Abstract:
This paper reports on progress in automating the operation and control of large MVS-based computing installations. Automating operations is a problem appropriate for the application of embedded, real-time, expert systems techniques. The long-term goal is to ease the effort required to automate at many computing installations with different configurations, workloads, and operation policies. YES/MVS I showed that expert systems techniques were advantageous for automating operations. YES/MVS 11, reported here, is a collection of components, including an architecture, to assist with automation at many sites. Expert Operator, also reported here, is a system based on YES/MVS 11 and currently in production use at a General Motors computing center. Expert Operator, then, is a first deployment of the components in YES/MVS 11 and first real test of their value. Based on this first experiment, YES/IMVS 11 appears to be successful. Major productivity improvements were achieved in developing Expert Operator as compared with YES/MVS 1. Expert Operator is well-organized, easily understood, robust to changes, easily organized expanded, and solves challenging real problems. YES/MVS 11 and Expert Operator, represent significant progress in automated operations. The ideas reported here should have value in the real-time control of other complex systems.