End of Marketing of z/OS 2.1 is January 25, 2016

In the past, the marketing of one z/OS release stopped at the moment that the new release became available. Over recent years this was always in september. But for z/OS 1.13 there was an exception as z/OS 2.1 became available in september 2013 and you could still buy z/OS 1.13 up to January 2014.

Well, the same is now happening with z/OS 2.1. I already wrote about the preview announcement of z/OS 2.2 in my blog and now there's an announcement of System z Softwares and their End of Marketing date : 'Software withdrawal: IBM z Systems platform selected products -- Some replacements available (ZP15-0188)'. As the preview states, planned availability for z/OS 2.2 is September 2015. The announcement this week indicates that z/OS 2.1.0 (5650-ZOS) will be withdrawn from marketing as of January 25, 2016. And of course z/OSMF as well.

Have a look at the announcement to check out any other softwares you might be using (or wanting to use).

Preview of z/OS 2.2

z/OS 2.2 is due to become available in September 2015. But here’s already a preview announcement :
‘Preview: IBM z/OS Version 2 Release 2 -- Fueling the new digital enterprise (ZP15-0006)’. It’s too much to sum it all up but let me quote you the highlights from the announcement itself :

"This z/OS V2.2 Preview announcement describes many capabilities designed to support:

• Exceptional service levels with:
  • Simultaneous multithreading on zIIP specialty engines on z13 processors for higher overall throughput
  • Up to 141 configurable processors or up to 128 processors per LPAR on z13 processors when running in SMT mode
  • Improved autonomics for health-based workload routing in a Parallel Sysplex® with new z/OS Workload Manager (WLM) and XCF functions to help improve availability
• Analytics enablement with information management, storage, and delivery capabilities:
  • Support for up to 4 TB of RAIM memory per LPAR to improve performance of IBM DB2® and other data-intensive processing workloads
  • Fabric I/O Priority, extending Workload Management into the SAN fabric to prioritize your most important workloads and help improve service levels
  • 16 Gb FICON® links to help reduce I/O latency
  • A new IBM zHyperWrite™ capability that helps you achieve better DB2 log write performance when using Metro Mirror (PPRC) in a HyperSwap-managed environment
• A trusted and resilient system of record:
  • Faster data encryption to handle increased transaction volume with both a new Crypto Express5S cryptographic adapter and improved compressor-based, on-chip cryptography
  • Digitally signed SMF records designed to provide a trusted audit repository
  • Improvements to secure communications, additional support for ciphers, RACF® enhancements, and more
• Capturing the potential of the mobile enterprise:
  • System SSL's new OCSP support is designed to help reduce risk and improve the security of mobile and other transactions by checking certificate revocation status over the network.
  • Mobile Workload Pricing programs help you reduce software costs during periods of peak mobile transaction workload processing.
  • The z/OS Connect software interface between mobile and backend systems is designed to help you easily integrate your z/OS systems into your mobile computing environment.

The z13 server with z/OS V2.2 enables a new tier of innovation that can catalyze your ability to reach new markets and capture new revenue opportunities".

There is also some news about z/OSMF : “Starting with z/OS V2.2, z/OSMF, previously a separate product, is planned to become a base element of z/OS, delivered with the operating system. This will remove the need to order z/OSMF separately”.

While I'm at it, I think this post on Marna Walle's blog might also be of interest to you : 'z/OS V2.2 FIXCATs are starting to appear'.

Official Announcement : z/OS 2.1

I thought about creating one post with the rest of the announcements that were made yesterday, but perhaps it's easier to put them in several posts. It also makes it easier to find them back afterwards.

So after a lot of speculations first, a statement of direction and a preview announcement, it has now been officially announced : 'IBM z/OS Version 2 Release 1 delivers the foundation for Smarter Computing (Zp13-0371)'. And with it of course z/OSMF 2.1 is also announced : 'IBM z/OS Management Facility V2.1 enables you to optimize productivity and simplify management tasks (Zp13-0391)'.

I'm not going to give you another highlights show, but let me point out some practical data.

First of all, the hardware requirements :

• IBM zEnterprise EC12 (zEC12)
• IBM zEnterprise BC12 (zBC12)
• IBM zEnterprise 196 (z196)
• IBM zEnterprise 114 (z114)
• IBM System z10® ( z10™ EC, z10 BC)
• IBM System z9® ( z9® EC, z9 BC)

So, older than z9 is not possible.

Planned availability date is September 30, 2013 (as was already expected too).

I must say it's quite an extensive read if you want to go through the entire announcement. Do check out the Statements of Direction where I read e.g. that "BM plans a number of changes to z/OS preventive service ordering for third quarter 2014".

The product id is 5650-ZOS.

More reading ? The datasheet (16p) is over here.

Oh, one more thing that might interest you. What about the price ? Well, the announcement says "For all local charges, contact your IBM representative". But I see that the prices have been published and I can say that, for Belgium, prices will go up with about 4% to 5%. I guess that will be pretty much the same elsewhere too.

IBM Announcement : z/OS 2.1

Well, we already talked a couple of times about the new version of z/OS and of the new release schedule that comes with it. So today we see the pre-announcement : 'Preview: IBM z/OS Version 2 Release 1 and IBM z/OS Management Facility -- The foundation for Smarter Computing (ZP13-0013)'.

Some highlights :

• Further optimize data placement with significant enhancements to policy-based storage tiering.
• Provide a top-down perspective on performance and capacity planning efforts across zEnterprise ensembles with RMF™ support for new SMF records for the Linux™ on System z® , and for the Linux on System x® and AIX® operating systems running on zBX blades. RMF V2.1 also adds support for Windows™ Server running on zBX blades.
• Extend existing batch runtime environment support for COBOL-based applications to interoperate with PL/I programs in addition to Java™ programs, all with shared DB2® with transactional integrity, and extended support to encompass DFSMStvs processing for VSAM record-level sharing data sets. These enhancements are intended to provide flexibility in application development and provide modern programming models to help you extend business applications.
• Reduce batch run times by having DFSMShsm-migrated data sets allocated by batch jobs recalled in parallel, in order to reduce overall elapsed recall times.
• Simplify I/O configuration tasks with improvements for z/OS FICON® Discovery and Auto Configuration (zDAC), which provides improved support for installations with less-complex I/O configurations.
• Exploit available fonts, with fonts included as a new base element of z/OS to give you capabilities you need for print in a global marketplace.

Prerequisites
 
z/OS V2.1 is planned to run on IBM System z servers starting from System z9 up to the zEC12.
In addition, beginning with z/OS V2.1, IBM plans to support these and later IBM storage control units:

• 3990 Model 3 and 3990 Model 6
• 9393
• 2105
• 2107
• 2421, 2422, 2423, and 2424

Planned availability date is September 2013.

Do go and have a look at the announcement itself. It's quite extensive covering lots of details. And what's also interesting : there's a summary of all important web pages for z/OS. Oh well, why don't I just take them over here as well :

• z/OS website

  http://www.ibm.com/systems/z/os/zos/

• General literature

  http://www.ibm.com/systems/z/resources/

• Previously announced statements of direction

  http://www.ibm.com/systems/z/os/zos/zos_sods.html

• z/OS Internet Library

  http://www.ibm.com/systems/z/os/zos/bkserv/

• z/OS Basic Skills Information Center

  http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/zos/basics/index.jsp

• Descriptions of courses worldwide

  http://www.ibm.com/services/learning

• z/OS downloads

  http://www.ibm.com/systems/z/os/zos/downloads/

• CustomPac

  http://www.ibm.com/services/custompac

• ShopzSeries

  http://www.ibm.com/software/shopzseries

• z/OS Communications Server

  http://www.ibm.com/software/network/commserver/zos/

• z/OS Management Facility

  http://www.ibm.com/systems/z/os/zos/zosmf/

Catching up on my reading : Hot Topics, IBM Systems Magazine and Enterprise Tech Journal

Finally, I found some time to catch up with some reading.

Hot Topics, a z/OS Newsletter (August 2012)

Let me start with the Hot Topics Newsletter. Unfortunately enough, it will only appear once in a year from now on. You know, I just make a random selection of articles I particularly liked, but of course all the rest is worth your while. And that also goes for the other magazines.
I have the impression that z/OSMF is for many customers still a great unknown and people are hesitant to use it. Well, the article 'Don't just emulate it!' on the z/OSMF ISPF feature might be a good entry point. It describes how you can use z/OSMF to open one or several ISPF sessions in your browsers, use split screens or tabbed displays, you can even have several, parallel TSO/E user sessions at once.
Another article on the new GRS support of FICON CTC communication shows you how much your GRS configuration might be affected and how much planning you might have for migration.
Furthermore : hints and tips on migrating to z/OS 1.13, learn how z/OS 1.13 SPOOL migration lets you merge/consolidate volumes to new volumes in a non-disruptive manner within a few hours, an article on learning how to obtain new mainframe skills directing you to the Academic Initiative but also to (quite interesting) online course materials

IBM Systems magazine (September-October 2012)
Online Version - PDF Version

This issue focuses on data analytics in the broadest sense but I think the title of the intro by Greg Lotko sums it up nicely : 'Transforming Data Into Value' ! Of course this also implies there's a lot of attention for the new zEC12 including the cover article. There's a good article on Data Marts. Data Marts are great but tend to have some issues like rapid multiplication, a lack of architecture, administrative complexity and so on. This article shows how the zEnterprise can play a role in tackling these problems.
Ever heard about millicode ? Well, just check out Bob Rogers' article on the evolution of microcode and millicode. Great reading material.
At the end of this issue, you can also find the 2013 Mainframe Buyer's Guide listing a bunch of IBM partners. And, there's also an issue about Women in Technology which is not included in the .pdf version.

Enterprise Tech Journal (October-November 2012)

The Enterprise Tech Journal also focuses on the new zEC12 in its cover article but puts the emphasis on workload optimization. In other words : software performance is of the essence. I'm just not sure that when there's e.g. a forecasted performance improvement of 45% for Java Workload that this is already the case for the moment. Some of the new features like the new transactional execution facility is implemented but I have the impression it's not being used by any software for the moment. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Furthermore : a good introduction to the RMF Device Activity Report as well as to 'Rational Developer for z/OS', there's an interesting article on how backup strategies are important as they can have a significant influence on your recovery processes, Willie Favero helps you plan your upgrade to DB2 10, Marcel den Hartog (re)introduces us to "the dying art of performance management" for speeding up the mainframe and of course there's a lot more there to enjoy.

As I always say, just check them out !

Statement of Direction : z/OS Version 2 !

People have been asking me if I knew anything more about the future of z/OS. Well, apart from what I wote here in previous posts, I didn't. But now here's this announcement : 'Statement of direction: IBM z/OS (ZP12-0025)'.

We already knew about the new two-year release cycle, but there were also speculations about a new version. Well, here it is : "IBM plans to introduce a new version of the z/OS operating system, z/OS Version 2, with z/OS V2.1 to be released in the second half of 2013". This will also include a new scheme for z/OS support : "(...) beginning with z/OS Version 2, IBM plans to provide five years of z/OS support, with three years of optional, fee-based extended service (5+3) as part of the new release cadence".

Another item that's confirmed here is that "IBM plans to support an n-2 approach, where three consecutive releases are planned to be supported for coexistence, fallback, and migration". So, direct upgrades from z/OS V1.12 and V1.13 to z/OS V2.1 will be possible. The same goes for z/OSMF.

The next question that arises then is of course : what happens to the support of recent z/OS releases. Well, support for z/OS 1.12 is planned to be extended with one year and for z/OS 1.13 with 2 years. So z/OS 1.12 should be supported until September 30, 2014 and z/OS 1.13 until September 30, 2016. No changes however for z/OS 1.11. End of Support date for z/OS 1.11 remains September 30, 2012. But, as with previous versions, IBM also announces (ZP12-0032) a two year Lifecycle Extension support for z/OS 1.11 extending corrective support until September 30, 2014.

So, how will the release schedule of z/OS possibly look like. Mind you, it's an educated guess, based on statements of direction. And we know what IBM says about SODs, don't we ?

z/OS	Date Available	Date EOM	Date EOS	Date End of Extended Support
z/OS 1.11	09/2009	09/2010	09/2012	09/2014
z/OS 1.12	09/2010	09/2011	09/2014	09/2017
z/OS 1.13	09/2011	09/2013	09/2016	09/2019
z/OS 2.1	09/2013	09/2015	09/2018	09/2021
z/OS 2.2	09/2015	09/2017	09/2020	09/2023
z/OS 2.3	09/2017	09/2019	09/2022	09/2025

If this is the schedule to follow, then there will be no entire overlap between End Of Support date of version n-2 and the End of Marketing date of version n.

To be continued . . .

Note : I made some corrections concerning the EOS dates

A new z/OS release every 2 years !

This morning I posted about a statement of direction about changing the pace of releases of z/OS. Well, since then, I've been receiving some more information about this.

There will indeed be a new release every 2 years from now on. So, the next release will be in the second half of 2013. Some other interesting bits of information :

• IBM intends to keep the N-2 compatibility so that customers can still migrate 1 or 2 releases forward. This means you might choose to only migrate every 4 years.
• In order to support this scheme, the support for currently available releases (z/OS 1.12 and z/OS 1.13) will be adjusted in order to allow clients to bridge to the new release cycle.
• z/OSMF releases should also be following the same release pattern.
• Selected features may become available in between releases through e.g. SPE's

Well, that's it for now. And you know the drill : as long as it's not officially announced, IBM might still change things. More info should become available within the next 60 days.

Revised availability: IBM z/OS Management Facility V1.13 DASD Management task

When z/OS 1.13 (ZP11-0313) and z/OSMF 1.13 (ZP11-0303) were announced, IBM announced a DASD Management Task for z/OSMF to become available in the first quarter of 2012. It was intended to simplify disk storage management as follows :

"The new task is intended to allow you to perform storage group management tasks from within the application. It is designed to streamline the process of adding volumes to SMS pool storage groups, reducing several manually intensive steps involving multiple applications to a reduced number of steps using a single interface. The DASD Management task is planned to be made available in first quarter 2012 with the PTF for APAR PM40869".

It was to contain an Add Storage wizard.

"The Add Storage wizard can enable you to add storage to an SMS pool storage group more easily than before. It uses the new storage group attributes as policy, if defined within the storage group definition. The Add Storage wizard guides you through the following steps:

• Determining the amount of capacity to add based on the storage utilization goal and available capacity found in the assigned reserve storage pool
• Selecting the volumes to add from the reserve storage pool
• Updating the SCDS with the selected volumes
• Initializing the selected volumes to match the naming convention of the storage group
• Optionally, varying volumes online and activating the changes to the SCDS to make the new capacity available for SMS use"

This has now been postponed with the following announcement : 'Revised availability: IBM z/OS Management Facility V1.13 DASD Management task (ZP12-0036)'. The function "will not be available in first quarter 2012 with a PTF for APAR PM40869. IBM is assessing plans for delivering this capability at a later date".

We'll keep you posted !

Preview z/OS 1.13 and z/OSMF 1.13

How interesting are previews ?

I sometimes wonder whether it's a blessing or a punishment when you have to do a presentation on a new z/OS release. It's one of those obligatory things that pop up from time to time at events and you know most of the clients are two or three releases back, they're still implementing version n-2 and don't give a damn about what's new in one of those future releases. Yeah, more functionalities they won't need and surely once again more CPU consumption. Well, we discussed the latter already a couple of times, so I'll skip that one for now. But how about blogging about it, isn't that pretty much the same pain in the neck ? Well I must admit I tend to do some copy/paste work because you at least have to mention it, no ?

Still, I think this time it's a bit different. I wanted to do a short issue on z/OS 1.13 and the according z/OSMF for our next newsletter. But I ended up with a three page article. The (very short) exec summary ? You really should start giving z/OSMF a chance, if you haven't done this so far. It's getting nicer every time. Oh, and as it's an exec summary I should of course add : and it will save you money. For those of you who get the newsletter, it's coming out next week and what I'm going to tell from here on also appears in our newsletter.

So, the preview announcement was already a couple of weeks back : 'Preview: z/OS Version 1 Release 13 and z/OS Management Facility Version 1 Release 13 are planned to offer new availability, batch programming, and usability functions (ZP11-0011)'. Availability will be september 2011. And before I continue : this is a preview, things may change until actual announcement.

z/OS 1.13

Let's first have a look at z/OS 1.13 itself or at least at a couple of the new things. One of them is a new base component, the z/OS Batch Runtime environment. Batch on System z (and particularly with Cobol) remains mission critical to lots of enterprises. On the other hand, a real batch window seems to be more and more a thing of the past. Enters the z/OS Batch Runtime environment. This component provides the framework for Java-to-COBOL interoperability, for transactional updates to DB2, and for sharing database connections between Java and COBOL. In other words, it will "enable COBOL and Java to interoperate for DB2 with transactional integrity so you can enhance and extend existing COBOL batch application programs using Java".

Next to that there are also some JES2 JCL enhancements designed to make programming JCL easier and give you more performance and more control of your batch applications. Two examples :

• "Support is planned to allow jobs for which journaling is used to be stopped after a currently running step has finished and held for restart in the following step. This is intended to allow less-disruptive system shutdowns.
• Support is planned for job return codes. This support will be designed to allow you to specify that the job return code be set to the highest return code encountered by any step, the last step, or a specified step in the job. This will help make it simpler to interpret the results of job execution"

There's a lot more of course, but something about ISPF caught my eye because as far as I remember this is something that's always been there in Xedit :

"ISPF is planned to provide support for : Line command level Edit macros, in addition to the existing Edit macro support. This new design is intended to allow you to write macros to be used as line commands, in addition to those you might have already written for use as Edit primary or initial processing commands."

OK, I must admit, when I say 'always', my professional memory does only go back for about a good 20 years.

z/OSMF 1.13 : a small recap

Click on image for larger version in new window

z/OSMF was first introduced together with z/OS 1.11 as a uniform management 'platform' for z/OS system engineers. Usually they have to go through lots of different interfaces for different tasks and this means losing time for experienced system engineers and a high learning curve for new people. z/OSMF has the advantage over former wizzards and stuff that it is really executing on the mainframe. So, people were a bit hesitant, reluctant in the beginning about using it or not and many decided not to use it. Well, I see some change coming and people are reconsidering their choices. And I think they should and z/OSMF 1.13 will only further encourage them to do so. Anyone willing to share their experiences with z/OSMF, I'll be glad to hear from them.

I'll just highlight the three most interesting functionalities that will be added in z/OSMF 1.13 : Software Deployment, Storage DASD Management and Capacity Provisioning. Some are just a start, but they indicate which direction z/OSMF intends to go and this only looks more promising.

z/OSMF 1.13 : Software Deployment

The "software deployment function is designed to provide the functions needed to create and deploy a copy, or clone, of an existing SMP/E-installed software image, including IBM software installed using ServerPac, CBPDO, or fee-based installation offerings, as well as ISV or customer software". Some possibilities :

• Identify, modify, delete software instances
• Generate jobs to copy a software instance
• Verify cross-system and cross-product requisites, verify fixes
• Copy ALL parts of the software
• Copy the inventory (SMP/E CSI) along with the software
• Help identify actions including catalog, configuration, and security updates

It's able to clone software

• Locally, either on a single system or system-to-system within a sysplex
• Remotely, system-to-system across a network, even multiple sysplexes

Worth a try ? I do think so !

z/OSMF 1.13 : Storage DASD Management

This looks like a first step for easier DASD Management : it's "a new, simplified process for adding capacity to SMS pool storage groups" via z/OSMF. For this the concept of reserve storage pools is introduced : it refers to containers of pre-defined available volumes. A reserve storage pool refers to a group of volumes which are available for future use. The reserve storage pool resource is designed to replace the need for a storage administrator to manually maintain a list of defined but unused volumes.

With the Storage Management task, users can:

• Discover reserve storage pools which exist in the current system
• List volumes in a reserve storage pool
• Add volumes to a reserve storage pool
• Maintain metadata for reserve storage pools

Worth a try ? I do think so !

z/OSMF : Capacity Provisioning

I won't go into much detail on On/Off Capacity on Demand (OOCoD), the Capacity Provisioning Manager (CPM) and the stand alone workstation based Capacity Provisioning Control Center (CPCC). There are several possibilities for the CPM that go from warning you about extra resources that are needed up to adding the resources automatically based on predefined schedules or workload requirements. To manage this you need the CPCC tool which runs on windows.

For the moment the "Capacity Provisioning Manager application" on z/OSMF "is designed to support easier monitoring of z/OS Capacity Provisioning Manager (CPM) status. This capability can simplify the work of a z/OS Capacity Provisioning administrator and provides functionality to monitor connections and to view reports for domains, configurations, and policies. Capacity Provisioning Control Center is planned to continue to be available as a separate Microsoft Windows-based stand-alone client". But I have a slight suspicion that we'll see all those components integrated in a future release.

Worth a try ? I do think so !

I can only conclude by saying : the people having to talk about this z/OS 1/13 and z/OSMF 1.13 preview will surely have some interesting material to talk about. So, for our Belgian customers, come and listen to Jan Tits next Wednesday on March 16, 2011 at the GSE z/OS Working Group meeting at the RealDolmen site in Huizingen.

Sampling Techdocs - October/November 2010

Here we are with some new documents from TechDocs I recently came across or found while browsing through the latest publications.

• Technical document : z/OS Version 1 Release 12 Installation Plan Checklist
  This is pretty straightforward : "z/OS 1.12 Installation Plan checklist is for installing and migrating to z/OS 1.12 from z/OS release 10 or release 11. To be used as a supplement to existing product publications." Still, it's a very valuable and thorough document. Look e.g. at the first check : "Ensure a System z server is available" ;-)
  
  
• White paper : z/OS V1.12 Management Facility Resource Requirements
  Some practical experiences on setting up and using z/OSMF
  
  
• White paper : IBM Handbook Using DS8000 Data Replication for Data Migration
  Starting with reasons to migrate, passing to various replication methods and ending with all kinds of migration scenarios (from easy to quite complicated) this is a very interesting document on data migration.
  

• White paper : DS8000 FlashCopy usage in DFSMSdss
  This White Paper shows some usage examples for FlashCopy in a z/OS environment using DFSMSdss. It contains lots of illustrations and examples. Definitely worth a look.
  

• Presentations : IBM® zEnterprise™ System Network Virtualization, Management, and Security (Parts 1 and 2 - Overview and Details)
  In fact I can be very short on this one : everything you always wanted to know about networking on the zEnterprise. Or as the abstract says : "Part 1 presents a high-level overview of the networking topics surrounding the new architecture. (...) Part 2 presents a more detailed view of the underlying architecture, its routing and security structures, and some of its software definitions. Part 2 is suitable for a technical audience that wants to understand more about the design, positioning, and implementation of the new architecture."

• White paper : Beginners Guide to Coding Java Batch Jobs
  This white paper introduces you to programming Java Batch applications, it explains the differences with COBOL batch and gives you a step by step example for coding a 'Hello World' Java Batch application.

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

What features of z/OSMF are supported on my z/OS Release?

Just came across this Technote on the IBM Support Portal answering the following questions :

"What features of z/OSMF are supported on my z/OS Release ?
Are Basic Sysplexes supported by the z/OSMF Incident Log ?"

The document "provides details about which z/OS Management Facility features are supported in certain z/OS Releases and Sysplex Environments" (Mono-plex, Basic Sysplex and Parallel Sysplex).

If you want more information on z/OSMF :

• The preview announcement of z/OS 1.12 and z/OSMF 1.12 is over here.
• The announcement of z/OSMF 1.11 can be found here.
  
• There an IBM z/OSMF page with to the bottom also some references to Program Directory, User Guides . . .
• On Techdocs there's this presentation 'z/OS System Management Facility (z/OSMF) & WSC User Experience' by Bette Brody. It gives a detailed overview, lots of installation, configuration and setup details and concluding with a WSC (Washington Systems Center) User Experience.

IBM announcements - an overview

IBM made quite some interesting announcements this week. I'll just start by giving you a short overview, but I'm surely coming back to some of them in my next posts.

• DB2 10 goes beta as announced in 'IBM DB2 10 for z/OS launches beta program (ZP10-0015)'. As you can see the naming convention stays the same. The beta program starts on March 12, 2010. No idea when it will become generally available. If you want to know more about its functionalities, then you should take a look at Willie Favero's blog. He has a great post on DB2 10.
• It's also the time of year for the preview announcement of the next release of z/OS, so here we go : 'Preview: z/OS V1.12 - Heralding a new generation of smart operating systems (ZP10-0110)'. And apparently a new release of z/OS also means a new and enhanced release of z/OSMF : "z/OSMF V1.12 is planned to be expanded with the addition of z/OS Workload Manager Policy Editor functionality, enhancements to the already valuable Incident Log and Configuration Assistant for the z/OS Communications Server functions, and the ability to add non-z/OSMF application launch points and links".
  
• Here's one I like particulary because it's new for the System z community. IBM took over Diligent in 2008 because of Diligents de-duplication technology. Up to now the Protectier deduplication Gateway was only available for distributed systems. It's a virtual tape solution that emulates LTO tape drives and writes the data to an attached disk array. But, in the meantime it also de-duplicates the data which can lead up to a 'compression' factor of 25 times. Now this technology has also become available for System z. There are two announcements, one for the hardware and one for the software part. I'm definitely going to elaborate on these announcements in one of my future posts.
• A bit out of my league perhaps but we also had the announcement of the Power7 engine and some new models. The press release gives a good overview of this new announcement : 'IBM Unveils New POWER7 Systems To Manage Increasingly Data-Intensive Services'. I just have to mention this one as this will normally become the engine for a future generation DS8000.
• And before I forget it, we already had the announcement of GDPS V3.7 last week : 'IBM GDPS V3.7: Enterprise-wide infrastructure continuous availability and disaster recovery (ZS10-0013)'.
  

Sampling Techdocs : September - November 2009

Here we are again with some new and interesting reading material from TechDocs.

• Presentation : I'm not a dummy, but ...
  Interesting presentation on Websphere on z/OS for near-dummies like me. "In this presentation, the speaker will provide you with some more knowledge of WebSphere on z/OS. Key concepts, terminology and configurations will be discussed."
  This is just one of the many presentation from the Share Summer 2009 conference. If you want to see more, take a look at the Proceedings page at share.org.
  
  
• Presentation : DS8000 Data Replication Best Practices
  Nice presentation on DS8000 Copy Services Best Practices, Key concepts of Data Replication technology, Planning for Data replication (configuration, data collection, Bandwidth studies ...) and some case studies. The audio file is also present.
  
  
• Presentation : IBM DS8000 Storage Allocation Overview Including Thin Provisioning
  This document talks about Storage Allocation concepts, storage allocation specific for DS8000 (incl. types of logical volumes, volume expansion, capacity utilization and planning ...) and of course also about Thin Provisioning.
  

• Presentation: z/OS System Management Facility (z/OSMF) & WSC User Experience
  As z/OSMF was introduced a couple of months ago, every one's anxious to find out whether it's really living up to its promises. Well, here's a presentation by Bette Brody giving a detailed overview, lots of installation, configuration and setup details and concluding with a WSC (Washington Systems Center) User Experience. Allthough the last one might have been a bit more extensive.
  

• FAQ : IBM System z: Oracle Product Availability and FAQ
  "This document describes in detail the levels of each Oracle solution that is available on IBM System z. The format is an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)." I know that some five years ago I really had to search about every where to find this kind of information. Now it's all nicely brought together in this one document.
  

• White Paper : IBM Encrypted Storage Overview and Customer Requirements
  "This document is intended to contain critical information that you will need to know in order to manage IBM encrypted storage and to comply with IBM requirements for using IBM encrypted storage." Look out : it's the word document you need, the .pdf is just a 'Notice regarding Storage Encryption'. Some Topics :Encryption Concepts, Security vs. Accessibility, Tivoli Key Lifecycle Manager (TKLM), DS8000 Disk Encryption, IBM Tape Encryption, Best Practices for Encrypting Storage Environments …

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

Putting a new face on z/OS

I borrowed the title of this post from an article on z/OS in a CCR2 newsletter dating from 2005. Oddly enough, that almost exactly matches the title of the announcement of z/OSMF : 'IBM z/OS Management Facility V1.11 -- A new face for z/OS (ZP09-0276)'. I can't resist to give you a quote from that article.

"z/OS users today must master an assortment of user interface (UI) styles: TSO command line, ISPF panels, graphical user interfaces (GUIs), even Web-style UIs. To complete a task such as applying service, they often must interact with different UIs while flipping through a variety of publications. That's today. On the horizon is a new z/OS management console that will be headquarter central for z/OS management tasks".

So, the goal was "to simplify and modernize z/OS management for 'zNextGen' - the new generation of IBM System z9 and eServer zSeries IT professionals" in order to "make life easier for z/OS novices and experts alike".

A year later we had the announcement of 'IBM's Five year march to Mainframe Simplification'. The goal was "to enable technology administrators and computer programmers to more easily program, manage and administer a mainframe system -- as well as to increasingly automate the development and deployment of applications for the mainframe environment". Areas on which to focus were automated configuration checking, modernizing the mainframe user interface, improving software asset management technologies and modernizing the mainframe's development environment with visual tools. If we look at these targets wen can definitely say that progress has been made. Look e.g. at the development environment. But there's still room for improvement.

So, now, here's z/OSMF (z/OS Management Facility). It's "a new product for z/OS that provides support for a modern, Web-browser based management console for z/OS (...) The z/OS Management Facility is intended to enable system programmers to more easily manage and administer a mainframe system by simplifying day to day operations and administration of a z/OS system. More than just a graphical user interface, the z/OS Management Facility is intelligent. Automated tasks can help reduce the learning curve and improve productivity". It surely offers some interesting features and is definitely worth trying out. An example ? "Tasks taking up to 20 minutes, such as collecting and sending dump data, can now take as little as 30 seconds (or 8 key clicks) with z/OS Management Facility". This looks impressive and as far as I've heard, it actually is.

Here's an image of the browser user interface :

Click on picture for larger view in new window

For the moment you see four functionalities on the tree menu on the left :

• Configuration contains the Configuration Assistant task which provides a guided interface for configuring TCP/IP policy-based networking functions.
• Problem Determination contains the Incident Log task which provides a consolidated list of problems, along with the details and the diagnostic data captured and saved with each problem. It also facilitates sending the diagnostic data for further diagnosis
• Links contains links to sites for system management tools and information. Some initial useful links are provided
• z/OSMF Administration contains administrative tasks that allow you to manage z/OSMF users, roles, and links

I took this from the latest z/OS Hot Topics Newsletter which has several introductory articles on z/OSMF. There's also a z/OSMF Web page and at the bottom of it you'll also find the Program Directory and the User's Guide.

Oh, and have I told you that it's completely free. It's sold as IPLA software with a cost of zero dollars and a yearly S&S of also zero dollars, which is pretty much the same in euro. So, there's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't give it a try !