Re: V5R2 - QRMTSIGN Problem

[Patrick Botz <botz@xxxxxxxxxx>]

A previous response to this question made a couple of statements that
aren't quite accurate.

IBM made some changes to the behavior of QAUTOVRT in V5R2. The way this
worked prior to V5R2 is that it ONLY applied to QPACTL* devices and not to
QVIRCD* devices. We have never counted those devices used for APPC and
still do not.

Starting In V5R2,  we add the number QVIRCD* devices with the QPACTL*
devices and then compare this to the QAUTOVRT value. The system does not
distinguish between device states and I don't believe it ever did.

The devices on the QPACTL* controller are system names (QPADEV*) that the
system autocreates.  The devices on the QVIRCD* controller are
user-specified-names that the system autocreates.  The total of these must
be less than QAUTOVRT.

I believe this statement, below, from a previous append is incorrect for
QPADEV* devices - we would attempt to use varied off devices before
creating new ones.

>In previous releases it would
>continue to configure new devices if previously configured devices were
>varied off, but in V5R2 it seems to keep track of the total number of
>devices,

However, for devices with user-specified names, this *could* appear to be
the case because regardless of whether the devices were varied off or
active, we did not count them before, whereas we do now.

Also new in V5R2 is that the program registered for the Virtual Device
Selection (QIBM_QPA_DEVSEL) exit point is called when a virtual device
needs to be selected or automatically created by the system. This exit
point gets tons of information about the number and types of devices that
have been created so you can control the number of devices based on type or
name if you need to.

There is more information for this new behavior in the information center
http://www.ibm.com/iseries/infocenter under V5R2 System Values, What's New,
QAUTOVRT.

Patrick Botz
Senior Technical Staff Member
eServer Security Architect