Before you start to define your consoles, it is a good idea to plan the console attachments to each system in the sysplex. You might ask yourself how you want your operators to be able to monitor the systems in the sysplex (you might want to limit message traffic, for example, using MSCOPE). You might want to set up a console group on each system to handle synchronous messages.

Figure 1 illustrates one plan that you might use:

Figure 1. Console Configuration for a Two-System Sysplex

This configuration uses four consoles in the sysplex. Solid® lines indicate physical attachments. OPER1 and TAPELIB are both defined to SYA. PRINTCON and OPER2 are both defined to SYB. However, all consoles in this configuration have a logical connection to both systems. Full-capability consoles can receive messages from both SYA and SYB and enter commands to run on either SYA or SYB. PRINTCON is a console that monitors print operations for both systems. TAPELIB is a full-capability console that handles information for tape libraries. OPER1 and OPER2 are defined similarly to provide redundancy.