IBM z/OS 3.1 was announced on August 8th, 2023 and made generally available September 29th, 2023. z/OS 3.1 intends to follow the traditional z/OS continuous delivery (CD) model by delivering new features and enhanced capabilities quarterly, which is intended to avoid the effort of a full release upgrade with no impact to stability, complexity or costs. The following enhancements have been delivered for z/OS 3.1 in 4Q 2024.
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Overview:
z/OS System Programmers can benefit from enhancements that allow z/OS management tasks to be performed via modern and consistent graphical interfaces and tooling, designed to reduce the manual steps and skills required to perform such management tasks:
- z/OSMF Desktop enhancements. z/OSMF now has the capability to show more informational attributes of data sets and jobs, save data sets with specific encoding, and compare the uncatalogued data sets.
- z/OS Data Gatherer Enhancements. Access to Monitor III data is now available via z/OS Data Gatherer Monitor III REST services.
A z/OS application architect can be better equipped to deploy AI turnkey solutions with the following enhancements that improve the AI on z/OS ecosystem:
- Base Component for IBM z/OS (AIB) Enhancements. AIB can now be registered with Automatic Restart management and supports improved CTRACE, both designed for additional reliability, availability, and serviceability.
z/OS infrastructure architects and storage administrators can utilize the following enhancements, designed to better manage the growth of data, integrate cloud object storage, and eliminate impactful data constraints and complexities:
- EzNoSQL Python API support. Enhancements to EzNoSQL APIs allow applications to now utilize Python on z/OS, in addition to C or Java, to build modern, scalable NoSQL database applications.
- TLS 1.3 Support for Transparent Cloud Tiering (TCT). Enhancements enable TCT users to specify the latest TLS version 1.3, and ensure data transferred to cloud object storage utilizes the fastest and most secure TLS handshake available.
With the following enhancements, z/OS infrastructure architects can distribute work across multiple zCX instances so that their zCX workloads can enjoy the same resilience as z/OS Parallel Sysplex:
- z/OS Container Extensions (zCX) 2.0 Enhancements. zCX sysplex distributor support extends the zCX dynamic VIPA network communication to allow for network load distribution among targeted zCX instances within the z/OS sysplex to ensure high availability. In addition, zCX will now support ElasticSearch containers.
z/OS system programmer can utilize the following enhancement that’s designed to reduce the need for Z-unique assembler skills:
- SMFLIM enhancements. Several additions to the SMFLIMxx parmlib member have been added to support processing for customizing job attributes.
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Description:
z/OSMF Desktop enhancements
To help enable users to be more efficient when working with data sets and jobs, the following capabilities have been added:
- In the Data set and File Search tool, the informational attributes of the data sets (such as volume, track, record format, block size, etc.) are displayed
- Users can save a sequential data set or a data set member with specified content types in the Data set and File Search tool
- Users can compare the contents of uncatalogued data sets, change the volser and view the last modified time of a data set member or a Unix file in the comparison editor window
- Additional information in the Job Output tool can be viewed. The attributes ‘submitted’ ‘started’, ‘ended’ date and time will be displayed to users for every job
With the PTF for APAR PH62589, this support is available on z/OS 3.1.
z/OS Data Gatherer enhancements
z/OS Data Gatherer provides access to Monitor III data by means of the z/OS Data Gatherer Monitor III REST services. This allows applications to retrieve Monitor III data from a VSAM data set or local in-storage buffer via HTTP REST calls, described through the OpenAPI v3 specification. With the PTFs for APARs OA65072 and PH60122, this enhancement is available on z/OS 3.1.
AI Base Component for IBM z/OS (AIB) Enhancements.
The AI Base Component for IBM z/OS (AIB) handles communication between core z/OS components and the Machine Learning element in AI Framework for IBM z/OS. AIB has been enhanced for greater reliability, availability, and serviceability. AIB now registers with Automatic Restart Management, allowing failed AIB instances to have the ability to automatically restart. Improved CTRACE helps to facilitate troubleshooting. With the PTF for APAR OA66203, this enhancement is available on z/OS 3.1.
EzNoSQL Python API support
EzNoSQL for z/OS enables applications to create NoSQL key-value databases, based on open standard JSON file format, directly on z/OS, which can then be accessed in real-time, at scale, and with transactional consistency. EzNoSQL is an integrated base z/OS solution that provides a comprehensive set of C and Java based APIs designed to simplify the application effort needed to access NoSQL key-value databases and take advantage of the scalability, security, resiliency, and performance provided by z/OS.
Enhancements to EzNoSQL APIs allow applications to now utilize Python on z/OS, in addition to C or Java, to build modern, scalable NoSQL database applications. Python offers a low-entry barrier for experienced and new developers alike due to the simplicity and intuitive syntax. Usage with EzNoSQL requires Python 3.10 or greater to be installed on z/OS. With the PTFs for APAR OA66418, this enhancement is available on z/OS 3.1.
To learn more about running Python on z/OS, see IBM Open Enterprise SDK for Python product website. To learn more about NoSQL for z/OS, including instructions on how to get started and the API reference documentation for Python, C, or Java, see the EzNoSQL for z/OS content solution web page.
TLS 1.3 Support for Transparent Cloud Tiering
With Hardware Announcement 123-0742, dated December 12, 2023, IBM DS8000 R9.4 adds support for Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 to the selection and configuration of TLS protocol implementations. TLS provides mechanisms to protect data during electronic dissemination across the Internet. DFSMShsm (HSM) and DFSMSdss (DSS) exploit DS8000 Transparent Cloud Tiering (TCT), which provides server-less movement of archive and backup data directly to cloud object storage, and allow users to specify the desired TLS version via the SMS Network Connection or the Cloud Data Access (CDA) provider file. DFSMS enhancements enable users of TCT to specify the latest TLS version, TLS 1.3, and ensure data transferred to cloud object storage utilizes the fastest and most secure TLS handshake available. With the PTFs for APARs OA66407, OA66413, OA66414, OA66416, OA66415, and OA66412, this enhancement is available on z/OS 3.1.
zCX 2.0 Enhancements
The following enhancements have been delivered for zCX:
- zCX Sysplex Distributor Support
- zCX now provides the ability to increase the uptime for those mission critical containerized applications running in production. Workloads that are not tolerant of small downtime windows (such as for planned maintenance or other outages) will now have an increased ability to identify other zCX instances that can take over the work when the outages occur. zCX sysplex distributor support extends network communication to allow for network load distribution among targeted zCX instances within the z/OS sysplex. It extends the capabilities of dynamic VIPAs to enable distribution of incoming TCP connections to ensure high availability of a particular service running on zCX instances. All of this without the need for an external load balancer. With the PTF for APARs OA66765, OA66769, OA66764, OA66767, OA66770, OA66771, this support is available on z/OS V2.5 and above.
- zCX support for ElasticSearch (ELK) containers
- With the enhancements to zCX, the vm.max_map_count setting is increased from 65530 to 262144. This allows logging and monitoring tools like ElasticSearch or OpenSearch, which require large numbers of memory maps, to run in zCX. With the PTFs for APARs OA66765, OA66769, OA66767, OA66770, OA66771, this support is available on z/OS V2.5 and above.
VSAM Global Shared Resources support for encrypted data sets
z/OS continues to drive pervasive encryption efforts with additional enhancements which extend the support and use cases for data set encryption. VSAM applications that use global shared resources (GSR) will be able to open and use encrypted data sets. With the PTFs for APAR OA65855, this support is available on z/OS V2.4 and above.
SMFLIM enhancements
Several additions to the SMFLIMxx parmlib member are now provided, which may help avoid the need to code assembler exit routines to control and customize memory limits. First, a new attribute to modify region limit for both above and below the line storage is available. Second, a stop processing attribute that allows for more granular control over the matching of the REGION rules is available. Finally, additions to the existing filter REQMEMLIMIT are available to provide more control over matching the source of the MEMLIMIT value. With the PTFs for APAR OA66028, this support is available on z/OS 3.1.
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