IBM Z10 BC manual Parallel Sysplex Cluster Technology, Coupling Facility Control Code CFCC Level

Parallel Sysplex Cluster Technology

IBM System z servers stand alone against competition and have stood the test of time with our business resiliency solutions. Our coupling solutions with Parallel Sysplex technology allow for greater scalability and availability.

Parallel Sysplex clustering is designed to bring the power of parallel processing to business-critical System z10, System z9, z990 or z890 applications. A Parallel Sysplex cluster consists of up to 32 z/OS images coupled to one or more Coupling Facilities (CFs or ICFs) using high-speed specialized links for communication. The Coupling Facili- ties, at the heart of the Parallel Sysplex cluster, enable high speed, read/write data sharing and resource sharing among all the z/OS images in a cluster. All images are also connected to a Sysplex Timer® or by implementing the Server Time Protocol (STP), so that all events can be prop- erly sequenced in time.

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Parallel Sysplex Resource Sharing enables multiple system resources to be managed as a single logical resource shared among all of the images. Some examples of resource sharing include JES2 Checkpoint, GRS “star,” and Enhanced Catalog Sharing; all of which provide sim- plifi ed systems management, increased performance and/ or scalability.

Although there is signifi cant value in a single footprint and multi-footprint environment with resource sharing, those customers looking for high availability must move on to

a database data sharing confi guration. With the Paral- lel Sysplex environment, combined with the Workload Manager and CICS TS, DB2 or IMS, incoming work can be dynamically routed to the z/OS image most capable of handling the work. This dynamic workload balancing, along with the capability to have read/write access data from anywhere in the Parallel Sysplex cluster, provides scalability and availability. When confi gured properly, a Parallel Sysplex cluster is designed with no single point of failure and can provide customers with near continuous application availability over planned and unplanned outages.

With the introduction of the z10 EC, we have the concept of n-2 on the hardware as well as the software. The z10 BC participates in a Sysplex with System z10 EC, System z9, z990 and z890 only and currently supports z/OS 1.8 and higher and z/VM 5.2 for a guest virtualization coupling facility test environment.

For detailed information on IBM’s Parallel Sysplex technol- ogy, visit our Parallel Sysplex home page at http://www- 03.ibm.com/systems/z/pso/.

Coupling Facility Control Code (CFCC) Level 16

CFCC Level 16 is being made available on the IBM System z10 BC.

Improved service time with Coupling Facility Duplex-

ing enhancements: Prior to Coupling Facility Control Code (CFCC) Level 16, System-Managed Coupling Facility (CF) Structure Duplexing required two duplexing protocol exchanges to occur synchronously during pro- cessing of each duplexed structure request. CFCC Level

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