Exception condition handling at a channel subsystem in an I/O processing system

• US 8,095,847 B2
• Filed: 02/14/2008
• Issued: 01/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Carlson, Scott M., Casper, Daniel F., Flanagan, John R., Gainey, Charles W., Hathorn, Roger G., Huang, Catherine C., Kalos, Matthew J., Njoku, Ugochukwu Charles, Ricci, Louis C., Sittmann, Gustav E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chase, Shelly A
• Application Number:
  US12/030,925
• Publication Number:
  US 20090210768A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,426 Days
• Field of Search: 714/6, 714/56, 714/746, 714/758, 710/36, 710/48
• US Class Current: 714/758
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/385 for adaptation of a particular data processing system to different peripheral devices

Abstract

A computer program product, apparatus, and method for handling exception condition feedback at a channel subsystem of an I/O processing system using data from a control unit are provided. The computer program product includes a tangible storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method. The method includes sending a command message to the control unit, and receiving a response message in response to the command message. The response message includes exception condition feedback identifying a termination reason code in response to unsuccessful execution of at least one command in the command message. The method also includes interrupting a CPU in the I/O processing system, and reporting status associated with the exception condition feedback to the CPU in an interrupt response block.

Claims

1. A computer program product for handling exception condition feedback at a channel subsystem of an input/output (I/O) processing system using data from a control unit, the channel subsystem configured to send command messages of a corresponding Transport control Word (TCW) channel program and performing I/O operations, the computer program product comprising:

a tangible storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method comprising;

sending a command message to the control unit for an I/O operation to be performed;

responsive to the sent command message specifying a write operation, sending data for the write operation to the control unit;

receiving a response message in response to the command message, the response message comprising device requested program check information resulting from a TCW channel program error detected by the control unit and a termination reason code, the device requested program check information comprising a device requested program check indication, the device requested program check information for identifying control unit detected channel program errors related to the sent command message or the sent data of the write operation;

interrupting a central processing unit (CPU) in the I/O processing system; and

reporting status associated with the device requested program check information of the received response message to the CPU in an interrupt response block comprising a status flag field having a device requested program check code for indicating whether the device requested program check indication was received.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the termination reason code identifies one or more of:

invalidity of the command message, an invalid cyclic redundancy check (CRC), incorrect length of the command message, a transport command area header error, a device control word (DCW) specification error, a transfer direction specification error, a transport count specification error, and two active (I/O) operations to a common device address.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the response message includes a reason code qualifier (RCQ) providing encoded meaning corresponding to the termination reason code.

4. The computer program product of claim 3 wherein the RCQ includes information on one or more of:

a length mismatch of the sent command message, a longitudinal redundancy check (LRC) error, and a field specification error in the sent command message.

5. The computer program product of claim 4 wherein the field specification error is one of:

a format field specification error, a reserved field specification error, a service action code field specification error, a flags field command chaining specification error, a control data count field specification error, a direction specification error, and a count specification error.

6. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the response message includes a status field and an extended status field, the extended status field including the termination reason code.

7. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the method further comprises:

copying information from a status flags field in the response message to the interrupt response block, wherein the status flags field indicates that the extended status field is included as part of the response message.

8. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the status field includes one or more flags capable of declaring one of:

a device level exception, a link reject, a resetting event, a device requested program check, and a device requested program check with a possible interface control check.

9. The computer program product of claim 1 wherein the interrupt response block includes a sub-channel status and a sub-channel extended status, the sub-channel status identifying a check condition and the sub-channel extended status providing detail associated with the check condition.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 wherein the sub-channel extended status indicates at least one of:

a storage request limit exceeded, a count mismatch, an unsupported mode, an invalid transport control word, a device requested program check, a device requested program check with a possible interface control check, a storage exception, and an interface control check cause.

26. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the response message comprises a status field and an extended status field, the status field comprising a status flag field for indicating the device requested program check indication, the extended status field comprising a termination reason codes field and a reason code qualifier words field, the termination reason codes field for providing termination reason codes, the reason code qualifier words field for providing detail information of corresponding termination reason codes, wherein the status flag field of the interrupt response block comprises a subchannel extended status field for reporting device requested program check codes.

27. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein the termination reason codes consist of a first code for a transport command information unit (IU) transport failure, a second code for an incorrect transport command IU length specification, a third code for a transport command area header (TCAH) specification error, a fourth code for a device control word (DCW) specification error related to a DCW offset, a fifth code for a transfer-direction specification error wherein a DCW command specifies a direction of data transfer that is different than a transfer direction specified by a transport command header (TCH), a sixth code for a transport-count specification error and a seventh code for indicating two (I/O) operations are active to the same device address.

11. An apparatus for handling exception condition feedback in an input/output ((I/O)) processing system, the apparatus comprising:

a channel subsystem in communication with a control unit, the channel subsystem configured to send command messages of a corresponding Transport control word (TCW) channel program and performing (I/O) operations, the channel subsystem configured to perform a method comprising;

sending a command message to the control unit for an (I/O) operation to be performed;

responsive to the sent command message specifying a write operation, sending data for the write operation to the control unit;

receiving a response message in response to the command message, the response message comprising device requested program check information resulting from a TCW channel program error detected by the control unit and a termination reason code, the device requested program check information comprising a device requested program check indication, the device requested program check information for identifying control unit detected channel program errors related to the sent command message or the sent data of the write operation;

interrupting a central processing unit (CPU) in the I/O processing system; and

reporting status associated with the device requested program check information of the received response message to the CPU in an interrupt response block comprising a status flag field having a device requested program check code for indicating whether the device requested program check indication was received.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the termination reason code identifies one or more of:

invalidity of the command message, an invalid cyclic redundancy check (CRC), incorrect length of the command message, a transport command area header error, a device control word (DCW) specification error, a transfer direction specification error, a transport count specification error, and two active (I/O) operations to a common device address.

13. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the response message includes a reason code qualifier (RCQ) providing encoded meaning corresponding to the termination reason code.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the RCQ includes information on one or more of:

a length mismatch of the sent command message, a longitudinal redundancy check (LRC) error, and a field specification error in the sent command message.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the field specification error is one of:

a format field specification error, a reserved field specification error, a service action code field specification error, a flags field command chaining specification error, a control data count field specification error, a direction specification error, and a count specification error.

16. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the response message includes a status field and an extended status field, the extended status field including the termination reason code.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the channel subsystem performing the method further comprises:

copying information from a status flags field in the response message to the interrupt response block, wherein the status flags field indicates that the extended status field is included as part of the response message.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the status field includes one or more flags capable of declaring one of:

a device level exception, a link reject, a resetting event, a device requested program check, and a device requested program check with a possible interface control check.

19. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein the interrupt response block includes a sub-channel status and a sub-channel extended status, the sub-channel status identifying a check condition and the sub-channel extended status providing detail associated with the check condition.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein the sub-channel extended status indicates at least one of:

a storage request limit exceeded, a count mismatch, an unsupported mode, an invalid transport control word, a device requested program check, a device requested program check with a possible interface control check, a storage exception, and an interface control check cause.

28. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the response message comprises a status field and an extended status field, the status field comprising a status flag field for indicating the device requested program check indication, the extended status field comprising a termination reason codes field and a reason code qualifier words field, the termination reason codes field for providing termination reason codes, the reason code qualifier words field for providing detail information of corresponding termination reason codes, wherein the status flag field of the interrupt response block comprises a subchannel extended status field for reporting device requested program check codes.

29. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein the termination reason codes consist of a first code for a transport command information unit (IU) transport failure, a second code for an incorrect transport command IU length specification, a third code for a transport command area header (TCAH) specification error, a fourth code for a device control word (DCW) specification error related to a DCW offset, a fifth code for a transfer-direction specification error wherein a DCW command specifies a direction of data transfer that is different than a transfer direction specified by a transport command header (TCH), a sixth code for a transport-count specification error and a seventh code for indicating two I/O operations are active to the same device address.

21. A method for handling exception condition feedback at a channel subsystem of an input/output (I/O) processing system using data from a control unit, the channel subsystem configured to send command messages of a corresponding Transport control word (TCW) channel program and performing I/O operations, the method comprising:

sending a command message to the control unit for an I/O operation to be performed;

responsive to the sent command message specifying a write operation, sending data for the write operation to the control unit;

receiving a response message in response to the command message, the response message comprising device requested program check information resulting from a TCW channel program error detected by the control unit and a termination reason code, the device requested program check information comprising a device requested program check indication, the device requested program check information for identifying control unit detected channel program errors related to the sent command message or the sent data of the write operation;

interrupting a central processing unit (CPU) in the (I/O) processing system; and

reporting status associated with the device requested program check information of the received response message to the CPU in an interrupt response block comprising a status flag field having a device requested program check code for indicating whether the device requested program check indication was received.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the termination reason code identifies one or more of invalidity of the command message, an invalid cyclic redundancy check (CRC), incorrect length of the command message, a transport command area header error, a device control word (DCW) specification error, a transfer direction specification error, a transport count specification error, and two active (I/O) operations to a common device address, and further wherein the response message further includes a reason code qualifier (RCQ) including information on one or more of:

a length mismatch of the command message, a longitudinal redundancy check (LRC) error, and a field specification error in the command message.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein the response message includes a status field and an extended status field, the extended status field including the termination reason code, and further wherein the status field includes one or more flags capable of declaring one of:

a device level exception, a link reject, a resetting event, a device requested program check, and a device requested program check with a possible interface control check.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising:

copying information from a status flags field in the response message to the interrupt response block, wherein the status flags field indicates that the extended status field is included as part of the response message.

25. The method of claim 21 wherein the interrupt response block includes a sub-channel status and a sub-channel extended status, the sub-channel status identifying a check condition and the sub-channel extended status providing detail associated with the check condition indicating at least one of:

a storage request limit exceeded, a count mismatch, an unsupported mode, an invalid transport control word, a device requested program check, a device requested program check with a possible interface control check, a storage exception, and an interface control check cause.

30. The method of claim 21, wherein the response message comprises a status field and an extended status field, the status field comprising a status flag field for indicating the device requested program check indication, the extended status field comprising a termination reason codes field and a reason code qualifier words field, the termination reason codes field for providing termination reason codes, the reason code qualifier words field for providing detail information of corresponding termination reason codes, wherein the status flag field of the interrupt response block comprises a subchannel extended status field for reporting device requested program check codes.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the termination reason codes consist of a first code for a transport command information unit (IU) transport failure, a second code for an incorrect transport command IU length specification, a third code for a transport command area header (TCAH) specification error, a fourth code for a device control word (DCW) specification error related to a DCW offset, a fifth code for a transfer-direction specification error wherein a DCW command specifies a direction of data transfer that is different than a transfer direction specified by a transport command header (TCH), a sixth code for a transport-count specification error and a seventh code for indicating two I/O operations are active to the same device address.