ACTIVATE

Purpose

The ACTIVATE command causes the target system to perform a complete initialization. This initialization extends from a power-on reset to performing the initial program load process.

Syntax

Requirements

The requirements for the ACTIVATE command to complete successfully are:

Processor operations must be active.
The addressed target system must have a status of UNKNOWN, CLOSED, or INITIALIZED for the default setting of FORCE(NO) to work. See Examples for a list of status settings.

Parameters

For a definition of target_system_ProcOps_name, target_hardware_name.LPAR_name, group_name, subgroup_name, and target_hardware_name see ISQCCMD.

CNAME

Specifies the name of an image or reset profile to be sent to the processor's support element.

For image activation, it is recommended to let processor operations select the profile name automatically rather than overriding processor operations's selection with the profile_name parameter. If specified, the operand must match the target_hardware_name.LPAR_name.

For CPC activation, as indicated by target_hardware_name, SA z/OS uses the reset profile in the ACTIVATE operations management command that is sent to the support element. If this keyword is not used, SA z/OS selects the activation reset profile that is specified in the configuration dialog for target_hardware_name. If an activation reset profile was not specified in the configuration dialog, SA z/OS selects the default activation reset profile that is specified with the CCNTL common command or on the support element directly.

profile_name: Indicates the name of the image or reset profile. It is recommended that you let processor operations select the profile name automatically rather than overriding processor operations' selection with the profile_name parameter.

LOAD_STD

Indicates that the data following it in parentheses is the standard IPL parameters.

ipl_address: Specifies the IPL address as four hexadecimal digits.
ipl_parameter: Specifies an IPL parameter to be issued with the Load command. This parameter can be 1 through 8 characters long. Lowercase letters are converted to uppercase letters.
clear: Indicates the function of clearing storage is to be performed. The default is not to perform the clearing storage.
ss: Indicates the function of Store Status is to be performed before the load operation. Use this load value sub parameter to IPL a stand-alone memory dump Utility of a system.

LDIPL

Specifies the load operation type 'list-directed' and device type 'eckd' to be selected during IPL.

SECURE(YES/NO)

Specifies whether IPL is performed in secure mode or audit mode. If YES, the software signature of the operating system or dump program is verified by using one or more certificates assigned to the logical partition. The load fails if the signatures do not match.

TYPE(OS/DP)

The type of program to be loaded. Options are "OS" for operating system, and "DP" for dump program.

FORCE

Requests conditional processing of commands that are disruptive to the operating system control program and application work that is in progress. Use of this operand is based on the operating state of the target processor.

NO: Specifies that processing of the command is to continue only if the target CPU control program is not in the operating state. Specify FORCE(NO) in a situation where you would not want to disrupt the control program work-in-progress.
YES: Specifies that processing of the command is to continue even if the target CPU control program is in the operating state. Specify FORCE(YES) in a situation where disruption of the control program work-in-progress is not important, such as in recovery situations.

FORCE(NO) requires that the associated command fails when useful work is taking place. For ACTIVATE, fail states occur if an operating mode is detected and FORCE(NO) is specified, or when FORCE defaults to NO. The command fails whenever the processor is in those states.

Usage

Caution: The ACTIVATE command can be very disruptive when you specify FORCE(YES), so use this command carefully. The SA z/OS processor operations status facility only knows about status changes that are performed from within SA z/OS. If you load and start a target system’s operating system outside of SA z/OS (such as from the SA z/OS processor operations passthru facility or from the console at the remote target system) rather than by using the SA z/OS commands, SA z/OS does not know that the status of the target system has changed.

The effect of the ACTIVATE FORCE keyword applies only to target systems that are defined to SA z/OS. Because SA z/OS does not know that the target system was activated from outside of SA z/OS, it considers the target system status to be UNKNOWN. The functions performed by the ACTIVATE common command will disrupt the operating system even if you specify the FORCE(NO) option, because the SA z/OS status facility does not indicate that the target system is already initialized and running.

If you do not specify FORCE(YES):

The ACTIVATE command checks whether the same logical partition name is in use by another target system. If so, the ACTIVATE command is rejected; if not, processing continues.
The ACTIVATE command also checks target hardware that is not logically partitioned to see if the target hardware is in use by another target system. If so, the ACTIVATE command is rejected; if not, processing continues.

ACTIVATE processing can also produce the result that more target systems are affected than the one explicitly specified in the command or those included in a target group or subgroup specified in the command. The additional target systems are CPC images on a processor in LPAR mode. These additional target systems are activated when a Reset or Image profile specifies additional profile names in the AUTOACT operand. To avoid unintended activations, operators should be kept aware of the linkages between profiles.

Using either scheduled requests or auto-activated logical partitions causes SA z/OS to receive "unsolicited" responses from one or more target systems. SA z/OS uses these responses to update its status information and to attempt to initialize the corresponding target systems.

When you specify FORCE(YES):

The ACTIVATE command overrules the requirement that a target system must have a status of UNKNOWN, CLOSED, or INITIALIZED.
Processing of the ACTIVATE command is performed even if the target system has a status condition of IPL COMPLETE, IPL FAILED, LOAD FAILED, or one of the WAITING FOR…MESSAGE conditions.

The ACTIVATE command performs only the processing that is required. For example, it performs a power-on reset only when required, and it does not initialize a target system that is already initialized correctly.

Remember: A real THW can only do one ACTIVATE at any time. On a VM system, no such restriction applies and no serialization is done.

Restrictions and Limitations

The ACTIVATE command does not perform resource requirement checks.

The default form of the ACTIVATE command is rejected if the addressed target system has a status other than UNKNOWN, CLOSED, or INITIALIZED.

Return Codes

The ISQCCMD command (see ISQCCMD) generates the return codes for common command processing.