How to test z/OS ARM (Automatic Restart Management) with OPS/MVS?

Products

• OPS/MVS Event Management & Automation

Issue/Introduction

How to simulate situations where OPS/MVS (OPSMAIN address space) comes down and is automatically restarted by z/OS ARM (Automatic Restart Management) facility?

Resolution

A way to force OPS/MVS to fail is to make it exceed some limit of the number of messages or commands. For instance, you can follow this procedure:

 

1) Visit the panel 4.1.1 and set the value of the parameter MESSAGEMAX to its minimum of 100

 

2) Create and enable a TOD rule like below:

)TOD *+5 SEC                                                
)PROC                                                       
DO 101                                                      
ADDRESS WTO                                                 
"TEXT('MESSAGE TO CAUSE EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN') MSGID(LOOPMSG)"
END                                                         
RETURN                                                      

It should cause the following error message and a forced shutdown:

OPS3146S EMERGENCY PRODUCT SHUTDOWN STARTED - MAXIMUM WTO RATE EXCEEDED 

Another similar scenario you can use involves the parameter COMMANDMAX. You can use a similar approach if you want to test it too by lowering its value and issuing ADDRESS OPER commands in the rule instead of ADDRESS WTO.