MVS 3.8 console operations - M53

[@roberthansen9908]

Moshix Moshix you do a great job explaining MVS. I started operating a 360/65 back in 1968/1969. This was at the University I was attending. I would like to point out a few things about this video. Call me nitpicky but the terminology used is wrong when it comes to operating MVS. 1. What you call the console is really the front panel of the mainframe. The front panel was used by the CEs to maintain the system. The operator would set the IPL address on the rotary switches for the 360s and hit the IPL button to start the IPL process. The console was either the typewriter attached or a 3270 display unit. This is equivalent to the Hercules display that shows the registers, psw, and attached devices. 2. What you use for the console operation is the Hercules console. This is where the Hercules messages appear and commands entered. In the latest mainframes this is like the HMC. Yes, you can enter MVS commands here but it is not what the operators use. You would not want operators using the HMC as accidents could occur and effect your system and others managed by the HMC. 3. In the day and today, operators use display screens for console operations. With MVS 3.8 it was normal to use a 3270 display. For 3270 console operation you should do the following: 1. Run the script to set console mode in the unattended directory. This script put “CONSOLE” in the mode file. 2. Edit the extcons.cnf file and ensure you have a local 3270 specified as a console. For example, “0010 3270”. 3. When you start MVS you also need to start a TN320 session to attach to unit 0010 above. Then you can reply to “IEA101A SPECIFY SYSTEM PARAMETERS” from the 3270. You will also need to use the console commands to setup the scrolling, pfk, and display areas. I suggest you add to the video a section on how to shutdown MVS. What I use to do was: 1. Take out the executing tasks like BSPPILOT does 2. When I got “ALL AVAILABLE FUNCTIONS COMPLETE” I would Issue $pjes2 3. When JES2 has ended you should do a “Z EOD” to clear out the statistics in the controller buffers and have them written to LOGREC. 4. Power down the system or reIPL. Bob

[@Stosszahlansatz]

Thanks for the video. A few comments: 1. I stop MF/1 with the command /p mf1 (instead of /c mf1). This way MF/1 ends neatly without the abend code. 2. k is a short for "control". :-) 3. A neat (and complete automated) shutdown of TK4- can be done with the command /s shutdown. 4. To get the console messages in the TSO screen, choose 3 (IMON), then O (for the console), then T.

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Merci !

[@moshixmainframechannel]

regarding your third point above: /s shutdown, nor any of the other ways to shutdown always guarantee a shutdown of JES2. The 3705 emulation in TK4 sometimes put the RJE lines into a state which makes JES2 unable to drain them and stop.

[@Stosszahlansatz]

I believe you :-). I use /s shutdown because it is the way Jurgen says to shutdown his turnkey; I've been doing it for 4 years now without ever having problem with JES2, but I'll give you that it is slower overall. Speaking of RJE, here is an idea for another video!

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Yes RJE is fascinating. Did you ever get the RJE station emulator to work ? Mine segfaults every time I connect it. I should have a look at the C code. Will do it any day now.

[@gwojcieszczuk]

Watching how things were done in the past, one gets to appreciate more how we do things nowadays on Linux.

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Thanks !

[@grigorytrenin8430]

Worth mentioning of another way to have a "real console" in 3270 terminal. When starting a new session in Vista TN3270, specify "CONS" in LU Name. Of course the 3270 console device must be present in Hercules configuration (see conf/extcons.cnf as example; in this case, open the Vista session before IPL'ing to avoid WTO buffer shortage) or attached dynamically as described in Hercules manual.

[@lawrencehicks9607]

Hi Moshix, when you issued the command V 190,offline in this tutorai mvs placed the drive into 'pending offline state'. It will remain in that state until a job or task ends. In the old days we just issued s x (start x) which doesn't exist but works. Then we got fancy and placed a member into sys1.proclib called dealloc which was just a iefbr14 job that started and ended. We then issued 's dealloc' to help bring devices offline. also everyone should get into the habit of using the alloc command to verify that a device isn't being used before issuing the v offline command. In this case it would look like this: D U,, ALLOC 190,1 Larry

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Thanks a lot

[@johnantypas7618]

You deserve the credit too. Despite what people think this is a lot of work.

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Thanks !

[@brontitall]

The movie you were trying to remember was War Games I think. With Mathew Broderick

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Indeed

[@MiguelOssaAbellan]

I've been struggling my head trying to install KICKS until I found this video talking about the unattended mode. I used to launch "mvs" in Linux and, after that, "start_herc", but this instance of hercules was not binded to the first one under mvs and I was getting crazy.

[@moshixmainframechannel]

I hope it all works fine now

[@MiguelOssaAbellan]

@@moshixmainframechannel Yes it does! Thanks a lot!

[@moshixmainframechannel]

@MiguelOssaAbellan great !😊

[@grappydingus]

BSPPILOT Is listed by C3PO... I wonder if that's a Star Wars reference?

[@hexearth8258]

Hi Moshix, I have done it with the "T" trace command and it shows all commands like a console. Pretty nice, so we can have a console and a TSO session to work on. Thanks

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Cool

[@gustavopires964]

on TSO (operations concose) you can see system responses it you are in Trace Table mode (instead of system log buffer display). gou can get there issuing command T and then "/d a,l" will work fine

[@monkeyseatcatfood]

Thanks for making this video. As a recent IBM hire (sorta 😉) without much mainframe experience, this kind of content that goes over how things were in the past are really fascinating. Do you have any suggestions on what to learn for console operations that would be most helpful to someone in scheduling? Any help would be much appreciated!

[@moshixmainframechannel]

I am just making a video about console operations

[@monkeyseatcatfood]

@@moshixmainframechannel awesome! Looking forward to it!

[@monkeyseatcatfood]

@@moshixmainframechannel also, have you used the IBM personal communications (aka: PCOMM) emulator at all? It’s what I see used most often at work

[@moshixmainframechannel]

@@monkeyseatcatfood I don’t like it

[@GuyDunphy]

Been 30 years since a computer op!.. but from memory for VTAM command to vary inact a session forcibly then you would add: force=i… so the command would be something like: v net,inact,id=cuu0c0,force=i

[@moshixmainframechannel]

Thanks a lot

[@kenjimartins1528]

Great content and soundtrack!

[@settampadmini2444]

Hi Moshix, Can you please help in solving the below issue? I am unable to login to tk4 because of this. ' IEE341I BSPPILOT NOT ACTIVE'

[@moshixmainframechannel]

I doubt that’s the reason why you can’t log in. Bsppilot has nothing to do with logging in. Make sure vtam ans tso are running

[@johnnydeepsan3858]

thx for the video.

[@chotaire]

Very interesting.

[@martygenska8117]

Wargames :) Matthew Broderick.