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.
These announcements will now be published on this z/OS Community page. To stay up to date, please ‘Join Community’ to ensure you don’t miss an announcement!
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Overview:
- z/OSMF enhancement to run TSO as surrogate User ID: z/OSMF users can now start a TSO address space using a surrogate user ID, if they have the necessary security permissions to do so.
- z/OSMF Software Update enhancements: Support has been added to enable users to remove completed or cancelled updates from the Completed Updates table in the Software Update user interface.
- z/OSMF Software Management: Support has been added to improve how portable software instances are created and deployed, including zFS data sets.
- IBM SMF Explorer with Python enhancements: Support has been added that is designed for users to be able to easily access and interpret SMF type 30 records.
- SETIOS command to simulate an unplanned PPRC suspend event: IOS now provides a new command for testing unplanned PPRC Suspension events for HyperSwap configurations.
- Improved data set disposition for batch JCL processing: A new keyword has been added to allow for abnormal termination disposition of data sets when the step terminates normally.
- z/OS client web enablement toolkit enhancement: Support has been added to the HTTP/HTTPS Enabler to allow an application to set a connection timeout.
- Hardware Configuration Manager (HCM) enhancements: HCM is now compatible with Java 11 to support additional scalability abilities.
- z/OS® Hardware Configuration Definition (HCD) extended support enhancements: Support has been added for hardware-only dynamic changes to a remote IBM z16 and IBM LinuxONE 4 processors running Linux for Z and z/TPF operating systems.
- Cloud Object Utility (GDKUTIL) enhancements: Cloud Objects created by GDKUTIL can now have configurable metadata included with the object.
Description:
z/OSMF enhancement to run TSO as surrogate User ID
Currently, a z/OSMF user cannot start a TSO address space with an owner/identity other than the request submitter. With this new support, if the request submitter has the SAF permission to start a TSO address space using a surrogate user ID, the TSO address space owner could be the surrogate user ID, and any actions performed in this address space will also be under the surrogate user ID. With the PTF for APAR PH56564, this support is available on z/OS 3.1.
z/OSMF Software Update Enhancements
z/OSMF Software Update displays a list of cancelled or completed processes on the Completed Updates page. Users will be allowed to remove processes they no longer need by means of a new Delete action. As a reminder, saving of cancelled or completed updates should be done before they are removed if the output is desired to be reviewed later. By removing cancelled or completed updates that are no longer needed to be shown in z/OSMF, you can also help to manage the size of the z/OSMF repository.
z/OSMF Software Update has made internal changes such that the elapsed time to gather HOLDDATA information is expected to be reduced. Previously, this HOLDDATA gathering might have taken several minutes, depending on how many entries were in the global zone. Now with APAR PH56074, the performance is designed to help deliver the necessary HOLDDATA faster, and with a reduction in the saved output size.
With the PTF for APAR PH56074, all of the above support is available on z/OS 3.1. To learn more about z/OS Software Update, see the Software Update with z/OSMF content solution page.
z/OSMF Software Management Improve zFS Processing
Customers may not be comfortable granting authorization to a provider’s originating data set names, because this has the potential for a security exposure on their system. z/OSMF has changed its processing for zFS data sets in a portable software instance to eliminate this requirement. To allocate zFS data sets that are SMS-managed and greater than 4GB in size, an SMS data class specification is required. z/OSMF now allows a data class to be specified and used to allocate all data sets, including zFS data sets. Clients often wish to install z/OS data sets on non-SMS managed volumes, therefore, z/OSMF now supports converting SMS managed data sets from a provider into non-SMS managed data sets during installation. With the PTF for APAR PH56073, the above support is available on z/OS V2.4 or later.
IBM SMF Explorer with Python enhancements
IBM SMF Explorer with Python is a data access and analysis toolkit designed to help clients access SMF data and extract insights in an easy and modern way, leveraging Python and Jupyter Notebooks. IBM SMF Explorer with Python is now extending its capabilities to support SMF type 30 records that include information related to address spaces and jobs’ activities. The extended support is designed to help clients unlock value from SMF 30 data.With the PTF for APAR OA64270, this support is available on z/OS V2.5 or later.
For more information on IBM SMF Explorer, please see the IBM SMF Explorer GitHub Repository.
SETIOS command to simulate an unplanned PPRC suspend event
A new command, SETIOS HSWAP,FREEZE is provided and designed to make it easier to test unplanned PPRC suspension events for HyperSwap. This will freeze a PPRC pair in the HyperSwap configuration, allowing the swap manager to react to perform consistent freeze processing. The command will work for HyperSwap configurations managed by either z/OS HyperSwap or GDPS Metro. With the PTF for APAR OA64680, this support is available on z/OS 3.1.
Improved data set disposition for batch JCL processing
A new JCL keyword has been introduced to allow for abnormal termination disposition of data sets based on job step completion/ return code. With the PTF for APAR OA63081, this support is available on z/OS V2.4 or later.
z/OS Client Web Enablement Toolkit enhancement
The HTTP/HTTPS Enabler portion of the z/OS client web enablement toolkit has been enhanced to support a connection timeout option for the HWTHSET service, HWTH_OPT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT_MS. This support allows a user to set a timeout condition, in milliseconds, that will apply to any TCP connection attempts made throughout the usage of the connection handle. With the PTF for APAR OA65298, this support is available on z/OS V2.5 and later.
Hardware Configuration Manager (HCM) enhancements.
The Hardware Configuration Manager (HCM) priced feature has been enhanced to support Java 11, which is intended to keep HCM current on Java and should provide additional scalability for larger I/O configurations. With the PTF for APAR IO28559, this support is available on z/OS V2.5 or later.
HCD extended support enhancements
As mentioned in the IBM Z and LinuxOne 4Q23 hardware announcement, HCD z/OS has extended the support for hardware-only dynamic changes to IBM z16 and IBM LinuxONE 4 processors, which host Linux on Z and/or IBM z/Transaction Processing Facility (z/TPF) instances. Hardware-only changes allow changes to the hardware I/O configuration of a remote IBM z16 or IBM LinuxONE 4 in standard (non-DPM) mode dynamically, while the processor remains running. It is needed if there is no instance of z/OS HCD or z/VM HCD running on that processor to process these changes. This capability is designed to help avoid the need for disruptive actions to be taken to instantiate hardware I/O configuration changes, extending the benefits of the existing dynamic I/O activation capability beyond just standalone Coupling Facilities as target processor and reducing or eliminating the customer workload impact that would have otherwise been caused by taking down those Linux on Z and/or z/TPF images. This new function is only supported if the z/OS system running HCD is also running on an IBM z16. With the PTF for APAR OA65559, this support is available on z/OS V2.4 or later.
Note: Any z16 and LinuxONE 4 processor involved in this process needs the required firmware support. See the hardware announcement linked above for more details.
Cloud Object Utility (GDKUTIL) Metadata
The DFSMSdfp Cloud Object Utility (GDKUTIL) has been enhanced to allow specification of metadata to be associated with the Cloud Object on an UPLOAD command with a new keyword, METADATA(<dd_name>), that specifies the DD name containing the key:value pairs that should be sent to the Cloud Object server for association with the object. The GDKUTIL LIST command can be used to display the metadata associated with a specified object. With the PTF for APAR OA64874, this support is available on z/OS V2.5 or later.
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Editor's note:
- 'ICSF Support for for CCA 8.2' has since been removed from the original blog published. Updates to come in a future announcement.
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