Abstract: An apparatus, program product and method effectively virtualize a hardware device shared between multiple processors by a file accessible by a processor such that access to the hardware device may be controlled via a lock associated with the file. By doing so, file-based locking, e.g., as provided by a file locking facility in an operating system running on a processor, may be used to control access to the hardware device on behalf of the processor.

Abstract: The aspects of the present invention provide a computer implemented method, an apparatus, and a computer usable program code for identifying a service processor with current setting information. First stored information for a service processor is retrieved from a first memory in the first service processor. Second stored information for the service processor is retrieved from a second memory in a data processing system to which the service processor is connected. The first stored information is compared with the second stored information to form a comparison as to whether the service processor was previously connected to the data processing system and to determine whether the service processor was a last service processor to fully communicate with system firmware in the data processing system. The service processor has current setting information if the service processor was previously connected to the data processing system and was the last service processor to fully communicate with the system firmware.