Support Element characteristics

The Support Element (SE) console acts as the single point of control for one IBM Z mainframe. It is physically connected to the processor and located in a CPC frame. For HMC cluster communication, it is attached to the IBM processor LAN and can be accessed from your IP business network, if configured so.

With Z System Automation, you can control the CPC and its LPARs either through the IP network or by exploiting the BCPii, a direct processor connection support. If the local SE detects that a request does not target the local CPC, the BCPii request is forwarded into the mainframe cluster LAN for HMC routing. In case an SE device fails, it provides its own backup, the stand-by SE.

The SE gets its CPC and LPAR resource and status information directly from the processor hardware and configuration data, which is stored in the activation profiles on the SE hard disk. The outage of an SE affects the control of the attached CPC and all its LPARs. All HMCs in the processor LAN cluster with this CPC defined cannot control this CPC and its LPARs during the SE outage. CPC and LPAR operation itself continue during an SE outage, so operating systems and applications are not affected. However, hardware status changes and events that are emitted by the IBM Z mainframe during the SE outage are lost.