Phased Resource Management in Mainframe State Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional state managers in mainframe computing systems manage resources in an all-or-nothing manner, making maintenance and error resolution complex and prone to unintended system outages, as they start or stop all resources simultaneously during initialization and shutdown.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a phased state management system that allows resources to be assigned to specific phases, enabling controlled start and stop operations, allowing for maintenance and error resolution without taking all resources offline, and improving system availability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If conventional state managers start or stop all resources simultaneously during initialization and shutdown, then resource management is simplified, but maintenance and error resolution become complex and prone to unintended system outages
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides resources into multiple phases (phase 1, phase 2, phase 3, etc.) where each phase contains a subset of resources. The state manager can independently control and manipulate resources within each phase without affecting other phases. This segmentation allows maintenance personnel to work on specific phases while other phases remain operational, enabling error resolution without taking all resources offline simultaneously.
2Productivity
If all resources are started simultaneously during IPL, then system initialization is faster, but maintenance tasks require taking all resources offline causing system outages
Solution Approach 1:
Resources are segmented into phases that can be started in sequence during IPL. The state manager processes phase start commands to activate resources phase by phase rather than all at once. This maintains initialization speed while enabling selective maintenance on specific phases without requiring complete system shutdown.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from static all-or-nothing resource management to dynamic phase-based control. The state manager can respond to phase start commands and stop phase commands independently, allowing flexible manipulation of resource subsets. This dynamic control enables maintenance on specific phases while other phases continue operating normally.
3Ease of operation
If manual stopping and starting of resources is performed for maintenance, then specific resources can be accessed, but unintended consequences and additional system outages occur due to complex dependencies
Solution Approach 1:
By organizing resources into isolated phases, the patent eliminates cross-phase dependency conflicts during maintenance. The state manager enforces phase boundaries, ensuring that stopping or starting resources in one phase does not trigger unintended effects in other phases. This segmentation provides operational flexibility while maintaining system stability.
Solution Approach 2:
The state manager acts as an intermediary between maintenance personnel and resources. Rather than directly manipulating individual resources, operators issue phase-level commands to the state manager, which then handles the complex dependency resolution within each phase. This intermediary layer prevents unintended consequences by managing resource transitions through controlled phase boundaries.
Data Source
AI summary
A method on mainframe computing system includes determining a current phase of an ordered list of phases, the current phase being one of a plurality of phases in the ordered list of phases and setting a target phase based on the current phase, the ordered list of phases, and a parameter phase when the parameter phase is provided. The method also includes using the target phase and a resource assignment structure to start and stop a plurality of resources that run on the mainframe computing system. At least some of the plurality of resources have an assigned phase in the resource assignment structure. The method also includes repeating the determining, setting, and using, responsive to receiving a phase command.