Considerations for creating the SCI address space

There are several key concepts that you must consider when creating the SCI address space that is required by the IMS Queue Control Facility extensions to communicate to the IMS Queue Control Facility server.

  • Within any given logical partition (LPAR), any IMS Queue Control Facility extensions member requires the IMS Structured Call Interface (SCI) facility for communication between the IMS Queue Control Facility extension member and the IMS Queue Control Facility server.
  • The IMS Queue Control Facility extensions member does not require that your IMS system have the SCI address space enabled for the IMS system; it only requires that the SCI be enabled for the extensions member.
  • If you already have the IMS system enabled for the SCI to support the IMS Operation Manager or IMS Resource Manager facilities, you do not need to enable a second SCI for the IMS Queue Control Facility extensions.

    The IMS Queue Control Facility extensions member can share the same SCI that is already enabled by the IMS system.

    This configuration is accomplished by specifying the IMS Queue Control Facility IMSPLEX(name) parameter, where name matches the name specified in the SCI IMSPLEX(NAME=name) parameter.

  • Even when the current IMS system in the LPAR does not have the SCI enabled for the IMS system, there might be a time when the SCI must be enabled by the IMS system to support other IMS functions (for example, IMS Operations Manager or IMS Resource Manager).

    If these IMS functions are added at some later date, you can use the SCI that has been enabled by the IMS Queue Control Facility extensions that resides in the same LPAR.

  • If only the IMS Queue Control Facility extensions is enabling SCI and not the IMS system, you must consider the name assignment of the IMS Queue Control Facility IMSPLEX(name) parameter, which is also one of the parameters defined by the SCI IMSPLEX(NAME=name) parameter and IMS system IMSPLEX=name parameter.

    For the IMS system, this parameter is defined in the Common Services Layer section of the DFSDFxxx member.

  • Since the IMS system and the IMS Queue Control Facility extensions can share the same SCI in the same LPAR, you might want to set the IMS Queue Control Facility IMSPLEX(name) parameter to a name that defines the IMSplex, rather than use a name that defines the IMS Queue Control Facility extensions itself.

    For example, instead of the name IMS Queue Control Facility IMSPLEX(QCF1), use a name similar to IMS Queue Control Facility IMSPLEX(IPLX1).

This background topic supplements the following setup procedure: 1. Creating the SCI address space.

Configuring more than one SCI address space per LPAR

You can have more than one SCI address space per LPAR, for example, one SCI for the IMS Queue Control Facility extensions and another SCI for the IMS system. This configuration is not recommended, but it is supported.

If you do choose to have a separate SCI address space for the IMS Queue Control Facility extensions and a second SCI address space for the IMS system you would need to define the IMSPLEX parameters as follows:

  • SCI for the IMS Queue Control Facility extensions

    Use the same value for name1 in the IMS Queue Control Facility extensions IMSPLEX(name1) parameter and the SCI address space IMSPLEX(NAME=name1) parameter.

    For example: IMSPLEX(QCF1) and IMSPLEX(NAME=QCF1)

  • SCI for the IMS system

    Use the same value for name2 in the IMS system IMSPLEX(name2) parameter and the SCI address space IMSPLEX(NAME=name2) parameter.

    For example: IMSPLEX(IPLX1) and IMSPLEX(NAME=IPLX1)

Starting up the SCI address space

When supporting IMS Queue Control Facility extensions, the SCI address space can be started before or after the IMS system is started, and before or after the IMS Queue Control Facility server address space is started. Refer to 6. Configuring and starting the IMS Queue Control Facility server.

However, if the IMS system requires the SCI for other functions, such as IMS Operations Manager or IMS Resource Manager, it is recommended that the SCI address space be started before the IMS system, the IMS Queue Control Facility extensions, and the IMS Queue Control Facility server.

Because SCI is shipped with IMS, you need to create only the SCI address space startup JCL and the SCI/BPE configuration members.

Connecting IMS Queue Control Facility to SCI

Both IMS Queue Control Facility extensions and the IMS Queue Control Facility server connect to the Structured Call Interface (SCI) facility. Both the extensions and the sever must have completed connection processing for IMS Queue Control Facility to be fully connected to the SCI.

IMS Queue Control Facility is connected to the SCI and all IMS Queue Control Facility functions are fully functional only when the following message is displayed:

IQC6001I QCF EXTENSION ENABLED

IMS Queue Control Facility extensions allow you to start the SCI job and to specify the SCI job name that is started by IMS Queue Control Facility extensions when the SCIPROG= statement is specified in the IMS Queue Control Facility extensions configuration statements.

See 7. Enabling and configuring the IMS Queue Control Facility extensions.

If message IQC6900I QCF IMS EXTENSION WAITING FOR SCI: (PLEX NAME: plex_name) is issued, the following conditions might be possible:

  • The SCI was not started
  • The SCI job failed after you specified the SCI job name in the IMS Queue Control Facility extensions configuration

    In this case, you must start the SCI job with an MVS™ start command, or submit the PROC from the PROCLIB to allow IMS Queue Control Facility extensions and the IMS Queue Control Facility server to connect to the SCI.

If message IQC6915I NO SCI PROC SPECIFIED is issued, then you must start the SCI job with an MVS start command or submit the PROC from the PROCLIB.

If the SCI terminates and is restarted (with an MVS start command or by submitting the PROC from the PROCLIB), the IMS Queue Control Facility server and IMS Queue Control Facility extensions will automatically reconnect.

Refer to (and modify if required) the SCI start JCL procedure (IQCSCI), the SCI BPE configuration file (BPECONF1), and the SCI INIT configuration file (CSLSI000) in the IMS Queue Control Facility hlq.SIQCSAMP data set.