Base Control Program internal interface (BCPii)

IBM provides support within z/OS that allows authorized applications to query, change, and perform operational procedures against the installed System z hardware base through a set of application program interfaces. These applications can access the System z hardware that the application is running on and extend their reach to other System z processors within the attached process control (Hardware Management Console) network.

Using the Base Control Program internal interface (BCPii), an authorized z/OS application can perform the following actions:

Obtain the System z topology of the current interconnected Central Processor Complexes (CPCs) as well as the images, capacity records, activation profiles, and user-defined image groups defined on a particular CPC.
Query CPC, image (LPAR), capacity record, activation profile, and user-defined image group information.
Set various configuration values related to CPC, image and activation profiles.
Issue commands against CPCs, images (LPARs), and user-defined image groups to perform minor or even significant hardware- and software-related functions.
Listen for various hardware and software events that might take place on various CPCs and images throughout the HMC-connected network.

Communication to the Support Element (SE) / Hardware Management Console (HMC) using BCPii is done completely within the base operating system and therefore does not require communication on an IP network (intranet) for connectivity, providing complete isolation of your System z hardware communication from any other network traffic within the intranet/internet.

Calls using the BCPii Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) can be made from the C, Start of change the REXX, End of change or the assembler programming languages. See Syntax, linkage and programming considerations for an explanation of how the APIs are called and see the explanation of each service for the syntax for each of the BCPii APIs.