Suggested sequence to define a configuration

A hardware configuration consists of:
  • Information needed by z/OS and by z/VM. This is known as the operating system configuration or OS configuration.
  • Information needed by the channel subsystem (CSS). This defines all the hardware resources (such as control units, channel paths, and I/O devices) and how they are connected.
  • In some cases, your configuration contains information needed by the switch. For definitions and modifications of switches, refer to How to work with switches.

You can define the objects of a configuration in almost any order but at one point you have to connect objects together. You can only connect objects that are already defined; therefore it is useful to define the objects in a logical order. For example, when defining I/O devices during the hardware definition, you are prompted to add devices to existing operating system definitions. Therefore, it is useful to define the operating system before the devices.

The suggested sequence to define a configuration is:

  1. Operating systems
  2. EDTs (MVS-type only)
  3. Esoterics (MVS-type only)
  4. Switches (explained in How to work with switches)
  5. Processors
  6. Channel subsystems (for XMP processors)
  7. Partitions (if processor in LPAR mode)
  8. PCIe functions
  9. Channel paths
  10. Control units
  11. Devices
  12. Consoles