Coupling facility support

IOCP supports the following coupling facility channel paths (TYPE keyword):

See Machine limits and rules to determine which channel path types your CPC supports. You define coupling facility channel paths at the coupling facility and at the CPCs or logical partitions (LPs) that connect to the coupling facility.

The coupling facility provides shared storage and shared storage management functions for the sysplex (for example, high speed caching, list processing, and locking functions). Applications running on z/OS images in the sysplex define the shared structures used in the coupling facility.

The coupling facility allows applications, running on multiple z/OS images that are configured in a sysplex, to efficiently share data so that a transaction processing workload can be processed in parallel across the sysplex.

Processor Resource/Systems Manager (PR/SM) LPAR allows you to define the coupling facility, which is a special logical partition (LP) that runs the coupling facility control code. The coupling facility control code is Licensed Machine Code (LMC).

At LP activation, coupling facility control code automatically loads into the coupling facility LP from the Support Element hard disk. No initial program load (IPL) of an operating system is necessary or supported in the coupling facility LP.

Coupling facility control code runs in the coupling facility LP with minimal operator intervention. Operator activity is confined to the CPC hardware operator console. PR/SM LPAR limits the hardware operator controls typically available for LPs to avoid unnecessary operator activity.

Coupling facility channel hardware provides the connectivity required for data sharing between the coupling facility and the CPCs directly attached to it. Coupling facility channels are point-to-point connections that require a unique channel definition at each end of the channel.

Coupling facility channels can also connect two coupling facilities together for a duplexing configuration. In this environment, coupling facility sender channels or coupling facility peer channels are configured to coupling facilities to support communication between the coupling facilities. The following coupling facility sections describe only ESA to coupling facility connections. However, they also apply to coupling facility duplexing connections (CF to CF).