STP
Server Time Protocol: the mainframe feature that keeps the clocks of all machines in a sysplex exactly in step.
Also written Server Time Protocol, time synchronisation, Sysplex Timer, coordinated timing network
STP, Server Time Protocol, keeps the clocks of mainframe machines synchronised. In a sysplex, several systems, often on different machines, update the same data. Their records and logs must agree exactly on the order in which things happened, so their clocks must agree too.
STP passes timing signals between the machines over their coupling links, and the machines that take part form a coordinated timing network. One machine is set as the main time source, and others act as backups, so the network keeps working if one machine fails. The time itself is usually taken from an external, accurate source.
STP replaced an older separate device, the Sysplex Timer, which you may still see mentioned in older documents.
For most people, STP is invisible. It matters to system programmers and hardware staff, and it comes up in disaster recovery planning, because a second site's machines must stay in time with the first.
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- SysplexA group of mainframe systems joined together so they behave as one, sharing work and data so that no single failure stops the service.
- IBM ZIBM's current family of mainframe hardware, and the brand name you will see on most modern mainframe job adverts.
- HMCThe Hardware Management Console: the workstation used to control the mainframe hardware, its LPARs and IPLs.
- DB2 logDB2's record of every change made to its data, used to undo work that fails and to recover data after a problem.
- Coupling facilityA special LPAR that holds shared information for all the systems in a sysplex, so they can work on the same data at the same time.