HCD and HCM

Newsletter 22

From the Böblingen HCD/HCM Development Team

June 1999

New Hardware Support

HCD supports the new S/390 Parallel Enterprise Servers G5 and G6 generation (R6 and X7 models) with its new capabilities via the following SPEs (PTFs):

HCD 4.2, HCD 4.3, HCD 5.1 and HCD 5.2 support the 9672 R6 models without the new channel types, HCD 5.1 and HCD 5.2 support the 9672 X7 models without the new channel types.

New HCD Actions

SPE OW28654 introduced two new actions in the HCD dialog that make specific definition tasks more productive:

• The Move Ports action on the Switch List allows the user to move control unit, channel path or switch port connections to other ports on the same or another switch. This action is especially of value when consolidating switches.

• The Aggregate Channel Path action on the Channel Path List allows the user to aggregate the connections of multiple channel paths to a single target channel path. This action is of value when combining several under-utilized channel paths to a single one.

Both actions used in combination facilitate the migration from ESCON to FICON channel paths using the FICON Bridge card on a 9032-5 ESCON Director.

The CNC to FCV conversion scenario in HCD would be as follows:

1. The ports that are used by the FICON Bridge card on the 9032-5 Director are freed.
   This action is supported via the Move Ports action.
   The seven port addresses following the port which gets the FCV connection (x5 to xB, or xD to x3) have to be set to uninstalled.
   If the port connections are moved to a different switch, all implied port connections must be moved as well. It may be necessary to update the switch configuration(s) at the target switch.

2. a.The FCV channel path is defined.
   This can be done from an existing CNC channel path via channel path ID or channel path type Change actions on the Channel Path List.
   Defining an FCV channel path may require to redefine the Ids of other channel paths used on the same channel card due to channel packaging rules.

   b.The FCV channel path is connected to the FCV entry port on the 9032-5 Director.
   The prompt on the switch entry port will then show only those free ports on the switch that are eligible to connect to FCV channel paths.

3. Other CNC channel paths are aggregated on the FCV channel path.
   This action is supported by the Aggregate Channel Path action. The Aggregate CHPID dialog allows aggregation of one channel path at a time. The prompt function shows all the pre-validated channel paths that are eligible for aggregation. The aggregated CNC channel paths can now be disconnected from the switch to get free ports on the switch if required.

For a further description of the Move Ports and Aggregate Channel Path actions, refer to the What's New in This Release panel and the Help function within the HCD dialog.

New HCD Profile Options

The following profile options have been introduced:

• BYPASS_UPD_IODF_FOR_SNA = YES | NO
  

  When the Update IOCDS function is performed for a processor that has an SNA address defined, the resulting batch job is started immediately although the IODF is still in access by the dialog. After the download is done, HCD tries to write the IOCDS Update status to the IODF. If the batch job does not get exclusive access to the IODF, the update is not done and an error message, IEC161I, is written to the system log.

  This option prevents an update of the IODF when an IOCDS download is performed for a processor that has an SNA address defined, thus preventing the error message.

  Note: For processors that have an SNA address defined, HCD reads the IOCDS Update status directly from the SE of the processor rather than from the IODF. The received information is also written to the IODF, so that it can be viewed also when the SE is not available.

• LINES_PER_REPORT_PAGE = value | 55
  

  This option allows the user to specify the maximum number of lines per page for HCD reports. The previously used line count of 55 continues to be the default.

• CU_ATTACHABLE_DEVICE = uuuuu,ddddd
  where uuuuu is a control unit type that supported by a UIM,
  ddddd is a device type that is supported by a UIM

This option allows the user to be able to define a given device type to a supported control unit type, even if the installed UIMs do not support this attachment. For example, specifying CU_ATTACHABLE_DEVICE = 3174,RS6K in the HCD profile would allow defining an RS6K device type to an 3174 control unit without changing the corresponding UIM.

Feedback to our Products

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hcdhcm@de.ibm.com