Coordinated Resource Recovery in VM/ESA

Abstract

A system service for coordinated recovery of resources is a critical function needed for distributed processing environments because applications need to provide for data integrity while the location of the data and processes are transparent to the application. VM is the first IBM operating system to provide Coordinated Resource Recovery as a system service rather than as a service provided by unique environments running on the operating system, and the VM Common Programming Interface-Communications and Shared File System are the first subsystems to utilize the service. This paper is an overview of why and how VM provided Coordinated Resource Recovery (CRR). CRR is the implementation of the Systems Application Architecture™ (SAA™) resource recovery interface within Virtual Machine/ Enterprise Systems Architecture™ (VM/ESA™). This coordinated sync point system service allows one or more applications or subsystems to update multiple resources and to request that all updates be committed or backed out together. The applications and their respective resources can be local or distributed. CRR either coordinates the request to commit or backout immediately, or supports automatic resource resynchronization in case a system or subsystem fails. When restart is not possible, CRR allows for intervention by a system operator or administrator.