Abstract: A user interface is described that displays a hierarchical structure of a computer system. The hierarchical structure of a system configuration for a computer system is formed by the upward and downward connections between various levels of symbolic and real hardware components. In particular, the user interface displays a graphical model of the hierarchical tree-like structure of the configuration in a single computer window. An individual hardware component may have multiple upward connections to separate parent hardware components. An individual hardware component may be represented by more than one node within the model, yet a single data structure is maintained for each of the hardware components. In this manner, users may interact with the user interface to more easily view, comprehend, and manage configuration data for a computer system.

Abstract: A computer system is described for representing and enforcing configuration rules that can be used to create and define a configuration or hardware definition for the computer system. The computer system represents configuration rules that define a configuration of a high end mainframe, such as an OS2200 system, in a file external to a configuration program with which a user may interact to manage the configuration of the mainframe system, and to enforce the configuration rules as a user is attempting to modify a configuration of a computer system. The configuration rules may be specified in, for example, an extensible markup language (XML) file format rather than in the source code of the executable program. The external configuration file may conform to a scripting language that allows a developer to embed validation operations for the configuration data specified in the XML file.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for managing the configuration of a computing arrangement having a host operating system and an emulator operating system includes establishing host operating system interfaces to computing arrangement components. The computing arrangement is scanned, using the host operating system interfaces, to determine configuration information about computing arrangement components reserved for use by the emulator operating system. At least a portion of the scanned configuration information is communicated to the emulator operating system.

Abstract: The various embodiments of the invention relate to analyzing operations of an emulated input-output processor. Instructions native to the first type of instruction processor are emulated on a second-type instruction processor. The instruction processor emulator executes an operating system that includes instructions native to the first type of instruction processor. The operating system includes instructions that write input/output (IO) requests to the memory arrangement in response to IO functions invoked by a program. An IOP emulator that is executable on the second-type processor emulates IOP processing of IO requests from the memory arrangement. The IOP emulator maintains in the memory arrangement a first set of data structures used in processing the IO requests. State data currently contained in the data structures is stored on a retentive storage device, and in response to user input controls, the state data is read from retentive storage and displayed.