Parent-child relationships
A parent-child relationship is one in which the child object is completely dependent on the parent object for operation.
For example, NET (the VTAM address space) must be fully active before starting TSO, so TSO is a child (or dependent) of parent NET.
In a parent-child relationship, when a parent object is stopped, CSM automatically stops all the child objects. Likewise, when a child object is started, CSM automatically starts the parent objects.
Every object must have at least one parent. Therefore, since all objects cannot be active without MVS, MVS is ultimately the parent of all objects in the system, although in CSM, you need to define only an object’s direct parents. You do not need to define 'grandparents' of objects.
To continue with the example, NET (a child of JES2) must be started before TSO starts so you must define NET as a parent of object TSO. Note that you do not need to define JES2 and MVS as direct parents of TSO. However, when CSM stops JES2, both NET and TSO are stopped first. When TSO is started, the parents NET and JES2 are started first.