Method of managing resources in one or more coupling facilities coupled to one or more operating systems in one or more central programming complexes using a policy

A method to manage coupling facility resources (said resources) in a data processing system having one or more operating systems running on one or more processors coupled by one or more data transmission channels to one or more coupling facilities, said resources comprised of said one or more coupling facilities and one or more structures contained within said one or more coupling facilities, said method comprising the steps of:

• using a policy stored in the data processing system for controlling said resources, said policy comprised of one or more active rules, current status of resource usage, and a pending policy;
• said active rules permit or disallow use of each of said one or more coupling facilities and define or disallow use of each of said one or more structures;
• said pending policy comprised of one or more pending rules;
• identifying a set of changes by any of said operating systems comparing the said pending rules with the said active rules located in said policy;
• modifying the said policy using the said set of changes to add, delete, or change active rules in said policy when the changes processed by the identifying step are found compatible with the active rules, and changes found incompatible with the active rules remaining pending for subsequent implementation;
• and
• accessing by said one or more operation systems said active rules in said policy to allow users to obtain and release usage of said one or more structures contained within said one or more coupling facilities.