In the meantime for those who might also be going on holiday or perhaps taking a business trip, just remember :
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This mainframe blog intends to write on IBM z Systems and high-end and midrange storage associated with it. My intention is to write all kinds of comments, hints and tips and thoughts about news in general, announcements, publications, interesting sites and user groups.
The IBM System Storage DS8000 series now offers 300 GB 15,000 rpm disk drives supporting improved performance and additional priced options. The 300 GB 15,000 rpm disk drives can support up to 30 percent increased throughput and increased I/O operations per second as compared to similar-size 10,000 rpm disk drives, providing potential benefits for transaction processing workloads.
After the installation of the PTF(s) for APAR OA18860, a sysplex-wide hang can occur waiting for CATALOG resource SYSIGGV2 which requires an IPL of the system holding the resource in order to to recover. The PTFs in error include: UA30834, UA30835, UA30836, UA30837 UA30838 for z/OS 1.4 through 1.8 respectively. A restart of Catalog is not sufficient to clear the condition. Please see APAR OA19429 for more information.More info and recommended actions can be found over here.
With z/OS (R) V1.9, IBM plans to extend the value of the flagship mainframe operating system with improvements in all of its core competencies, including scalability, availability, and resource optimization. With increased focus on simplifying z/OS for IT professionals, plans for z/OS V1.9 include improvements to the IBM Health Checker for z/OS, the IBM Configuration Assistant for z/OS Communications Server, DFSMSrmm, ISPF, Hardware Configuration Manager (HCM), and Coupling Facility services, as well as a new dbx GUI. Additional enhancements to z/OS are planned to make the operating system more powerful in applying centralized policy-based rules for defining and controlling how your applications behave.
z/VM V5.3 is designed to offer:What IS obvious is that IBM is putting lots of stress on the Virtualization factor. This is emphasized by a complementary press release of IBM yesterday heading :"IBM Supercharges Mainframe Virtualization. Helping Customers Reduce Server Sprawl, Company Launches New Scalability Enhancements to Support the Industry's Largest Number of Virtual Images on a Single z/VM". IBM has tested that a single copy of z/VM is now capable of hosting more than 1.000 virtual images. Obviously the focal point is on Linux on System z. The example is given of the Marist College which is now running 600 Linux images on z/VM as each student is running its own virtual Linux. Another recurring element (in favor of the mainframe) is that when you can run lots of Linux images on a single mainframe, you can "lower energy consumption and other costs associated with data centers that have large numbers of single-application servers".
- Improved memory utilization to help relieve storage constraints
- Guest support enhancements, including a z/OS testing environment for the simulation of zAAP and zIIP specialty processors
- Comprehensive security with a new LDAP server and RACF feature, including support for password phrases
- Delivery of RSCS FL530 as a priced, optional IPLA feature
- Enhancements to help improve the ease-of-use of virtual networks
- Further exploitation of IBM System and Tape Storage devices
- Management enhancements for Linux and other virtual images