Sharing a single CONSOLxx member for all systems

Sharing the same CONSOLxx for all systems in the sysplex provides a single, consistent set of console definitions, as if you are defining all your consoles for a single system.

In Figure 1, systems SYA and SYB share the same CONSOLxx member. SYA has three physically attached consoles (CON1, CON2, and CON3); SYB has two physically attached consoles (CON3 and CON4).

Figure 1. Console Configuration in a Sysplex with Two Systems and Four MCS Consoles
REQTEXT
The following are statements from a CONSOLxx parmlib member that is shared by both SYA and SYB:
REQTEXT
In this example:

When two or more systems require unique values in a shared CONSOLxx member, you can use system symbols to represent those values. When each system processes CONSOLxx, the system replaces the system symbols with the substitution texts that it has defined to the system symbols.

For example, suppose you want to define names for two consoles on two different systems, and that the consoles are both at address X'3E0'. If both consoles are to be active at the same time, they require different names. If you plan to use one CONSOLxx member for both systems, you can use system symbols to generate unique console names while retaining the same device number, as follows:
CONSOLE DEVNUM(3E0)
        NAME(C3E0S&SYSCLONE.)   /* CONSOLE NAME "C3E0Snn"     */
        ...                     /* Remaining CONSOLE keywords */
 
The console definition can then specify different names on different systems: For example, if your installation accepts the default substitution text for &SYSCLONE (the last two characters of the system name), the following console names result:

For more information about using system symbols in parmlib members, including lists of valid system symbols, see the topic on sharing parmlib members in z/OS MVS Initialization and Tuning Reference.