New : SCRT support - now using Service Request PMR process like other software programs

This morning I received a mail from the SCRT team about a change in the support. And I think it's worth mentioning here as well.

"IBM is pleased to announce a major change in the way SCRT is supported. Effective immediately: Support for the SCRT program is now using the standard IBM PMR service request process for reporting problems. PMR support for SCRT has been requested by many customers over the years. Please see the information below on the PMR process if you are unfamiliar."

Mind you, the PMR service is for technical problems.

"PMR service request process for technical problems with SCRT

To open a service request, you must navigate to http://www.ibm.com/support/servicerequest and sign in. Once signed in, select "New service request", then you must select "I am having a problem with software" from the list of options.

z/OS Customers:
When asked to select a product / component, enter SCRT, Sub-capacity Reporting Tool, or 5752SCRT2. Any of these keywords will locate the Sub-Capacity Reporting Tool.

z/VSE Customers:
When asked to select a product / component, enter VSE.

You must then provide any additional information necessary and submit the request.

If you have already supplied IBM with diagnostic information in your note to the SCRT id, please open the service request and forward the service request number to dmalani@us.ibm.com and andrewsi@us.ibm.com. The information you provided will be loaded into the service request on your behalf.

For additional help opening a service request, please see: https://www-946.ibm.com/sr/help/index.html"

Get started with the IBM Mobile Workload Pricing for z/OS

A couple of months ago I wrote about the announcement of the new Mobile Workload Pricing mechnanism for z/OS. I also told you that this was going GA in July but so far I didn't see much of it on the IBM Software Pricing page I usually turn to when I'm looking for information on z/OS pricing.

So I started asking about a bit and David Chase from IBM who gave such a clarifying presentation about the topic during the System z Technical University in Budapest pointed me in the right direction. And yes, the Users Guide and the tool itself are already online. You can find the 'IBM Mobile Workload Tool' (mwrtool.exe) over here. And the 'IBM Mobile Workload Reporting Tool Users Guide' can be found over here. The Users Guide explains step by step how you have to set up the tool (on a Windows 7 64-bit), how you collect the necessary input, how you use the tool and how you submit your report to IBM.

Of course there's a bit more to this. Before you can start submitting the report be sure that you fulfill the requirements. Have a look at my previous post and the announcement to refresh your memory. And then there remains one more question : how do you separate the mobile workload from the rest. This will of course be different per customer. As a matter of fact, you are the only one who knows your shop and can determine this. And this is exactly how it will be done. You will make up a list of your mobile workload and how you can trace it. This will be the basis for an agreement you sign with IBM after a meeting with your IBM representative.

Then one more thing : what will be the benefits ? This is how I understand it for the moment. Suppose you have an LPAR running z/OS and CICS reporting 400 MSU for billing purposes. You will measure the CICS usage and let's say this is 200 MSU. The mobile part of that is e.g. 50% of that 200 MSU. You can subtract 60% from that mobile use. 60% of 100 MSU is 60 MSU so you keep 40 MSU for you mobile workload. 100 MSU plus 40 MSU means you keep 140 MSU of the original 200 MSU. But here comes the beautiful part of the system. You can subtract the 60 MSU from your billing total. So, of the originally reported 400 MSU you only keep 340 MSU for that partition. So where SCRT calculated the Rolling 4-Hour Average, MWRT will make an adjustment to that. As a matter of fact, MWRT will make this adjustment by the hour and then calculate a new Rolling 4-Hour Average. This also implies that it's not only e.g. CICS that benefits from this pricing but z/OS and other softwares as well.

So, as I said in the title of the post : Get Started !

Sampling Techdocs : April - June 2009

It's been a while, but here we are again with some new and interesting reading material from TechDocs.

• White Paper : IBM System Storage DS8000 with SSDs An In-Depth Look at SSD Performance in the DS8000 and An Assessment of SSD Performance in the IBM System Storage DS8000
  Two recent white papers on the use, best practices and performance of SSDs (Solid State Drives).
  
  
• Presentation (with notes) : IMS Data Sharing
  "IMS data sharing allows multiple IMS systems to share databases with full update capability from all systems. IMS data sharing may be used to improve availability, increase capacity, and simplify applications. This presentation provides potential users with an explanation of data sharing and information on implementing it."
  
  
• Technical Document : OSA-ICC experiences. Usage guide for z/OS and z/VM
  This is a very nice document for any one who wants to install the OSA-Express Integrated Console Controller (OSA-ICC) support of the 1000BASE-T card. It really takes you by the hand through chapters like OSA-ICC definitions on HMC, OSA-ICC VTAM Definition on z/OS, Implementing an OSA-ICC connection for z/VM and Connect to TSO using PCOMM & OSA-ICC.
  
  
• White Paper : Software Requirements for Running SAP on System z
  Thinking about a consolidation of SAP on System z ? Here's a short 10-page introduction on what is required to run System z as the database server and Linux on System z as the application server.
  
  
• Presentation : z/OS System Initialization Logic (IPL)
  We're closing with a verrrrry nice presentation from Riaz Ahmad : "This presentation describes general processing involved initializing z/OS System from the IPL process until the system is ready to start JES2 or JES3"
  

Well that's it for now. As I always say : just check them out !

Preview : z/VSE Version 4 Release 2

Today there's the preview of z/VSE 4.2 : 'z/VSE Version 4 Release 2 enables growth'.
What's the core message ?
z/VSE V4.2 is designed to support :

• More than 255 VSE tasks to help clients grow their CICS workloads and to ease migration from CICS/VSE to CICS Transaction Server for VSE/ESA
  IBM has from VSE/ESA 2.4 onwards delivered CICS/TS together with CICS/VSE at no extra cost. Now, there's a statement of direction that " z/VSE V4.2 is planned to be the last release to offer CICS/VSE".
• Up to 32 GB of processor storage
  z/VSE V4.2 operates in z/Architecture mode only.
  
• Sub-Capacity Reporting Tool (SCRT) running 'natively'
  The SCRT report will be able to run natively (also in z/VSE 4.1). Until now VSE clients had to send their collected data to IBM. Now, they will be able to do their own reporting. Though no availability date has been given for z/VSE 4.2, all details for downloading and using the tool will be available on the SCRT homepage as off October 11, 2007.
  
• Encryption Facility for z/VSE as an optional priced feature
  This is subject to a separate announcement I'm talking about in another post : 'IBM Encryption Facility for z/VSE, V1.1.0 helps secure data'.
  
• IBM System Storage TS3400 Tape Library (via the TS1120 Controller)
• IBM System Storage TS7740 Virtualization Engine Release 1.3
  The support indicated on the last two lines will be available on z/VSE 3.1.2 and later.
  

z/VSE V4.2 is designed to allow Fast Service Upgrade (FSU) from z/VSE V4.1 or z/VSE V3.1 using equivalent disks.

No availability date has been given yet.