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Autonomic computing

  

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The IBM autonomic computing initiative The IBM autonomic computing initiative will help customers reduce the cost and complexity of their e-business infrastructures, and overcome the challenges of systems management using systems that self-optimize, self-configure, self-heal and self-protect. System z plays a major role in the IBM autonomic computing initiative, since self-management capabilities available for System z will function as a model for other IBM servers. z/OS provides the following functions to address the goals of the IBM autonomic computing initiative:

Self-healing

Hardware RAS items items are just too many to be listed here, as System z and S/390 have an outstanding track record of advanced,leading-edge self-management functions. To name a few:

  • Detection of various faults and even automatic switching to backups where available (Chipkill memory, ECC cache, CP, Service Processor, system bus, Multipath I/O, etc.).
  • Plug and Play and Hot swap I/O
  • Capacity Upgrade on Demand

System-Managed CF Structure Duplexing, provides a robust failure recovery mechanism to enable near-continuous availability for Coupling Facility structure data.

System Automation for z/OS (SA z/OS) V3.3 is the leading Parallel Sysplex automation product. It provides policy-based self-healing of applications, system and sysplex resources. Its revolutionary manager/agent concept can remove system boundaries, take care of complex dependencies, and, through resource grouping, even automate and operate at a business application level.

Self-optimizing

The unique workload and self-management capabilities provided by z/OS Workload Manager (WLM) allows z/OS to handle unpredictable workloads and meet response goals through effective use of CPU and I/O resources with minimal human intervention for setup and operation, making it the most advanced self-managing system. System z workload management is enhanced in z/OS to also allow workload balancing of non-z/OS partitions, in particular Linux images.

Self-protecting

Intrusion Detection Services (IDS), enables the detection of attacks and the application of defensive mechanisms on the z/OS server.

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is embedded in z/OS. PKI consists of a certificate authority (CA) that provides digital credentials to participants and a public-key cryptographic system that uses these digital credentials to help ensure overall message integrity, data privacy, signature verification, and user authentication.

Key security features such as LDAP, Kerberos, SSL, digital certificates, and encryption.