FLEX-ES system and resource definitions, Comments

4.1 FLEX-ES system and resource definitions

Before the newly installed/restored OS/390 system can be used, we must define the hardware and system resources to the FLEX-ES Resource Administrator. Appendix A, “FLEX-ES definition listings” on page 69 shows the input file that we used to define both the system and resources for our OS/390 system. This definition file was placed in /usr/flexes/rundir/defA1. (File name defA1 is completely arbitrary.) We specify the name of this file as an argument for the FLEX-ES configuration compiler:

$cd /usr/flexes/rundir

$cfcomp defA1

Start FLEX-ES Configuration Utility

Configuration processing *SUCCEEDED* with no errors Data Space Manager Terminated

We could issue the cfcomp command directly because we earlier placed /usr/flexes/bin in our Linux PATH. If you did not do this, you would need to use a full path name with the command:

/usr/flexes/bin/cfcomp defA1

Our FLEX-ES definition file consists of two sections: the system section and the resources section. The compilation creates files S10A.syscf and R10A.rescf, based on the names contained in our definitions.1 We can then invoke the resource administrator to activate our resources:

$ su
Password:	(<---	enter root password when this prompt is shown)

#cd /usr/flexes/rundir (if you are not already there)

#resadm -s R10A.rescf (<--- To activate our resources. Must be root)

#	resadm -r	(<--- To check that resources are started)
#	exit	(leave root)

Again, we could issue the resadm command directly because /usr/flexes/bin is in our PATH. You must be root to issue these resadm command options.

Comments

The short steps just shown, to compile system and resource files and to activate the resources (but not the system), require some explanations.

Our definition file source had been placed in /usr/flexes/rundir. We created the rundir directory just after we installed FLEX-ES; it was not created automatically. Two separate definitions are needed for a FLEX-ES emulated S/390. One defines the system being emulated:

Central memory size available to this system

Expanded memory size

Number and type of CPUs

Number and usage of channels

Control units for all system devices

The other defines resources for a single system or multiple systems, such as:

1We could have used two definition files, one for the system definitions and one for the resource definitions. The use of separate system and resource definition files is most common when multiple instances of FLEX-ES are used (meaning multiple S/390s being emulated at the same time). This is unlikely to be the case with a ThinkPad/EFS system. If we did use separate system and resource definition files, we would need to compile both of them in order to obtain the syscf and rescf files we need to actually use a S/390 emulation instance. We found it more convenient to always combine the definitions in one source file.

28S/390 PID: ThinkPad Enabled for S/390