
coordinator during initialization. The
primary unique function
provided by the dynamic switch control unit w...