Method and system for controlling servicability of adapters connected by an I/O channel interface to a computer system

摘要

A method and system to eliminate service hardware previously provided with an adapter by providing a novel way to transfer its hardware service functions to a remote service hardware found elsewhere in a computer system, such as a mainframe. The transferred service controls include enabling the remote service hardware to control the updating of the adapter microcode; remotely control a recovery process for the adapter by remotely initializing its microcode, and remotely logging out and recovering from error conditions detected in the adapter; and remotely forcing a logout and recovery when the host OS detects a failure in the adapter. A standard I/O channel interface (optical or electronic) is provided between the adapter and an IOSS (Input Output Subsystem) of a computer system which has its own service processor element (SPE) used for servicing the computer system per se. The invention provides virtual service hardware for the adapter, but uses the SPE for its service hardware. The SPE is remote from the adapter in the sense that the SPE and the adapter can only communicate with each other over the standard I/O channel interface. The servicing functions required by the adapter are transferred to, and handled by, the SPE by internal I/O facilities (iIOF) provided in the IOSS, which change the internal subchannel architecture of the IOSS.