Sharing a single CONSOLxx member for all systems

Sharing the same CONSOLxx for all systems in the sysplex provides a single, consistent set of console definitions, as if you are defining all your consoles for a single system.

In Figure 1, systems SYA and SYB share the same CONSOLxx member. SYA has three physically attached consoles (CON1, CON2, and CON3); SYB has two physically attached consoles (CON3 and CON4).

Figure 1. Console Configuration in a Sysplex with Two Systems and Four MCS Consoles

The following are statements from a CONSOLxx parmlib member that is shared by both SYA and SYB:

In this example:

Values for INIT, DEFAULT, and HARDCOPY are the same across systems, and the order in which systems join the sysplex does not affect the sysplex environment.
A console can be active on only one system at a time. In Figure 1, CON3 is physically attached to both SYA and SYB. Without specifying SYSTEM(SYB) for CON3, CON3 would become active on either SYA or SYB, whichever system joins the sysplex first. Specifying SYSTEM(SYB) ensures that CON3 is activated only on SYB.
Because CON4 is not physically attached to SYA, it becomes active only when SYB joins the sysplex.

When two or more systems require unique values in a shared CONSOLxx member, you can use system symbols to represent those values. When each system processes CONSOLxx, the system replaces the system symbols with the substitution texts that it has defined to the system symbols.

For example, suppose you want to define names for two consoles on two different systems, and that the consoles are both at address X'3E0'. If both consoles are to be active at the same time, they require different names. If you plan to use one CONSOLxx member for both systems, you can use system symbols to generate unique console names while retaining the same device number, as follows:

CONSOLE DEVNUM(3E0)
        NAME(C3E0S&SYSCLONE.)   /* CONSOLE NAME "C3E0Snn"     */
        ...                     /* Remaining CONSOLE keywords */

The console definition can then specify different names on different systems: For example, if your installation accepts the default substitution text for &SYSCLONE (the last two characters of the system name), the following console names result:

C3E0SS1 on system SYS1
C3E0SS2 on system SYS2
C3E0SS3 on system SYS3

For more information about using system symbols in parmlib members, including lists of valid system symbols, see the topic on sharing parmlib members in z/OS MVS Initialization and Tuning Reference.