The new zEnterprise EC12 - a Highly Secure System for Cloud Computing and Enterprise Data

I've already mentioned that today there'll be a virtual event announcing the next generation of zEnterprise. For the moment the official announcements are not yet available, but I can already show you how the new systems looks like :

As you can see : different than before. You can find the picture along with the press release over here at the IBM Press Room. The press release is of course a more strategic introduction to the system. You can however already find some technical details on capacity, memory usage, the new Flash Express and IBM zAware, security . . .

There's also an introductory video on youtube about the new system :



You can still register for the virtual event over here and of course, as soon as the official announcements are available, I'll come back with all the technical details about the new system.

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been changed now : "z/VM V5.4 will continue to be supported until December 31, 2014, or until the z9 EC and z9 BC are withdrawn from support, whichever is later".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 . . .

IBM Summer Announcements : Storage : StorWize and XIV

This summer there were storage announcements about StorWize and XIV.

About StorWize, as mentioned in announcement 'Hardware withdrawal: Select drive features for IBM Storwize V7000 - Replacements available (ZG12-0187)', effective August 18, 2012, the 300GB 2.5-inch E-MLC SSD drive is replaced by 200GB or 400GB 2.5-inch E-MLC SSD drives. Also 300GB, 450GB, 600GB and 900GB 2.5-inch 10k RPM SAS HDD drives are replaced by 6Gb 2.5-inch 10K RPM SFF HDD drives effective October 27, 2012. You can find out more about these new drives in 'IBM Storwize V7000 introduces new 300 GB, 600 GB, and 900 GB SAS drives (ZG12-0188)'.

About XIV,  the announcement 'Hardware withdrawal: IBM 2810 XIV Storage System Model A14 and IBM 2812 XIV Storage System Model A14 - Replacements available (ZG12-0203)' indicates that from October 26, 2012 Gen2 models can no longer be ordered. Only Gen3 models remain available. Two other announcements (ZG12-0224 and ZP12-0324) offer some new functionalities for Gen3 :

• "1 TB raw capacity per drive option: XIV now supports configurations as small as 27 TB of usable storage making it a viable option for customers with smaller capacity needs.
• XIV USGv6 certification: The enhanced security available with IPv6 is of particular interest to enterprise customers that adopted IPv6., such as federal agencies.
• SCVMM: Microsoft Hyper-V customers using XIV can now manage XIV storage through the standard Hyper-V tools for managing Virtual Machines for increased ease of management".

Then there's one more announcement about the XIV (ZG12-0226) stating that "effective July 24, 2012, new purchases of IBM XIV Storage System machine type 2812 models 114 and A14, will include both a 3-year hardware warranty period and 3-year warranty for XIV Software Maintenance. Customers who desire longer than 3-years software maintenance contracts will be able to purchase the 3-year hardware warranty period with 4- or 5-year software maintenance". I'm not really sure how to interpret this because as far as I know this already was the case in the past. It seems more likely IBM deleted the option of ordering 1 or 2 years of software warranty with this box of 3 years hardware maintenance. Correct me if I'm wrong !

I know what IBM announced last summer : CICS

Unfortunately IBM doesn't stop making announcements because it's summer holiday. So I'm going to try and tell you about recent announcements. Let me start out with CICS. Afterwards I'll have another post on System z and on storage.

The first announcement is 'Software withdrawal: IBM CICS selected products part numbers - Alternatives available (ZP12-0314)'. IBM support will discontinue for IBM CICS Transaction Gateway (CICS TG) for Multiplatforms V7.1 (5724-I81) on September 30, 2013 and for IBM CICS Universal Client V7.1 on (5724-J09) on April 30, 2014. Of course replacements are available.

The second announcement is entitled 'Statement of general direction: IBM CICS Transaction Server for z/OS (ZP12-0417)'. There are some (intended) product enhancements : "IBM intends to update IBM CICS Transaction Server for z/OS ( CICS TS), to provide new application, platform, and policy capabilities that can help customers build private clouds from new and existing CICS applications". As far as support is concerned : "IBM intends to continue to support both CICS TS V3.1 and CICS TS V3.2 until at least third quarter, 2014" and "both CICS TS V4.1 and CICS TS V4.2 until at least third quarter, 2017". Mind you, these are Statements of Directions, subject to change etc.

While I'm on the CICS subject I'd also like to point out this System z event : 'CICS goes mobile'. The webcast is taking place on August 29, 2012 at 11.00 am EDT (17h in Brussels). The level is basic - introductory. To give you an idea of the content :

"In this (...) webcast you have the opportunity to hear from two of IBM’s expert speakers on how CICS is addressing the mobile marketplace. How does CICS help to empower the individual with a smartphone in his pocket? How does CICS make use of new smartphone features, such as GPS, mobile Internet and RFID NFC communications? We’ll show you how CICS Dynamic Scripting is an ideal method for deploying mobile applications quickly and easily. We’ll answer many common questions about where and how CICS fits in a mobile strategy, including : how CICS can speak to mobile when mobiles don’t understand typical CICS interfaces".

Don't forget to register !

zEnterprise The Next Generation : Smart, Secure and Efficient

Do you remember my last post before my holidays telling you there was no big System z announcement as we had the two previous years with zEnterprise (z196, zBX and zManager) in 2010 and the z114 in 2011. Well, something seems to be moving faster than I had expected. IBM just spread the news about the introduction of "the next generation of zEnterprise, the world’s fastest, most scalable and secure enterprise system with the ability to integrate resources for operational analytics, trusted resilience, and efficiency at an enterprise scale".

I'm quoting from the introductory text for the Webcast that will be held next Tuesday August 28 at 10.45 am EDT (which is 16.45h in Brussels). Do register for this event over here. There are sessions on the importance and relevance of this new system, there's a general announcement overview and there are some customer testimonials. What about the technical side ? Jeff Frey (IBM Fellow and CTO System z Platform) gives a "technical overview and inside look at the enhanced features and functions of the new zEnterprise including :

• Improved processor and total system capacity performance
• Continued support of multi-platform design
• z Architecture enhancement in support of new workloads
• Smarter monitoring and improved problem diagnosis"

Here's also a short introduction video from youtube



So, if you don't want to miss this introduction, just register now !

And if you want to find out more about it afterwards, well you know where to find that one blog post telling you everything about all the technical details, don't you ?

By the way : Enterprise, Next Generation, a site starting with the word 'engage', could it be a trekkie was involved in setting up this site ?

Holiday, back somewhere in August

I just realized that the last two years I had quite a busy time just before my holidays as each time I was preparing all kinds of texts and customer presentations for a new system that was announced that summer. In 2010 we had the introduction of the zEnterprise (z196, zBX and zManager) and last year there was the introduction of the z114. So , I hope I don't disappoint you too much, but I haven't seen any new announcements this time.

I have another blog where I advise people not to touch any computer (or other related device) for a couple of weeks during their holdiays and that's exactly what I intend to to for al least the next two weeks. How hard can it be ?

Well, I have a lot of books waiting to be read.

So thanks for stopping by so regulary and have a nice holiday !

Possible DS8700/DS8800 abort condition during zOS writes to a FlashCopy target when experiencing uncorrectable SAN link errors

I'm just reproducing this Flash (alert) which you can find over here.

Abstract
In certain circumstances, CKD (zOS) host writes to a FlashCopy Target in conjunction with uncorrectable SAN link errors can result in repetitive microcode logic errors and possible loss of access to the DS8700/DS8800.

Content

The issue specifically requires a combination of CKD writes to a FlashCopy Target volume in addition to uncorrectable SAN link errors. Most notable use for a zOS

Host to write to a FlashCopy Target is during disaster recovery testing in a Global Mirror (GM) or Metro Global Mirror (MGM) environment. Typically, for disaster
recovery tests, at the Global Mirror secondary, a practice copy will be created from the consistent copy of the data. This practice copy is then made available for
Host I/O directly to it.

Another common use for a FlashCopy target, tape backup, is not affected by this issue as tape backup only does Host reads and not writes.

Release 6.1, Release 6.2 (prior to Service Pack 2.1), Release 6.3 (prior to Service Pack 1) on the DS8700 and DS8800 platforms are affected.

Mitigation:
Two aspects of mitigation for this problem:

1. Avoid any activity which involves CKD I/O to a FlashCopy Target. Avoid disaster recovery testing in Global Mirror environments which involve using a practice
copy from the Global Mirror target until fix is delivered.

2. In the case of an actual disaster where the Global Mirror primary site is no longer available, the user can invoke a fast reverse restore from the consistent copy
(D volume) of the data back to the C volume and run the zOS host specifically to the C volume. The C volume in this example is not a FlashCopy target, it is a
regular volume.

Note: If the application waits for the background copy to complete prior to initiating other CKD writes to the FlashCopy Target volume, there is no risk of the abort mentioned above.

Resolution:
A fix has been available in microcode bundles 76.20.94.0 or higher for DS8700s and in 86.20.117.0 or higher for DS8800s. A fix is also now available in release 6.3 microcode bundles 76.31.17.0 or higher for DS8700s and in 86.31.26.0 or higher for DS8800s.

CICSdev Community

Don't you hate it too ? You're looking at a site which has (flashy !, flashy !!) a new holiday promotion. But when you're looking a bit closer, it turns out to be for 2009. To quote Homer : "Duh!". So when last week my sister asked me about setting up a website for a club we started to discuss the content of the site. So far, so good. But then I pointed out we hadn't talked about the most important part of it : updating and maintaining the website. Regularly adding new content, updating the agenda, removing older items etc. etc. Ouch ! So this means you have to at least once a week spend time maintaining the thing. Yes, it does. And if you don't : no information, no visitors, no nothing. So the idea was put to rest there and then.

For the same reason, I'm always a bit sceptical when I'm looking at yet another new community site. We've seen them come and go or perhaps rather stay but with no interesting content after a while.

But this one, that's apparently active since the beginning of the year, seems to be different : CICSdev or The CICSdev community. As they say themselves : "The CICSdev Community is the place to discuss, share and learn about developing for CICS". Well, I must say, it looks good : very easy navigation but also very interesting content. There's a blog that's e.g. mentioning on July 13 that the CICS TS V5.1 open beta, I also wrote about, is now available for download. There's a download tab where you find the information where to download this beta and the CICS TS V4.2 Developer Trial I also talked about earlier. There's a learning tab with articles, videos and presentation. I also like the participation tab. Did you know there's a forum ? I also found out (shame on me) , there's a CICS discussion list just like e.g. the IBM-MAIN list. If you're looking for the links, I deliberately let them out. So you have to go and have a look for yourself.

I hope I didn't put the expectations too high, or perhaps I do. So keep coming with new and interesting content !

Holiday Reading : IBM Systems Magazine and Enterprise Tech Journal

You might think that we have a new magazine on the block. Well, not really z/Journal (previously Enterpise Systems Journal, previously Mainframe Journal) is now called Enterprise Tech Journal in order "to reflect the changing dynamic of today's hybrid data centers". So it will have a broader perspective on multi-platform technologies in the enterprise, but still remain mainframe-centric. The articles that drew my attention were mainly the technical ones like 'CICS Transaction Gateway V8.1 : What's new and why it matters' by Paul Crockett and a good overview of Temporal Tables in DB2 by Dan Luksetich.
You'll also find a very good introduction to z/VM Live Guest Relocation (LGR) by Mark Lorenc : "The LGR function (...) can be useful for a mainframe shop running Linux applications on z/VM that require non-stop availability". And there's a column by Marcel den Hartog on "How to put a smile on the CIO's face'. If that isn't worth a look . . .
You can download the digital version over here.

IBM Systems Magazine has amongst others some interesting articles on consolidation to the mainframe. Greg Lotko tells us about the IBM vision on consolidation in 'The Performance of Many, The Efficiency of One' (you just have to love this title, don't you). He also tells about some significant differences between a DIY environment and one with zBX and Unified Resource Manager.
The next article 'Mainframe vs. Distributed' tells you about how to make a correct TCO study comparing apples with apples and warning you about some pitfalls ranging from faultive chargeback mechanisms to including "the corporate jet in the mainframe costs!" Yes, it's really there !
Then two interesting examples of consolidating on Linux on z. One of them is IBM itself and the other is Shelter Insurance. Go and read them : I'm sure you'll like the down to earth approach of Shelter Insurance.
You can find the digital version over here.

As I always say, just check them out !

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 !

Want to be part of a System z Poster ?

I saw this passing by on Twitter yesterday : you can submit your picture on this site and you might become one of the 150 faces on a new System z Poster. Even if you're not selected, you might be interested to participate as every participant will receive a printed poster afterwards. You have time until July 31, 2012 to submit your picture.

This is how the poster will look like, and, ok, ok, with some wishful thinking I made a little change to this one.

Red Alert : JES2 Potential Loss of Spool data on z/OS 1.11 and 1.12

Here's a new Red Alert:

JES2 Potential Loss of Spool data on z/OS 1.11 and 1.12

Description:

The fix for APAR OA36256 (RSU1112 PTFs UA61942, UA61943 UA61944 on HJE7760, HJE7770, and HJE7780 respectively) widened a timing window during JES2 initialization processing such that an initializing JES2 member may not obtain the correct status of other multi-access spool (MAS) members. As a result, this system's view of a spool volume may differ from the rest of the MAS. Consequently, later HALTING or DRAINING actions against the spool volume may result in incomplete cleanup.

PE APAR OA39737 will address the timing window and ensure the initializing member has the most accurate status of the MAS during initialization. In addition, APAR OA38016 will address spool errors caused by the timing window that may result in potential loss of spool data. These types of spool errors are already corrected in z/OS 1.13.

Please see OA39737 and OA38016 for more details or updates.

Recommended Actions:

• If PTF for OA36256 is applied, please avoid putting a spool volume into DRAINING or HALTING state. New volumes can be added or started without exposure.
• If a Spool Drain or Halt must be done, Level 2 can check dumps of JES2 to determine if the spool volume is exposed.
• If OA36256 is applied and a spool volume is already in DRAINING or HALTING state, please remove OA36256 and then (rolling) WARM start each JES2 member.

If you want to have an overview of all past Red Alerts, then take a look over here. You can also subscribe on that same page so you'll be notified of any future Red Alert.

IBM Total Solution Event for System z Brussels

If you're a Benelux customer and you want to keep up to date about all things mainframe then you should take the time for this conference. I know time is a valuable asset nowadays but this is a free 3-day conference that informs you about the latest technologies for System z. A wide audience is targeted as there are tracks for managers, architects and several technical groups. Let me give you an overview of the tracks :

• TRACK 1 - zEnterprise for IT Managers and Executives 
• TRACK 2 - zEnterprise for IT Architects 
• TRACK 3 - New Technologies on zEnterprise 
• TRACK 4 - Maximize Scalability and Flexibility with Linux and z/VM on System z 
• TRACK 5 - Cloud Computing with zEnterprise 
• TRACK 6 - Integrated Management and Monitoring of zEnterprise 
• TRACK 7 - Managing and exploiting Enterprise Data and Information 
• TRACK 8 - Exploiting Modern Application Architectures on zEnterprise 
• TRACK 9 - Increasing Productivity and Time to Market with Application Development Solutions for zEnterprise 
• TRACK 10 - DB2 on z/OS Update 
• TRACK 11 - IMS Update 
• TRACK 12 - CICS Update 

You can register over here. There's also aleady an agenda over there.
If you want more information on the tracks and session, take a look over here. You can download the session agenda over here.

Announcement - Software withdrawal : IBM System z selected products

I've been asked what's happening over here because my post rate has dropped to practically below zero. Almost like the weather over here. Well, there's just one reason, or actually there are three : work, work and work. So I'll try and catch up a bit. Sorry if this one's old news for you, but I only now had the time to have a look at it. But hey, I haven't seen it anywhere else as well.

On June 5 IBM made the following announcement : 'Software withdrawal: IBM System z selected products - Some replacements available (ZP12-0244)'.

Maybe the most important one here is that SystemPac for z/OS V1.12 will be withdrawn on July 23, 2013. It was previously announced as withdrawn on July 24, 2012 but evidently due to the announced changed release schedule for z/OS, this has been prolonged.

Others that are listed

• Lifecycle Extension for z/OS 1.9 will be withdrawn from marketing (WDFM) August 27, 2012. After that "extended service for z/OS V1.9 will be evaluated on an individual basis".
• CICS Transaction Server for z/OS 4.1 will be WDFM September 10, 2012 

But of course there are a lot of others. I'd say : just check them out !

IBM Storage announcements : IBM Smarter Storage

Today, IBM made a whole range of storage announcements around IBM Smarter Storage. It's way too extensive to cover everything so I'll just run you through some that caught my attention.

• Regarding software there's a couple of announcements for the new version 5 of Tivoli Storage Productivity Center : 'IBM Tivoli Storage Productivity Center V5.1 introduces a new user interface to help centralize, simplify, and automate storage tasks (ZP12-0243)' and IBM Tivoli Storage Productivity Center for Replication for System z V5.1 (ZP12-0185). Here's a (very!) short resume of the new functionalities
• Integrated web-based user interface 
• Cognos-based custom reporting 
• Storage tiering optimization 
• Support for cloud storage management 
• Consolidated installer  

• There's RealTime Compression for StorWize V7000 and San Volume Controller (SVC) with the following announcements : 'IBM Storwize V7000 software V6.4.0 introduces Real-time Compression (ZP12-0234)' and 'IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller software V6.4.0 improves storage efficiency (ZP12-0235)'. This is compression on active primary data before they are written to disk. So, it operates immediately and unlike other technologies there is no post-processing where data is first written to disk and compressed afterwards on quiet moments. What do you win ?
• Storage purchase costs 
• Rack space 
• Power and cooling 
• Software costs 

• There are some interesting Statements of Direction (SODs) : 'Statement of direction: IBM DS8000 series, SONAS, XIV , and Storwize V7000 Unified (ZG12-0163)'.
  Focusing mainly on the DS8000, some highlights : 
• DS8000 Easy Tier extended to server based storage : Easy Tier will extend smart data placement intelligence to use server resources, communicating with servers to place hot data in server SSD cache to reduce latency and further optimize performance
• DS8000 new high-density flash storage option : DS8000 and other IBM storage systems will use fast, high-density SSD cache modules to enhance performance. As put on another IBM page :  "a new 400GB SSD option provides additional flexibility for performance-intensive applications".
• DS8000 Easy Tier support for application API : Easy Tier will use an API to enable servers to communicate with storage so storage can become aware of application workload needs and use that to optimize data placement

There's also good news for XIV about migrating from one system to another : "IBM intends to support an increased scalability of capacity, performance, and host bandwidth by clustering IBM XIV Gen3 systems together and providing the capability to migrate volumes across the cluster without disrupting applications. Management of the cluster will remain simple with consolidated views and shared configurations across the systems". 

There's more information on other announcements on the IBM Smarter Storage page which you find over here.