Parallel Sysplex Cluster Technology - IBM Z10 BUISNESS CLASS Z10 BC Reference Manual

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
Server Time Protocol (STP), so that all events can be prop-
erly sequenced in time.
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.
® or by implementing the
CF
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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