z/OS System Fundamentals Part 1 - zArchitecture

Objectives
On successful completion of this course, attendees will be able to:

• describe the architectural principles governing CPU, Storage and I/O
• identify the state of a CPU and describe potential problem scenerios
• use IPCS and the debugging guides
• describe the principles of Virtual Storage
• describe the purpose of AMODE and RMODE
• describe a page fault and its consequences
• setup a flexible paging/swapping subsystem
• explain how dataspaces and hiperspaces work
• describe how an IPL works
• isolate problems during an IPL
• explain the concept of authorised programs.

Who Should Attend
This course is designed for those who wish to gain a fundamental understanding of z/OS MVS in order to improve their proficiency in the MVS environment.

Prerequisites
A good technical understanding of the z/OS environment.

Duration
4 days

Course Code
MSF1

Contents
Architecture
The architectural principles of the CPU; PSW, registers; interrupts system states; PSW swapping; multi-processing; central storage; addressing modes; storage keys; parallel & serial channels; pathing; HCD; LCUs; CCWs; I/O operation; SCSW.

MVS introduction
The functions of the MVS operating systems; components required to prepare MVS for work; creating address spaces; Job Entry Subsystem; initiators; resource control; interrupt handlers and status saving; dispatching work; I/O requests; Workload Manager; execute the work; exit the work from the system.

Control blocks , dumps & IPCS
Using IPCS and the debugging handbooks to locate and interpret major MVS control blocks in a dump; finding main control blocks such as PSA, CVT, ASCB, TCB, UCB; main IPCS menus; IPCS FIND command; IPCS subcommands; IPCS labs.

Virtual Storage concepts
Loading programs; real storage problems; DAT; segments & pages; page stealing & UIC; page faults; demand paging; dispatching address spaces; swapping & paging.

MVS storage management
AMODE & RMODE; common storage; private storage; Virtual Storage Manager; subpools; storage keys; RSM; page faults; segment faults; ASM; page data sets; VIO.

Dataspaces and hiperspaces
Primary & secondary ASC modes; access registers; using dataspaces; VLF; Hiperspaces.

System initialisation
Sysgen and IPL processes; the function of the LOAD parameter and the LOADxx member of PARMLIB; concepts of authorised programs; the subsystem interface.