Art,
 
In my experience, GRS-Star with shared CP CFs is still significantly faster (at 
least one order of magnitude) than GRS Ring using XCF.  Also, the purpose for 
the extra CF can be used to upgrade CF code without a Sysplex outage.  I guess 
it's also remotely possible that a CF code fault could cause a CF failure, 
though I have yet to see this.  I keep a second CF running for this purpose, 
though I don't currently have any active structures in it.
 
Scott

>>> Arthur Gutowski <aguto...@ford.com> 12/7/2009 9:25 AM >>>
I also don't see which LPAR's are part of the Sysplex, and which are not.

Dynamic Dispatch with a CF LPAR is not so much a matter of utilization, but as 
Scott suggests, getting the CPU when the CF needs it.  We have found that 
DynDisp dramatically increases ISGLOCK response times (at least one order of 
magnitude) - and we have characterized CF engines.  I cannot imagine how 
much worse this would be if we had to share with MVS images, too.

IMHO, if A and B are the only ones in the Sysplex, the parallel sysplex does 
not give you significant advantage in and of itself in this configuration, 
unless 
of course, you have it for pricing considerations.  Yes, GRS Star (parallel 
sysplex required) does perform better than Ring, even in a two-system 
complex, but without dedicated CF engines, my gut tells me you are losing 
whatever ground Star gives you.

If A, B, C and D are all in it together, then IMHO, seriously consider funding 
and characterizing an ICF CP.  Also, if they are, and since you are on a single 
footprint, I do not see the advantage of two CF LPARs for a single complex.    
If an internal CF goes down, it's either because your Operators need to be 
more astute, or there is a serious hardware problem, which probably means 
the whole machine is down.

When our European counterparts tried to implement Star a few years back, 
they found this out empirically, also notwithstanding the added CPU demand 
buried their already-taxed z990.

FWIW,
Art Gutowski
Ford Motor Company

On Fri, 4 Dec 2009 14:33:18 -0500, Scott Rowe <scott.r...@joann.com> 
wrote:

>Certainly, SYSA can take unused cycles, they are distributed according to 
weights.  What you haven't said is what mode your CFs are running in, so I 
will assume the are dynamically dispatched.  The thing you need to be very 
careful about here is that the CF partitions can get the cycles they need 
when they need them.  According to your calculations, your CF partitions are 
promised 100 and 36 MIPS respectively - but is that enough?  I prefer to over-
weight CFs that run on shared CPs, since it helps ensure that the CF has 
access to the CPU when it needs it.  If there are many CF requests and not 
enough available cycles to service them you could get in trouble quickly.
>
>>>> John Mitchelle <john.mitche...@googlemail.com> 12/4/2009 11:57 AM 
>>>
>Hi,
>
>I have 936 MIPS processor Z02-2096 z9BC
>
>I have 4 LPARS and 2 CF LPARs
>
>SYSA (Prod)
>
>SYSB (Dev)
>
>SYSC (Test)
>
>SYSD (Maint)
>
>SYCF1
>
>SYCF2
>
>Both CPU Engines are online across all LPAR's.
>
>Wts are in such a way that MIPS Allocation are
>
>650 for SYSA
>
>50  for SYSB
>
>50  for SYSC
>
>50  for SYSD
>
>100 MIPS for SYCF1 and
>
>36  MIPS for SYCF2 ,
>
>
>SYSA is UNCAPPED and SYSB, SYSC and  SYSD are CAPPED.
>
>Recently we are having issues related to MIPS capacity.
>
>I am aware that in case SYSA needs more capacity then it can take from
>SYSB,SYSC,SYSD if       available.
>
>However, was wondering whether system will allow to take MIPS from
>Coupling Facility LPAR's as well or not if available ?
>
>These are the structures in use for CF
>
>ISGLOCK
>IXCXCF1
>IXCXCF2
>
>Is there any advantage in getting rid of these coupling facility ?
>Will that give us comfort ofhaving these additional MIPS ?

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