How to perform automatic I/O configuration

After having specified all policies as described in How to define autoconfiguration policies, you can let HCD try to discover and automatically define control units and I/O devices into a specified target IODF.

The I/O autoconfiguration process consists of the following steps:

1. The fabric discovery: You invoke the I/O Autoconfiguration function from the HCD Primary Task Selection panel. This in turn causes HCD to invoke IOS to perform the fabric discovery process. You can select the scope of discovery by searching all controllers, new controllers only, search for the controller containing a specific control unit, or search for a controller with a certain serial number or for multiple controllers matching a serial number pattern. The result of the fabric discovery is the list of controllers that is new or has changed compared to the base IODF.

   Note that the scope of discovery is the active sysplex.

2. The controller discovery: From the discovered controllers, HCD retrieves and proposes control unit and device types and numbers, channel path assignments, partition access, and OS device parameters. You can choose whether HCD should perform the definition without user interaction, or whether the dialog should show the proposed definitions so that you can confirm or change these values.

I/O Autoconfiguration makes temporary changes to the active I/O configuration by adding devices that are used exclusively for discovery on the targeted systems in order to search for attached devices.

You invoke the I/O Autoconfiguration process from the HCD dialog as follows:

1. From the Primary Task Selection panel select 1. Define, modify, or view configuration data.
2. Then select 6. Discovered new and changed control units and I/O devices.

HCD invokes the Discovery and Autoconfiguration Options dialog shown in Figure 83 which lets you select processing options for discovery and autoconfiguration.

*------------------ Discovery and Autoconfiguration Options ------------------*
|                                                                             |
|                                                                             |
| Specify autoconfiguration options. Then, press Enter to start the           |
| discovery process.                                                          |
|                                                                             |
| Autoconfiguration is based on 2  1. Active IODF                             |
|                                  2. Currently accessed IODF                 |
|                                                                             |
| Scope of discovery  . . . . . 1  1. New controllers only                    |
|                                  2. All controllers                         |
|                                  3. Controller containing CU  ____    +     |
|                                  4. Controller with S/N       ____________  |
|                                                                             |
| Show proposed definitions . . 1  1. Yes   2. No                             |
| Force full mode discovery . . 2  1. Yes   2. No                             |
| Tolerate incapable systems    2  1. Yes   2. No                             |
|                                                                             |
| Target IODF name  . . . 'DOCU.IODF21.AUTO21.WORK'                      +    |
|                                                                             |
|  F1=Help     F2=Split    F3=Exit     F4=Prompt   F5=Reset    F9=Swap        |
| F12=Cancel                                                                  |
*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------*

Specify your desired processing options for discovery and autoconfiguration definition:

Autoconfiguration is based on

Choose whether the active production IODF or the currently accessed IODF should be taken as the base for new configuration definitions resulting from the discovery process.

This means, HCD checks the discovered devices accessible to the system against this selected IODF, whether they are already defined or not. If they are found to be new or changed, the resulting configuration proposals are also adopted to fit into this IODF.

HCD copies this IODF to the selected target IODF (see Target IODF name later in this list) which receives all changes done to the configuration during autoconfiguration processing.

Note:

You can use an IODF as base IODF, if it represents the active configuration or a potential target configuration for the next dynamic activation.

Scope of discovery

With this option you decide about the controllers to be discovered:

• New controllers only: HCD discovers and returns only new controllers, which are not yet known to the LPARs in the selected LP group.
• All controllers: HCD discovers and returns all new controllers as well as all changed controllers.
• Controller containing CU: HCD performs a discovery limited to that controller containing the control unit with the specified number. The referenced control unit must be a DASD or tape control unit and must be defined in the base IODF.
• Controller with S/N: HCD performs a discovery limited on that controller with the specified serial number or on multiple controllers matching a serial number pattern. You can specify a complete serial number, or look for multiple controllers using a wildcard (*) as prefix or suffix or both of the pattern. A wildcard matches any number of characters. For example, F30WD, F3*, *F3*, *WD, or *WD* are valid values to include controller F30WD.

Show proposed definitions

You can decide whether the dialog should display proposed definitions for possible configuration changes. Select Yes if you want to work in an attended operation mode. In this mode, HCD invokes a subsequent series of dialogs in which you can revise and change the proposed settings. How to work in this attended mode is described in How to apply updates to the autoconfiguration proposals.

Select No if you want to run the unattended fast-path of I/O Autoconfiguration. In this case, HCD does not offer a possibility to revise the proposals or to update or add definitions. Instead, the HCD definitions are completely saved in the target IODF immediately. However, if you specified AUTO_SS_DEVNUM_SCHEME = NONE in your autoconfiguration policy, the dialogs where you can define control unit and device numbers are shown.

Force full mode discovery

Decide when discovery processing should stop. If set to No, which is the default, processing stops after several consecutive unused CUADD values that do not exist on a target controller. With this option set to Yes, for each discovered controller, all unused logical control unit addresses (CUADD values) and unit addresses are checked for changes.

Tolerate incapable systems

Decide whether discovery processing should stop if the discovery target scope (specified with policy AUTO_SUG_LPGROUP)

• includes partitions that contain systems that are not able to perform I/O autoconfiguration because of missing support in software or hardware, or
• if it includes partitions that are not active or that are containing systems that do not belong to the current sysplex.

If set to No, which is the default, processing stops if the active LP group contains an inactive system or a system not capable for autoconfiguration. With this option set to Yes, incapable or inactive systems are ignored and excluded from the active LP group.

Target IODF name

Type the name of a work IODF that will receive the configuration definitions for all discovered new or changed controllers, according to your selected scope of discovery.

This input is required. The specified IODF can either be an existing work IODF, or it is created by HCD. In any case, the IODF specified in the Autoconfiguration is based on entry field is copied to the specified target IODF.

The target IODF must not be enabled for multi-user access.

Note:

As soon as you accepted any proposals into your target IODF, it becomes the new currently accessed IODF.