Parallel Sysplex Availability Checklist June 2020 Authors: David Raften Gene Sale 1 Contents Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 5 Establishing availability objectives ................................................................................................................ 6 Designing a high availability Parallel Sysplex ................................................................................................ 8 Maximizing computer environment availability ......................................................................................... 10 Power ...................................................................................................................................................... 10 Cooling .................................................................................................................................................... 10 Building/Computer room design ............................................................................................................ 11 Configuring hardware for availability ......................................................................................................... 11 Availability features ................................................................................................................................ 11 Configuring for availability ...................................................................................................................... 12 Servers..................................................................................................................................................... 12 Coupling Facilities ................................................................................................................................... 13 DASD ....................................................................................................................................................... 15 Availability features ................................................................................................................................ 15 Configuring Disk for Availability .................................................................................................................. 16 Other critical devices .................................................................................................................................. 17 Server Time Protocol and Precision Time Protocol .................................................................................... 17 Server Time Protocol (STP) ..................................................................................................................... 17 IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol.......................................................................................................... 19 Consoles .................................................................................................................................................. 20 Maximizing software availability ................................................................................................................ 24 Configure software for high availability .................................................................................................. 24 Sysplex data sets ..................................................................................................................................... 24 Other important data sets ...................................................................................................................... 26 Sysres and Master Catalog sharing ......................................................................................................... 26 Consoles .................................................................................................................................................. 27 Naming conventions ............................................................................................................................... 27 Software symmetry ................................................................................................................................. 27 Sysplex Policies........................................................................................................................................ 28 Health Checker for z/OS and Sysplex ...................................................................................................... 29 Sysplex Failure Management (SFM)........................................................................................................ 29 2 Automatic Restart Manager (ARM) ........................................................................................................ 30 System Logger (LOGR) ............................................................................................................................. 30 Configuring individual components ............................................................................................................ 31 XCF Signaling ........................................................................................................................................... 31 XCF Controls ............................................................................................................................................ 32 GRS .......................................................................................................................................................... 32 JES2 ......................................................................................................................................................... 32 WLM ........................................................................................................................................................ 34 RACF ........................................................................................................................................................ 37 Db2 .......................................................................................................................................................... 37 Backup and Reorg Processes .............................................................................................................. 40 Application Design/Coding Techniques .................................................................................................. 42 CICS and CICSPlex SM (CP/SM) ............................................................................................................... 45 WebSphere MQ ...................................................................................................................................... 46 IMS .......................................................................................................................................................... 47 Communications Server for z/OS ................................................................................................................ 48 SNA .......................................................................................................................................................... 48 TCP/IP ...................................................................................................................................................... 49 Network .................................................................................................................................................. 50 Use of automation ...................................................................................................................................... 51 Automation tools .................................................................................................................................... 51 Message volume reduction ..................................................................................................................... 52 Managing complexity .............................................................................................................................. 53 Automation performance ....................................................................................................................... 53 Sysplex-wide automation ........................................................................................................................ 54 Startup and shutdown ............................................................................................................................ 54 Effective systems management processes ................................................................................................. 55 Availability Management ........................................................................................................................ 55 Change Management .............................................................................................................................. 55 Problem Management ............................................................................................................................ 57 Recovery Management ........................................................................................................................... 57 Crisis Management ................................................................................................................................