Guidelines for changing automatic restart management (ARM) policies

Because server instances register with the default restart group, automatic restart management (ARM) attempts to restart the entire default group on another system in the sysplex when a system failure occurs. To create a restart group other than this default group, you need to follow certain rules.

If you want to create a restart group other than this default group, you need to comply with the following rules and restrictions that apply for z/OS® ARM policies. For more information about how to actually change these policies, see, z/OS MVS™ Setting Up a Sysplex (SA22-7625).
  • To change the policy, you need to know the existing element names for the server instances and how to name new elements for additional instances. The element names for these server instances are formed by concatenating the cell short name and the servers specific short name.

    If you have a cell named PLEX1 and server named BBOS001, for example, the ARM element name would be PLEX1BBOS001.

    Since wildcard characters can be used in the ARM policy, it is possible to exclude an entire group of servers by using a common naming scheme within your cell.

    The following section of the ARM policy will prevent any node agents from starting, for example, assuming that each node agent in your cell has a name that adheres to the form BBONxxx:
    RESTART_GROUP(WEBSPHERE)
    ELEMENT(PLEX1BBON*)
    RESTART_ATTEMPTS(0,150)
    RESTART_TIMEOUT(600)
    READY_TIMEOUT(1200)
    TERMTYPE(ALLTERM)
    RESTART_METHOD(BOTH,PERSIST)
    This ARM policy will also prevent the node agent from restarting in place. This specification can be modified by changing the RESTART_METHOD and TERMTYPE parameters. See z/OS MVS Setting Up a Sysplex (SA22-7625) for more information.
  • If you create a restart group, keep the following in the same restart group and set the restart order for the elements as indicated:
    1. RRS
    2. DB2® with IRLM, IMS™, CICS®, and other transaction or resource managers if used by your application servers in the restart group
    3. Your server instances
Either set up the location service daemon and node agent for restart-in-place or remove them from your ARM policy. Since WebSphere® Application Server must be running on all systems that might be used to perform recovery, the application servers will use the location service daemon and node agent that are already running on the alternate system. If the location service daemon attempts to restart on the alternate system, it will fail. If the node agent restarts on the alternate system, it will have no recovery work to do.

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Timestamp icon Last updated: March 5, 2017 23:57
File name: cins_changearm.html