The administration application $VMCONS handles the exchange of messages for operating the VMs (ADMIN dialog) and for operating the guest systems (VC dialog).
Recommendation
The ADMIN dialog is normally carried out from a privileged user task in the monitor system (see "Privileges of the user task in the monitor system").The guest system on a VM is normally operated with KVP consoles or logical consoles (see "Operating the guest systems using BS2000 consoles").
Functions of $VMCONS
$VMCONS fulfils the following functions:
Administration of the ADMIN dialogs conducted via $VMCONS, i.e.
receiving VM administrator requests and passing them to the VM2000 monitor
receiving messages from the VM2000 monitor and passing them to the appropriate VM administrator
reading commands from VM2000 procedure files and monitoring their execution
Administration of all VC dialogs and their I/O operations
Embedding and implementation of $VMCONS
$VMCONS is a system application in the monitor system. $VMCONS is loaded automatically when BCAM is active and runs under the system task VM2C. It is not possible to start or terminate $VMCONS manually.
The $VMCONS parameters are set in the parameter file of the VM2-MON subsystem (see "Setting up the VM2000 monitor"). Here, it is also possible to specify a password to authorize the establishment of a connection to $VMCONS.
The $VMCONS parameters can be modified during operation with /MODIFY-VMCONS-PARAMETERS, see "MODIFY-VMCONS-PARAMETERS (Modify parameters of $VMCONS)".
$VMCONS connects to the $CONSOLE application as an authorized user program with a dynamic authorization name (see the “Introduction to System Administration” [2]).
An operator ID (VMCONS-OPERID) and an operator role (VMCONS-OPERATOR-ROLE) must be defined for running $VMCONS (see "Preparing to use $VMCONS").
To avoid undesirable reactions, do not assign any further operator roles to the operator ID, and use only the routing code “9” in the operator role.
The BS2000 command /SET-MSG-SUPPRESSION (see the “Introduction to System Administration” [2]) allows to suppress messages to authorized user programs.
However, to ensure trouble-free operation of $VMCONS, the command termination messages NBR074x must not be suppressed for the connection(s) between $VMCONS and $CONSOLE (identified by the authorization name assigned by UCON).
The connection to $CONSOLE means that all of the commands and messages for the VM2000 ADMIN dialogs are recorded in the central logging file CONSLOG of the monitor system. This also applies to VM2000 commands and messages entered and output from a user task or at a monitor system BS2000 console.
The connection to $VMCONS is established by means of an appropriate DCAM application. OMNIS will usually be used for access from a terminal.
When BCAM is terminated in the monitor system, $VMCONS is also terminated. If $VMCONS terminates abnormally, it is restarted automatically (see "Restarting a task after an error in a system task of VM2000"). After $VMCONS has been restarted automatically, the interrupted connections to $VMCONS must be established again.
Status indication in a job variable
The status of $VMCONS is displayed in the program-monitoring job variable $TSOS.SYSVMS.VMCONS. The job variable can have the following values:
$R | $VMCONS is running |
The job variable is set up on the home pubset in the monitor system shortly before SYSTEM READY and is set exclusively by the operating system. It is shareable and protected against unauthorized modification. It is deleted when the monitor system is shut down.
In the event of abnormal system termination in the monitor system, the job variable is preserved with its last valid contents and is updated shortly before SYSTEM READY when the system is restarted.