Parallel Sysplex® support

Parallel sysplex uses a broad range of hardware and software products to process in parallel a transaction processing workload across multiple z/OS® images running in a sysplex and sharing data in a coupling facility.

Parallel sysplex allows you to manage a transaction processing workload, balanced across multiple z/OS images running on multiple CPCs, as a single data management system. It also offers workload availability and workload growth advantages.

The parallel sysplex enhances the capability to continue workload processing across scheduled and unscheduled outages of individual CPCs participating in a sysplex using a coupling facility by making it possible to dynamically reapportion the workload across the remaining active sysplex participants. Additionally, you can dynamically add processing capacity (CPCs or LPs) during peak processing without disrupting ongoing workload processing.

CPC support enables you to:

• Install coupling facility channels
• Define, as an LP, a portion or all the CPC hardware resources (central processors, storage, coupling facility channels, and flash memory) for use as a coupling facility that connects to z/OS images for data sharing purposes
• Connect to a coupling facility to share data
• Define a IBM z16 with only ICFs to serve as a stand-alone coupling facility, which might contain one or more coupling facility images, but which cannot run z/OS or any other operating system.
• Define a IBM z16 with both ICFs and other types of processors, where the ICF engines can be used to serve one or more coupling facility images, and the other types of processors can be used to run z/OS or any other operating system

For more information about the coupling facility including z/OS and CPC support for coupling facility levels, see Coupling facility planning considerations .