Enabling Automatic Restart Manager (ARM) support

The Automatic Restart Manager (ARM) is an IBM facility that allows z/OS to automatically restart Started Tasks (excluding TSO users) after abnormal termination. Use the following procedure if you want to ensure that BMC II for z/OS restarts automatically after an abend, with no operator intervention required.

ARM support is available in either single or multisystem sysplex by using couple data sets.

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You can select from the following policies:

  • Default ARM policy

    The default ARM restart policy is that ARM attempts to restart an abended Started Task up to three times in a five-minute interval. After three attempts, if the Started Task has failed to restart, ARM stops attempting restarts and a message is written to SYSLOG. The default ARM policy uses the same start command that was used to start the BMC II for z/OS subsystem originally.

    If you decide that ARM should perform more restarts or perform them over a different period of time, you can write your own ARM restart policy.

  • User-defined policy

    BMC II for z/OS provides support for a user-defined ARM restart policy. You might already have an ARM restart policy in place, or you can create your own ARM restart policy. To create your own policy, see the IBM publication Setting Up a Sysplex.

To enable ARM support

  1. To enable ARM support, edit the BBPARM member BBISSPIZ and specifyARMPOLCY=[NO|YES|xxxxxxxx]

    Valid values are as follows:

    • NO (the default setting) specifies that the PAS will not use the ARM facility.
    • YES specifies that the PAS will use the default ARM policy.
    • xxxxxxxx specifies a one- to eight-character name of a user-defined policy to be used to control BBI-SS PAS restarts
  2. When you have completed modifying the ARMPOLCY parameter, restart the BBI-SS PAS (either a warm start or a cold start) to enable the new ARM policy to be recognized.

To stop BMC II for z/OS when ARM is enabled

You might find that you need to stop BMC II for z/OS when ARM is enabled and you do not want ARM to restart BMC II for z/OS.

To stop (or cancel) BMC II for z/OS on iiz_ssid where iiz_ssid is the subsystem ID that you want to stop or cancel without ARM attempting a restart, complete one of these actions:

  • Use the STOP|P command for a normal shutdown: P iiz_ssid
  • Use the CANCEL|C command for an unexpected stop: C iiz_ssid
  • Use the FORCE command for an unexpected stop: FORCE iiz_ssid

 

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