Propagating Status Descriptors Upward and Downward in a Tree Structure

This propagation of status descriptors affects the color in which status components are displayed, as well as the detail status displays operators can view by using the detail PF key on a particular status component.

Propagation of status upward and downward in a tree structure is defined by the PROPUP and PROPDOWN parameter in the AOFINIT member (see IBM Z® System Automation Programmer's Reference for descriptions).

The SA z/OS-provided defaults for status propagation in the AOFINIT member are to propagate status upward (PROPUP=YES) but not downward (PROPDOWN=NO).

When status is propagated upward in a tree structure, if a status descriptor is added or deleted at a lower level in the tree structure, it is also added or deleted from the cumulative chain of status descriptors at a higher-level node in the tree structure.

Propagation of status upward in a tree structure consolidates the status of all monitored resources in the system at the root node. In this way, the color of the root node reflects the most important or critical status in a computer operations center. For example, in Figure 1, any color changes for AOFSSI are reflected in AOFAPPL, APPLIC, SYSTEM, and SY1, if SDF propagates status changes upward in the tree structure. In Figure 1, if all monitored resources are green, the root node CHI01 on the Data Center Systems panel is also shown in green.

When status is propagated downward in a tree structure, if a status change occurs at a higher level in a tree structure, the changes are sent downward in the tree structure. This propagating downward could cause status descriptors at lower levels in the tree structure to be added or deleted.

Propagating status downward can be useful when an entire system is down. In such a case, you want SDF status panels to accurately reflect the system status. You do not want status components lower in the tree structure to retain previously generated status descriptors indicating that the components are up and running, because these status descriptors do not accurately reflect the status of the components. You can configure your SDF implementation to propagate status downward, and remove all status descriptors from all status components in a tree structure. If an operator tries displaying detailed status about any of the status components lower in the tree structure, they receive "NO DETAIL INFO AVAILABLE" messages. The empty chain color, defined by the EMPTYCOLOR parameter in member AOFINIT with a default color of blue, is also used to indicate that no detail information is available. See IBM Z System Automation Programmer's Reference for the EMPTYCOLOR description.