Preview of IBM z/VM V6.4

On February 16, 2016 along with the z13s, IBM also made a preview announcement of z/VM 6.4 : 'Delivering industry-proven advanced virtualization capabilities to support the increasing demands of your business (ZP16-0014)'

z/VM is planned to become available in the fourth quarter of 2016 and it will support the two LinuxONE versions and System z from z114 and z196 onwards. Mind you, z/VM 6.3 was still supporting the z10 systems, z/VM 6.4 will NOT !

Here's a short overview directly from the announcement :

"z/VM V6.4 enables extreme scalability, security, and efficiency, creating cost savings opportunities, and provides the foundation for cognitive computing on z Systems and LinuxONE.  z/VM V6.4 is planned to deliver:

• Increased efficiency with HyperPAV paging that takes advantage of DS8000 features to increase the bandwidth for paging and allow for more efficient memory management of over-committed workloads.
• Easier migration with enhanced upgrade-in-place infrastructure that provides an improved migration path from previous z/VM releases.
• Improved operations with ease of use enhancements requested by clients, such as querying service applied to the running hypervisor and providing environment variables to allow programming automation based on systems characteristics and client settings.
• Improved Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) support for guest attachment of disk and other peripherals, and hypervisor attachment of disk drives to z Systems and LinuxONE systems to:
  • Increase efficiency by allowing an IBM FlashSystem® to be directly attached to z/VM for system use without the need for an IBM System Storage® SAN Volume Controller (SVC).
  • Enable ease of use with enhanced management for SCSI devices to provide information needed about device configuration characteristics.
• Increased scalability by exploiting Guest Enhanced DAT to allow guests to take advantage of large (1 MB) pages, decreasing the memory and overhead required to perform address translation.
• Integration of new CMS Pipelines functionality which previously was not formally incorporated within the z/VM product, allowing a much more inclusive set of tools for application developers. "

Next to that, there's also support for simultaneous multithreading (SMT) and the vector extension facility (SIMD) instructions on the z13 systems. The last one helps "accelerating Business Analytics workloads on z13, z13s, and LinuxONE".

Have a look at the z/VM page and the z/VM 6.4 Resources page. I'm sure, in time, more information will certainly become available on those pages. And it's always interesting to follow the discussions on the z/VM discussion list.

IBM Wave for z/VM - Nice introductory video

Well, yesterday a couple of links weren't working, but the Data Sheet and the Redbook (draft) on installation, implementation and exploitation of IBM Wave for z/VM are available by now. And I must say, the redbook looks pretty impressive covering every thinkable topic on IBM Wave. Here's a small summary of its contents

• Part 1. Architecture and installation
• Chapter 1. Introduction to IBM Wave for z/VM
• Chapter 2. IBM Wave for z/VM architecture
• Chapter 3. Planning and design
• Chapter 4. Installation and configuration
• Part 2. Using IBM Wave for z/VM
• Chapter 5. How to manage and operate the user interface environment
• Chapter 6. How to manage z/VM
• Chapter 7. How to manage the Linux virtual machines

There's also a great introductory video on IBM Wave on that same page. I don't think the authors will mind my embedding it here.



So, lots of good materials to give you an introduction or to get you started on IBM Wave for z/VM.

IBM Wave for z/VM - Empowered Virtualization Management

Today IBM announces IBM Wave for z/VM with the following announcement : 'IBM Wave for z/VM Version 1.1 simplifies management of z/VM and Linux guests with intelligent visualization (ZP14-0036)'. Actually IBM Wave comes from the acquisition IBM did last year of CSL International with its product CSL-Wave. "IBM Wave for z/VM is an intuitive virtualization management software product that provides management, administration, provisioning, and enables automation of Linux virtual servers in a z/VM environment". The scope of IBM Wave can span multiple logical partitions (LPARs), SSI clusters, and servers.
It should help lowering the threshold for companies who see the benefits of Linux on System z but do not have the necessary skills in that area. Wave makes a complete analysis of an existing environment or it helps to setup a new environment with its interactive GUI.
The following video gives you a good idea of what you can do with IBM Wave for z/VM.



You can find several resources about IBM Wave

• IBM page for IBM Wave for z/VM
• Another IBM page directing you to several resources
• A redbook : IBM Wave for z/VM - An introduction
• The FAQ. In this FAQ you also find some references to demos on the CSI International webpage on Automatic Detection, Automation and Simplification, Enhanced Server Farm Administration, Network Management, Provisioning . . .
• Here's a nice brochure also from the CSL site : 'CSL-Wave - Get z Power without z Learning Curve'.
• The Datasheet
• A second redbook : IBM Wave for z/VM- Installation, Implementation and Exploitation

The key prerequisites : you need an IBM System z server (starting from a z10) using a currently supported release of z/VM (5.4, 6.2 or 6.3).
General availability is February 28, 2014.
IBM Wave is IPLA software with Subscription and Support (S&S). And as far as I can see, it follows the same logic for its Value Units as z/VM. It's determined by number of cores and the Value Units needed decrease when you have more cores. E.g. for 1 to 3 cores you need 10 Value Units per core, for cores 4 to 6 you need 9 Value Units per core. So for 4 cores you'll need 39 Value Units.

I can't resist by closing with one example of what's the difference between using IBM Wave or not. How to clone a virtual machine.

Without IBM Wave

1. Determine if required resources exist
2. Create clone VM definition
3. Define clone VM resources
4. Create copies of private VM resources (server)
5. Create copies of private VM resources (disk)
6. Customize clone VM
7. Authorize clone VM access / VSwitch Access
8. Add clone to management groups
9. Activate clone
10. Configure the network
11. Run middleware configuration scripts
12. Monitor and report on cloning operation.

With IBM Wave

1. Open the “Clone” form
2. Fill in the needed information
3. Press the “Go” Button

Software withdrawal and support discontinuance: IBM System z platform selected products

It's always interesting to browse through the list of softwares that will no longer be supported. Here's a new IBM announcement with a whole list of products : 'Software withdrawal and support discontinuance: IBM System z platform selected products (ZP14-0024)'. Take a look at it, it might point out some softwares you're using.

Let me just indicate some of them that drew my attention.

IBM Smart Analytics Optimizer for DB2® for z/OS, V1.1 will no longer be supported after April 30, 2015. It'll be replaced by IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator for z/OS, V4.1 (5697-DAB).

About operating systems : IBM z/VM 6.2 is an interesting one. There was already an End of Service date fixed on April 30, 2015. This has now been extended until December 31, 2016. IBM z/VSE 4.3.1 will be withdrawn from service on October 31, 2014. So, just a couple of months to go for this one.

Then there's IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS V3.4 (5655-G53). This one is End of Support on April 30, 2015 and it will be replaced by IBM Enterprise COBOL for z/OS V5.1 (5655-W32). The same goes for IBM Enterprise PL/I for z/OS V3.9 (5655-H31) that will be replaced by IBM Enterprise PL/I for z/OS V4.4 (5655-W67).

There are more of course. Just take a look for yourself.

z/VM and the future of Unified Resource Manager

Before you think this is a z/VM post only : I think it also concerns z/OS but therefore I first have some explaining to do.

We start with the announcement of z/VM 6.2 in October 2011 (ZP11-0499). Here's the role that is attributed to the System z Unified Resource Manager or zManager. 

z/VM has "been enhanced to enable the Unified Resource Manager to manage the z/VM hypervisor and the virtual servers it supports. The SMAPI enhancements provide new and updated APIs and function in the following functional areas:

• System configuration file management
• User directory management
• Disk management
• Network management
• Discontiguous saved segment (DCSS) management
• Guest facilities management
• Directory parsing
• API function level interrogation
• Performance and events management
• Image management"

z/VM installation has been enhanced to create a system configuration which would allow management by the Unified Resource Manager or some other SMAPI client.

In short with zManager you can apparently manage z/VM and virtual servers running on z/VM.

On to the announcement of z/VM 6.3 (ZP13-0376) in July of this year. Here we get quite a different story. And keep my previous post in mind where I explained what the word 'stabilization' means in IBM terminology. Here we go.

z/VM V6.3, OpenStack and zManager
IBM zEnterprise Unified Resource Manager (zManager) is designed to provide systems management capabilities across the multi-architecture environment of zEnterprise. Many of you are planning to exploit these system management capabilities to deploy a framework for a heterogeneous cloud environment (...). To accelerate the delivery of its cloud offerings, IBM recently announced plans to base all of its cloud services and software on open architecture and standards, including OpenStack.

OpenStack is an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) cloud computing open source project. IBM joined the project in 2012 and in support of System z is making contributions to the OpenStack project that are designed to enable z/VM V6.3 to be the first System z operating environment that can be managed with these open cloud architecture-based interfaces.
The management of z/VM environments in zManager is now stabilized as part of the evolution of the IBM cloud strategy and adoption of OpenStack. Accordingly, zManager does not provide systems management support for z/VM V6.3. However, zManager will continue to play a distinct and significant role in the management of virtualized environments created by zEnterprise integrated firmware hypervisors - PR/SM™ , PowerVM™ , and x hypervisor based on Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM).

Italics and bold indications are mine. But apparantly zManager turns from a real management tool for z/VM 6.2 into, well actually nothing, for z/VM 6.3. I'm not saying it's a bad choice, I'm just trying to get the message.

And here I also come to the z/OS part of this, I think. z/VM is "the first System z operating environment" that will be managed by OpenStack. So, which environments will follow in the future ?

If you're a bit puzzled and confused about this post, don't worry, that's just the same way as I'm feeling now. If anyone can shed some more light on this, be my guest !

zEC12 and zBC12 the last System z servers to support z/VM 5.4

This might be an interesting bit of information I came across today for customers still using z/VM 5.4. In the announcement of z/VM 6.3 there was also this statement of direction :

"Stabilization of VM z/V5.4 support
The IBM zEnterprise EC12 and IBM zEnterprise BC12 are planned to be the last System z servers supported by z/VM V5.4 and the last System z servers that will support z/VM V5.4 running as a guest (second level). z/VM V5.4 will continue to be supported until December 31, 2014, or until the IBM System z9® EC and IBM System z9 BC are withdrawn from support, whichever is later. Refer to Withdrawal Announcement ZP12-0335, dated August 07, 2012".

So, just keep it in mind : z/VM 5.4 will no longer be supported on the next generations of System z in any form.

By the way, 'stabilization' is a typical IBM word with a specific content. It always gets my immediate attention because it really means : we immediately stop all further effort for this product and from now on it's a dead end street.

z/VM 6.3 - Virtualization with efficiency at scale

On July 23 we also saw the announcement of z/VM 6.3 : 'IBM z/VM V6.3 - Virtualization with efficiency at scale (ZP13-0376)'.

At a glance (straight from the announcement) :

• Improved economies of scale with z/VM support for 1 TB of real memory.
  • Better performance for larger virtual machines.
    • Quadruples memory scalability while continuing to maintain greater than 90% resource utilization.
  • Additional vertical scalability to help reduce logical partition (LPAR) sprawl.
    • Considerably more virtual machines can be consolidated into a single LPAR, depending on workload characteristics.
  • Reduced administrative expense through managing a smaller number of large-capacity z/VM host servers.
• Improved performance with HiperDispatch.
  • More efficient utilization of CPU hardware resources for dispatched work.
• Adoption of OpenStack as part of the IBM cloud strategy. In concert, IBM is making contributions to the OpenStack project that are designed to enable z/VM V6.3 to be the first System z® operating environment to be managed by these open cloud architecture-based interfaces.
• Simplified migration to z/VM V6.3 with upgrade in place, which reduces the effect of an upgrade on active workloads.
• Highly secure industry-standard support that is required for banking and financial-industry applications.
• Support for the new IBM zEC12 and zBC12 servers.

The program number is 5741-A07.

Hardware requirements are stricter than for z/OS 2.1 as I only see z10 BC, z10 EC, z196, z114 and the recent zEC12 and zBC12.

There's an excellent web page with information and links about ordering and availability, service and support, reference information and online documentation and publications. You can find it over here.

IBM Announcement : Preview z/VM 6.3

Today IBM is launching a preview for their operating systems. Let's first have a look at z/VM : 'Preview: IBM z/VM 6.3 - Smarter Computing with efficiency at scale (ZP13-0027)'.

The highlights ?

"To address pressure on memory resources, z/VM V6.3 supports 1 TB of real memory, which may increase server consolidation ratios and continues to provide support for more virtual servers than any other platform in a single footprint".

"To address your increasing workload demands for processor cycles and for quicker access to memory, z/VM V6.3 delivers HiperDispatch function that can improve workload throughput by optimizing processor cache utilization. HiperDispatch attempts to redispatch a virtual server repeatedly on the same physical CPU, or on a collection of physically adjacent CPUs, to increase the chances of obtaining data from the processor cache, instead of incurring time delays by having to go to main memory for data".

Prerequisites

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

Planned availability date is third quarter of 2013.

Your company's choice for virtualization : z/VM of course

If you're looking into virtualization and you still think the mainframe is too expensive or if you're eager to virtualize or continue to virtualize with z/VM, then take a look at this study from Solitaire Interglobal. It makes a comparison between z/VM and virtualization solutions on Unix and x86. it's based upon the input of almost 80,000 (mostly larger) customer sites. It takes two angles for looking into it : the business perspective on the one hand and the technical perspective on the other hand. If you want to build a case for z/VM, you might use this as a basis for structuring your arguments.

Let me walk you quickly through some of the topics that are covered. First of all there's the business perspective.

• Customer satisfaction : "The more complex or volatile the environment, the more all
  aspects of customers reported high satisfaction with z/VM".
• Total Cost of Ownership : this reminds me of this other document that unfortuately enough has not been updated since 2004, the Dinosaur Myth, that also proves that when you look at TCO instead of TCA you get a completely different picture.
• Staffing : "Staffing is far more effective with z/VM, the same number of people can support up to 3 times more VM images"
• Availability : "The more virtualized the environment, the more critical the availability becomes. z/VM requires fewer platform and VM reboots than competitive platforms with very little downtime, either planned or unplanned".
• Agility : "z/VM users are reporting faster deployment times by as much as 5 times".

The second part covers the comparison from a technical perspective.

• System Efficiency : "The z/VM platform allows more IT workload to be done with fewer overall resources".
• Security : "z/VM supports all forms of security control and isolation, including those required for highly secure implementations, separating resources for memory, network, I/O and access".

I didn't cover all topics but it gives you a pretty good idea where this study is heading at. If you follow the link, there's a 9-page management summary and of course also the 36-page full report.

As I always say, just check it out !

#mainframedebate, twitter, mainframe blog and Enterprise Virtualization with z/VM

Some three years ago I had my little say about Twitter over here and back then (ages ago) I referred to an article on 'The four stages of the average Twitter user' and I think the article is still relevant. The four stages are : Confusion and Indignation, The first "Aha!" Moment, Remembering to Tweet and Thinking in 140 characters. Three years ago I was definitely a stage one person. But things - and people - evolve. I've discovered that lots of information and links to interesting blogs comes a lot faster via Twitter. So, I'm tweeting a reference to my blog posts myself, I'm checking the tweets of people I follow at least twice a day, I'm re-tweeting interesting stuff and this all mostly via Tweetdeck. Am I hooked to it, not really : I'm only using it for professional purposes and I haven't gone mobile ... yet.

And so my post starts with the hashtag #mainframedebate. For those not familiar with the term, a hashtag is a kind of search argument you can add to a tweet. If people search on it, they get all tweets around this topic. And, if all people start using that hashtag at the same moment, you can start a debate. Well, yesterday I received an invite from Steven Dickens (@StevenDickens3) which went like this :

@mwambeke planning to join us? #mainframedebate 5th Dec | 4pm GMT | 11am EST

So tomorrow at 4pm GMT you can join this debate on twitter posing as many questions as you like about the mainframe. You need a twitter account to participate but you can follow the discussion over here as well.
If you want some more information, you can have a look at the Mainframe and Hybrid Computing blog from Steven who also organized the first debate and wrote about it in a couple of posts last September.

It's free association today, so this topic also brings me to Stevens blog. I didn't know it before but Steven writes quite some interesting stuff on mainframe and cloud computing. His latest post is about Cloud Computing and the Cult of x86. He refers to a white paper 'Comparing Virtualization Alternatives - What's best for your business?' which you can find via this link. "The purpose of this analysis was to examine the real-world  impact on businesses that deploy IBM’s z/VM virtualization product, compared to those using UNIX or x86 products". If you want to make a stand for z/VM as virtualization platform this is a very useful document with lots of arguments and graphs illustrating every aspect of the comparison.

And . . . don't forget to join the #mainframedebate tomorrow !

IBM summer announcements : System z

I actually only want to point out one announcement : 'Software withdrawal and support discontinuance: IBM System z selected products (ZP12-0335)'. I would say, go and have a look at this list of softwares for which support will stop somewhere between August 31, 2013 and December 31, 2014.

I at least want to point out that z/VM 5.4 would originally be supported until September 30, 2013. This has been changed now : "z/VM V5.4 will continue to be supported until December 31, 2014, or until the z9 EC and z9 BC are withdrawn from support, whichever is later". Looking at the mainframe Life Cycle document at Techdocs I assume support on z/VM 5.4 will last (probably considerably) longer than 2014.


So that rounds up my posts about IBM announcements this summer. But . . . who knows what tomorrow will bring . . .

z/VM turns 40 next month : some history and a new blog

IBM announced its first official VM product (then called VM/370) on August 2, 1972. As times changed, so did VM. You may have known it by one or more of its many flavors (VM/SP, VM/XA, VM/SP HPO, VM/IS, VM/ESA) that preceded today's z/VM. So, z/VM is turning 40 next month.

If you want to learn some more on the history of VM, there's already a VM History and Heritage Reference page over here.

This anniversary seems to have been a good reason for Bill Bitner to start a blog on this called : '40 Reflections for 40 Years of z/VM'. You can find it over here. The author's intentions ?

As the IBM z/VM product approaches its 40th Anniversary on August 2, 2012, the author takes time to reflect on the product and his experiences.

Go and have a look at it. One of the questions that, obviously, pops up is "What is a VM?". In another post Bill refers to Brian Wade's phrase saying it is z/VM's role to "faithfully replicate the architecture". He also comments on the z/VM community, the people behind the product (IBM, customers), influential people etc.
I think I'll pass the link along to my VMWare colleagues as well. After all they might be interested in how VMWare will evolve the next 30 years.

As I always say, just check it out !

System z EOS announcements for DB2 and z/VM

I'm a bit late, I know, with last weeks announcements. But you know what they say : better late than never. I'll start off with the System z announcements and make another post on the storage announcements.

New End of Support (EOS) dates are announced for a range of products : 'Software withdrawal and support discontinuance: IBM System z selected products (ZP12-0021)'. I'm not going to list them all but next to some Websphere, Tivoli, IMS, TPC and other products there's first of all the End of Support date of DB2 for z/OS 9.1 on June 27, 2014. A bit more than 7 years after GA. If you're still on V8, don't forget that the EOS date is in a couple of months on April 30, 2012. You might very well consider skipping DB2 9 altogether and do a skip level migration to DB2 10.

By the way, I just added a Belgian GSE DB2 Working Group meeting to the agenda. It's at the Colruyt site in Halle on Thursday March 15, 2012 and the meeting is entirely dedicated to DB2 V10 migration experiences. Speakers are John Campbell (IBM Distinguished Engineer) and Michael Dewert (IBM Germany).

Next to that, there's also the announcement of the EOS date for z/VM 6.1 on April 30, 2013. As you know, that's almost half a year earlier that the EOS date for z/VM 5.4 which is on September 30, 2013. z/VM 6.1 is to be replaced by z/VM 6.2.

Sampling Techdocs - November 2011-Janary 2012

Here I am again with another review of interesting TechDocs documents I came across while browsing through the latest publications. If you're completely unfamiliar to Techdocs, here's an introduction to it.

• Presentation : z/OS Version 1 Release 13 Technical Update
  A couple of documents on z/OS starting with a presentation on z/OS 1.13 and z/OSMF. The audio of the presentation is also included.
  
  
• Technical Document : z/OS Version 1 Release 13 Installation Plan Checklist
  "z/OS 1.13 Installation Plan checklist is for installing and migrating to z/OS 1.13 from z/OS release 11 or release 12. To be used as a supplement to existing product publications."

• Flash : Withdrawal of z/OS Function Beginning with z/OS Release 5 Through Current z/OS Release
  This is a classic of time but it doesn't hurt to take a look at it once in a while. It also includes some functions planned to be withdrawn in future releases.
  

• White paper : IBM System Storage DS8800 and DS8700 Performance with Easy Tier 3rd Generation
  Easy Tier 3rd generation "further expands Easy Tier to manage hybrid storage pools with up to three tiers including Solid State Drives (SSDs), Enterprise Disks, and Nearline Disks". But the paper is not only for people using hybrid pools : "Auto Rebalance has also been extended to include management of homogenous pools containing only a single tier of storage". Easy Tier 3 is available from DS8000 LIC Release 6.2.
  

• Workshop material : WAS z/OS V8 Wildfire Workshop Material
  WebSphere Application Server for z/OS Version 8 was made available in 2011. It has many new features and functions associated with it, including updated open standard application interface specification support. This is the handout material of a 5-unit wildfire workshop on it. Units are 'Introduction and Overview', 'Administrative Model', 'The Split JVM Model', 'Accessing z/OS Data', 'WebSphere Optimized Local Adapters' and Hands-on lab instructions.
  

• Technical Document : Using z/VM FBA Emulation in a Second-Level ID
  Starting point : "z/VM can access SCSI disks through the services of an I/O layer known as FBA Emulation, introduced with z/VM 5.1. FBA Emulation was added to z/VM to remove one of the \barriers to entry" for Linux on System z: ECKD DASD. With FBA Emulation, a site with no traditional mainframe installation can install and run z/VM and Linux guests without having to invest in mainframe DASD".
  "The z/VM FBA Emulation feature allows z/VM systems to access and use SCSI-over-FCPdisks via a SAN fabric. FBA Emulation is straightforward to use at a first-level system but complexity arises at second-level. This article presents a review of using FBA Emulation and the alternatives for using these disks in a second-level ID".
  

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

2011Q4 IBM mainframe announcements

A lot of interesting mainframe news was announced this week. I'm going to give you a brief overview of the announcements before I go into more details in some following posts. You shouldn't expect those to arrive before next week as I'm off to the IBM briefing center at Montpellier for the rest of the week - attending the Oracle on System z event.

The eye-catcher is of course Windows on zBX, but there's really much more. I'll start by giving you the titles of the announcements, the links and some brief information. Just to tease you for what's coming !


IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator for z/OS , V2.1 enables a new class of business intelligence and data warehousing workloads for the IBM System z platform (ZP11-0546)
IDAA (yes, we needed another acronym) is the successor of ISAOpt (euh, IBM Smart Analytics Optimizer). It is based on Netezza technology and it should deliver an even far better performance. For the rest, it is implemented as transparantly as ISAOpt for DB2 for z/OS applications. What I find a bit annoying here is that it is not integrated into the zBX and therefore it is not managed by the Unified Resource Manager.


IBM z/VSE V5.1 - 64-bit virtual for future workloads (ZP11-0560)
z/VSE 5.1 is designed to

• "Provide 64-bit virtual addressing for workload growth or new applications.
• Introduce an architectural level set (ALS) that requires IBM System z9 or later.
• Exploit innovative IBM zEnterprise technology.
• Exploit enhanced IBM System Storage options.
• Offer new networking functions for more connectivity options.
• Provide Connector enhancements for high availability".

zEnterprise further extends hybrid computing with support for Microsoft Windows and other enhancements (ZG11-0275)
zHPF enhancements, APIs for the Unified Resource Manager, GDPS improvements and a lot more. But of course focus will mainly be on "Microsoft™ Windows™ on select IBM BladeCenter® HX5 (7873) blades installed in the zBX".


IBM z/VM V6.2 - Accelerate the journey to smarter computing with multi-system virtualization and virtual server mobility (ZP11-0499)
This had been a statement of direction for some time. Well, here it is now : "Multi-system virtualization clustering technology allowing up to four z/VM instances to be clustered in a Single System Image (SSI)". This also implies "Live Guest Relocation to move Linux™ virtual servers without disruption to the business, helping to avoid planned outages"


IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for z/OS Media V6.3 and IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Extended Edition for z/OS Media V6.3 enable FICON attached device access for IBM Tivoli Storage Manager V6.3 Server on AIX and Linux on System z (ZP11-0465)
I like this one as well. It took some time to deliver but it's finally there. Lots of customers were running TSM for z/OS and invested in FICON coupled tape or DASD solutions. But then it was announced that TSM V6 would no longer run on z/OS. So you had to convert to another platform that was not able to connect to your FICON attached equipment. So, this TSM for z/OS Media is the missing link between both. You can now migrate to V6 but you can still write your data via z/OS to your FICON attached equipment. The concept is also "designed to allow the tape volume and stored data that was previously inventoried by the Tivoli Storage Manager for z/OS V5.5 server remain accessible on the z/OS system by the Tivoli Storage Manager V6.3 server on AIX or Linux for System z without having to move the tape volume from the z/OS managed tape library".

IBM XIV Mobile Dashboard for iPad

I was in doubt whether I would already post about this or not. I surely don't have the habit of writing about things before they're officially announced. I guess we all know about now a bunch of IBM announcements is coming our way next week, but it suprised me to see that some information is already mentioned on the internet. Have a look over here : I get the impression I just missed the z/VM 6.2 announcement as it says : "The major improvements offered by version 6.2 was support of clustering for up to four z/VM instances" and non-disruptive relocation of Linux guest environments.

And then I saw a tweet about this. You can already download this XIV Mobile Dashboard app for iPad from iTunes : IBM XIV Mobile Dashboard for iPad. Well it's such a nice pictures I just wanted to share them with you.




Reading the description, it looks like this is not the full management GUI but just an extra monitoring tool for iPad.

Oh well, more to come next week !

Red Alert for any customer running Linux on z/VM

Did you know there was a z/VM Red Alert page too. I must admit I did not. So, thanks to Pamela Christina for directing me towards it via the IBM VM discussion list. The z/VM Red Alert page can be found over here. If you want to get notified of future Red Alerts, just click on the 'Notify Me' tab on the left hand side and fill out your e-mail address.

Now, what's this Red Alert about ? Here's a quote.

APAR VM64862 is in error
APAR VM64862 has been found to be in error. Installing this APAR may result in ABENDHRM003. APAR VM64965 has been opened to correct the problem and is planned to be available by the end of April 2011.
USERS AFFECTED:
Any customers running Linux on z/VM

All details about this Red Alert can be found in the following .pdf : 2011 z/VM Red Alert

Sampling Techdocs - January/March 2011

It's been a while since I've referred to some of the most interesting publications I regularly find on Techdocs. But, here we are once again with a selection.

• FAQ : What are the maximum distances for various FC speeds and cable media?
  Did you know that in the worst case with 8Gbps and 50 µm short-wave cables you can hardly bridge 50m. With 16 Gbps that becomes 35m.
  
  
• Technical document : Identifying the dynamic SQL statement which is causing a lock timeout in DB2 for z/OS
  I mentioned this document before but apparantly it's been updated. At the time it was set up for DB2 V8. It has been updated and it's also valid for newer releases.
  
  
• Presentations : Introduction to ProtecTIER. Concepts of Data Deduplication and Introduction to ProtecTIER - TS7600 Architecture
  If you're revising your backup solutions and you're interested in D2D or D2D2T and you want state of the art deduplication, then you might want to take a look at these two presentations. They give a good overview of ProtecTIER, quite technical at times and there's also a roadmap included.
  

• Presentation : DS8000 PAV and FlashCopy with z/VSE
  There's more to life than just z/OS. Here's a nice presentation on the implementation of PAV on z/VSE. It explains PAV in general and then continues on how to implement it on z/VSE. Do take a good look at the restrictions, though.
  

• Presentation : DS8000 Advanced Functions and z/VM
  "This presentation discusses which DS8000 System z functions are exploited by z/VM. Functions discussed are Parallel Access Volumes (PAVs), FlashCopy, MIDAWs, zHPF, and Extended Address Volumes (EAVs)." Also interesting if you're running e.g. z/VSE as a guest on z/VM.
  

• Flash : IBM zEnterprise BladeCenter Extension Top of Rack Switch (TOR)
  This document starts with an overview of the zBX but goes into greater detail afterwards. It discusses the Bulk Power Heads on the z196, the connectivity for the Intranode Management Network (INMN) and the IntraEnsemble Data Network (IEDN), with some illustrations (always nice to get a visual) and it concludes with lots of reference materials.

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

Short takes

Sometimes I'm making a couple of bookmarks thinking 'I'm going to blog on this'. But then I forget about it or there are other things to talk about. So here's an excellent opportunity to catch up on some of those and to mention some new, short messages.

• Doing this presales job for quite a few years now, I think my actual experience with DB2 is getting a bit rusty. Did you know there are 16 (yes 16) Explain Tables in DB2 for z/OS. Of course you did. Or, if you didn't, take a look at Willie Favero's blog post about it : 'Explaining the history of EXPLAIN tables' clarifying (pun intentionally avoided) it all to you.

• There was a z/VSE GSE meeting in Brussels at the end of last year with the two most renowned speakers (at least that I know of) on the subject : Klaus Goebel and Wilhem Mild. Here are there presentations :

  z/VSE in an Elevator - Dr. K. Goebel

  Modernization solutions with z/VSE - Dr. W. Mild

  What's new in z/VM and Linux - Dr. K Goebel

  Modern Application development environments for z/VSE - Dr. W. Mild

  z/VSE Pricing options - Dr. K Goebel

  SOA for z/VSE, Disaster Recovery Scenarios and tools - Dr. W. Mild

• On February 26, 2010 at 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM CST (7:00 PM Brussels Time there's a technical webinar on XIV. You can register over here. As a matter a fact it's already a second presentation on the topic. The page also mentions the first one which you can download from IBM's ftp site. It's this one : 20091118XIV_pt_1.wmv. If, just like me, you might have problems with the G2M3 codec in Windows Media Player, you can download it from the Citrix site.

• Here's one I've mentioned before : the z/OS Platform evaluation test team. They run the final verification tests on a z/OS release before it becomes GA. But more interesting : they gather their experiences and publish them. The publication usually comes a couple of months after the product goes GA. So late december they published 'z/OS V1R11.0 System z Platform Test Report for z/OS and Linux Virtual Servers'. which you can find on the Library tab of the site.

• IBM VM Developer Home Pages : I accidentally stumbled across these pages from some VM Developers. Just take a look at them, some are quite interesting. I just take a couple of quick picks. Bill Bitner has some presentations but he also has a variation on the 'You must be a mainframer if ...' list, with his 'If ... you're probably not on VM'. Tung-Sing Chong has an example of 'Cloning Linux Images in z/VM' with install/setup instructions. And I also liked Steve Wilkins' 'VM-Linux on System z Storage Technologies' presentation.
  

• I also already mentioned the 'Myth vs Truth' System z page before. Well, I have the impression they added some 'myths' (or is it 'truths') about the mainframe. They also incorporated some videos that have been around on Youtube for a while like 'The IBM System z can babysit your kids'. But do take a look at the Myth vs Truth site as well. I like the ending of those clips.
  
  

As I always say, just check them out !

Migrating to Linux on System z reading material

The picture I used last week came from the redbook : 'Practical Migration to Linux on System z' which was published a couple of weeks ago. This is a well-written publication on migrating/consolidating workloads to Linux on System z. It gives you a high-level tchnical overview on how to tackle such a migration project. Or as the authors state it : "(...) we attempt to present an end-to-end view of the technical challenges and methods necessary to complete a successful migration to Linux on System z". I particularly like the part on the migration analysis starting with z/vm and Linux on system z technical aspects (not too technical) and further focusing on Network analysis, Storage analysis, Application analysis, Database analysis, Backup analysis, Security analysis, Operational analysis and Disaster Recovery and Availability analysis. There are also some example cases.

So for some one who's (even only remotely) considering this kind of migration, this is definitely worth a read.

If you want to go a bit further down this path, you might also be interested in one or more of the following publications :

• The manual Getting Started with Linux on System z (SC24-6194-00). I really want to quote the titles of most of the chapters of this manual as it gives you a wealth of technical information on the topic : About z/VM, Planning for Linux Virtual Servers, Changing the System Configuration, Configuring the Directory Maintenance Facility, Configuring TCP/IP, Restarting z/VM and checking the system, Creating your first Linux virtual Machine and installing linux, Cloning Linux Virtual servers . . .

• Redbook z/VM and Linux on IBM System z The Virtualization Cookbook for SLES 10 SP2. "The publication adopts a cookbook format that provides you with a concise, repeatable set of procedures for installing and configuring z/VM in a logical partition (LPAR), and then installing and customizing Linux".

• Redbook z/VM and Linux on IBM System z The Virtualization Cookbook for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2. Same format, but this time for Red Hat.

• Redbook z/VM and Linux Operations for z/OS System Programmers. I guess the abstract of this book really sums up accurately what it's about : "Although other books have been written about many of these topics, this book gives enough information about each topic to describe z/VM and Linux on IBM System z operations to somebody who is new to both environments. This book is intended for z/OS programmers and system programmers who are transitioning to the z/VM and Linux on System z environments and who want a translation guide for assistance." You can take this translating very literally. Very often z/VM concepts are compared to the z/OS ones in order to make clear how they are similar to or different from z/OS.
  

So, if you're about to start with Linux on System z, you have (to my opinion) some nice starting material gathered here, no matter whether or not you're already familiar with z/VM or Linux (on System z).