CONSOLES

Solutions in SolveWare subject CONSOLES are designed to automate WTO (Write to Operator) message buffer management.

Solutions Provided

SolveWare subject CONSOLES contains the WTO Buffer Shortage solution, which relieves WTO buffer shortages.

WTO Buffer Shortage

This solution automates the process of relieving WTO buffer shortage situations. WTO buffer shortage situations usually occur

when a console is not placed in Roll mode.
when the console is filled with unrollable messages kept by WTOR or MRF (Message Retention Facility) messages.
when the console device cannot handle the messages at the speed at which messages are sent to the console.

WTO buffer shortages generally lead to overall performance degradation.

When 80 percent of the WTO buffers are full, MVS issues a message indicating this situation. If steps to alleviate the situation are not taken and all WTO buffers become full, the console address space and any address space issuing a WTO, enters a Wait state until WTO buffers are made available.

This solution relieves WTO buffer shortages by either rerouting to the hardcopy log those messages that are queued to problematic consoles, or by deactivating the console.

All messages (DO SHOUT actions) in the CONSOLES rules are sent to an INCONTROL user named U-SYSADMIN. A user with this name must be defined in the IOA Dynamic Destination table (CTMDEST). For more information, see the Dynamic Destination Table chapter of the INCONTROL for z/OS Administrator Guide.

Rules

The WTO Buffer Shortage solution includes the Relieve WTO Buffer Shortage rule.

Rules Structure

The following tables describe the structures of the WTO Buffer Shortage solution rules.

Table 72 Relieve WTO Buffer Shortage Rule Structure

Item	Description
Title	Relieve WTO Buffer Shortage
Name	IEA405E
Table	CONSOLES
Message	IEA405E WTO BUFFER SHORTAGE - 80% FULL
Message Description	The number of WQEs (WTO Queue Elements) in use for console messages has reached 80 percent of its maximum capacity.
Basic Scheduling Parameters	Always schedule this rule.
Runtime Scheduling Parameters	No special considerations.
Global Variables	%%CSCTR_consoleid Number of times the messages for the specific console id were rerouted by the rule to the hardcopy log.
Rule Logic	This message rule is triggered when 80 percent of the WTO buffers are full. The rule issues MVS command DISPLAY CONSOLES in command-response mode. The response messages are analyzed in order to locate any console that has more then 50 messages queued to it. For those consoles, the messages are rerouted to the hardcopy log. If a console is still accumulating buffers after 10 rerouting actions, the console is deactivated.
Rule Actions	Issues MVS command DISPLAY CONSOLES in Command- Response mode. Identifies those consoles that have more than 50 buffers queued to them. If SYSLOG is active, the rule reroutes the consoles’ buffers to hardcopy using MVS command KQ,R=HC,L=consoleid. Consoles still accumulating buffers after 10 rerouting actions are deactivated using MVS command Vunitname, ONLINE – where unitname is the MVS address of the console. Issues appropriate messages to the console and to the IOA Log.
Activating the Rule	Once scheduled, the rule remains active until deleted from Control-O.
Recommended Mode or Category	During the testing period, the rule must be activated in LOG mode. Once you are satisfied with the results of the rule, change the mode to PROD to avoid log messages for the rule. The SolveWare category for this rule is 2—some customization is required before implementation.
Customization	Due to the IBM console restructuring process that was introduced in z/OS version 1.4, there may be changes in the format of the response messages for the DISPLAY CONSOLES command. The current format is that of z/OS version 1.4.