Whether you are defining a console configuration for a system or for several systems in a sysplex, you must take into account your operators, the amount of message traffic they must handle, and command processing.

Messages and commands form the basis of operator communication in an MVS™ system or sysplex. Message routing, sending the appropriate messages to the right consoles, helps your operators manage work efficiently. Message routing using CONSOLxx can simplify the work operators need to do.

If you want to increase system automation to simplify operator tasks, you should examine message flow to determine which messages you can select for your automation tasks and which you can suppress. Suppressing messages is important in any MVS environment because your operators deal with fewer messages on their console screens. Message suppression also serves as a basis for your NetView® automation planning.

In a sysplex, operators can also route commands from a console on one system to be processed on one or more other systems in the sysplex. You might want to encourage the use of system symbols in routed commands so you can identify the systems that process those commands.

MVS provides message processing facilities to help you and your operators cope with message flow on consoles. For example, MPF or the installation message processing exit IEAVMXIT can help you select messages to suppress or to perform further processing like message highlighting for more readable console displays. AMRF lets your operators retrieve important action messages no longer visible on the console screen. The MVS command installation exit lets you process and tailor system commands. You use one or more MPFLSTxx members in SYS1.PARMLIB to control much of this message and command processing for an MVS system. The SETCON MONITOR command lets you produce monitored messages for automation purposes or for logging purposes without requiring that the messages be queued to a console. The message flooding automation as described in Message flooding can help address the message flooding problem on z/OS®.

This topic describes how to manage messages and commands in an MVS system or sysplex. It describes message and command routing and the message processing that MVS provides to suppress messages, retain messages for console viewing by operators, and select messages for automation or for further processing by installation exits, and a brief description of automation in a sysplex. It also provides information on controlling WTO and WTOR message buffers, specifying installation exits to process commands, and using the MVS message service to handle the translation of messages into other languages. For additional information, see the topic on issuing a command response message in z/OS MVS Programming: Authorized Assembler Services Guide.