Patent ID: 8560737

Claim:
A computer program product for managing buffers of a computing environment, said computer program product comprising: a non-transitory computer readable storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions for execution by the processing circuit for performing a method comprising: setting, by a coupling facility of the computing environment, one or more buffers of the coupling facility to either an active state or an idle state, the setting comprising: based on obtaining an operator message command in which a buffer of the coupling facility is to be set to the active state, setting a selected buffer of the coupling facility to the active state, the setting comprising storing an operator message token value of the operator message command in the selected buffer, and setting a state of the selected buffer to active, the operator message command obtained by the coupling facility from a processor image coupled to, but separate from the coupling facility, the operator message command to perform an action on the coupling facility; determining that the selected buffer is to be reset, the selected buffer including information relating to processing the operator message command sent remotely to the coupling facility from the processor image coupled to, but separate from, the coupling facility, the selected buffer including a token field having the operator message token value relating the selected buffer to operator messages having operator message (OM) tokens having the same operator message token value; and based on determining the selected buffer is to be reset, resetting the selected buffer, the resetting comprising setting the selected buffer to an idle state and setting one or more fields of a plurality of fields of the selected buffer to one or more predefined values, the plurality of fields including a timer to indicate a length of time an operator message has been active for the selected buffer, an operator message request length, and an operator message response length.