Jens Remus' Blog

Blog entries

IBM z16 announced

By Jens Remus posted Tue April 05, 2022
IBM announced the IBM z16 server on April 5, 2022. Both IBM z/VSE 6.2 as well as our partner’s 21 st Century Software VSE n 6.3 will support IBM z16 and tolerate the new I/O cards: FICON Express32S OSA-Express7S 1.2 Crypto Express8S Learn more about the IBM z16 on the IBM z16 home page , in the IBM z16 press release , or Ross Mauri’s blog . See also the corresponding IBM z16 announcement letter “IBM z16 puts innovation to work while unlocking the potential of your hybrid cloud transformation” for your geography: IBM Japan: JG22-0001 IBM Americas - United States: 122-001 IBM Europe, Middle East, and Africa: ZG22-0001 IBM Asia ...

IDCAMS ALTER NEWNAME for user catalog in z/VSE 6.2

By Jens Remus posted Wed July 21, 2021
By Mikhail Zaslonko and Jens Remus. VSE/VSAM IDCAMS provides a new functionality allowing to change a VSAM user catalog name with the PTF UD54395 for APAR DY47844 "ALTER NEWNAME USERCATALOG". It allows to change a user catalog name without having to re-define it from scratch. This fulfills RFE 111771 "Allow ALTER NEWNAME for user catalog". Additionally this functionality may also be helpful with the processes Rebuilding a Catalog and Migrating Catalogs that are described in the VSE/VSAM User’s Guide and Application Programming manual. With the new functionality a user catalog name can be changed using the new USERCATALOG attribute of the IDCAMS ...

Presentations and recordings of the VM Workshop 2021 z/VSE sessions available

By Jens Remus posted Mon June 28, 2021
The VM Workshop is a non-profit organization of customers, ISVs, and business partners that holds a workshop on z/VM, z/VSE, and Linux on Z every year. This year the VM Workshop 2021 took place from Thursday 6/10 to Friday 6/11/2021 as a virtual event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The presentations are available in the 2021 Presentation Archive on the VM Workshop web site. The session recordings are available on the VM Workshop YouTube channel . See the 2021 Online Event playlist for a list of all recordings. Following are the sessions related to z/VSE: VM Workshop 2021 Opening and Keynote [ presentation , recording ] from VM Workshop Chairperson ...

z/VSE Newsflash May 2021

By Jens Remus posted Fri May 28, 2021
Overview: Announcement of z/VSE 6.2 storage, processing, security, recovery, and data transfer enhancements Important z/VSE 6.2 APARs/PTFs Important z/VM APARs/PTFs when using EDEVICEs Conference 15th European GSE/IBM Technical University for z/VSE, z/VM, KVM and Linux on IBM Z in Leipzig rescheduled to October 25 - 27, 2021 Announcement of z/VSE 6.2 storage, processing, security, recovery, and data transfer enhancements IBM announced storage, processing, security, recovery, and data transfer enhancements for z/VSE 6.2 on May 4, 2021. See my related blog article z/VSE 6.2 storage, processing, security, recovery, and data transfer enhancements ...

z/VSE 6.2 storage, processing, security, recovery, and data transfer enhancements announced

By Jens Remus posted Tue May 04, 2021
IBM announced storage, processing, security, recovery, and data transfer enhancements for z/VSE 6.2 on May 4, 2021. See the corresponding announcement letter for your geography: IBM Japan: JP21-0246 IBM Americas - United States: 221-201 IBM Europe, Middle East, and Africa: 221-201 IBM Asia Pacific: AP21-0194 IBM Americas - Latin America: LP21-0246 IBM Americas - Canada: A21-0321 Exploitation of the latest IBM System Storage technology z/VSE 6.2 supports IBM System Storage TS7700 R5.1. Exploitation of latest IBM z15 Model T01 and T02 technology z/VSE 6.2 provides native support for System Recovery Boost ( APAR DY47832 ...

z/VSE Newsflash April 2021

By Jens Remus posted Fri April 16, 2021
Overview: Important z/VSE 6.2 APARs/PTFs IBM Knowledge Center is now IBM Documentation Miscellaneous Important z/VSE 6.2 APARs/PTFs APAR PH29953 “MISSING DATA AFTER DLZ004I WRITE ERROR” fixes a possible loss of data in DL/I VSE in situations in which DL/I VSE message DLZ004I (I/O-error) occurred. APAR PH29950 “DL/I UTILITY IMPROVEMENTS FOR DATABASE RECOVERY” improves the DL/I VSE Log Print and Batch Backout utilities to allow database recovery in situations in which DL/I VSE messages DLZ004I (I/O-error) or DLZ005I (out-of-space) may occur. Please see the z/VSE Service and Support - Corrective Service web page for complete ...

z/VSE Newsflash March 2021

By Jens Remus posted Thu March 04, 2021
Overview: Important z/VSE 6.2 APARs/PTFs Important z/VM APARs/PTFs when using zHPF in a guest Interesting z/VSE 6.2 support documents Upcoming conference VM Workshop 2021 from June 10 - 12, 2021 in Columbus, Ohio Upcoming conference 15th European GSE/IBM Technical University for z/VSE, z/VM, KVM and Linux on IBM Z from June 21 - 23, 2021 in Leipzig Miscellaneous Important z/VSE 6.2 APARs/PTFs The PTF UD54385 for APAR DY30239 “ENABLE TLS 1.3 SUPPORT AND SECURITY FIXES FOR OPENSSL ON Z/VSE” upgrades OpenSSL 1.1.1d to provide support for TLS 1.3 in z/VSE 6.2 for highest available security. It also includes security fixes for CVE-2020-1967 ...

How to perform a SDAID trace to buffer/VTAPE in z/VSE

By Jens Remus posted Thu February 18, 2021
This post demonstrates to perform a SDAID trace to a wraparound buffer, dump the buffer to a z/VSE VTAPE in VSAM, and print the trace. While the wraparound buffer is limited to up to 256K this does not require a physical printer or tape device. Therefore this is sometimes easier or even the only possibility to perform a SDAID trace. For example when z/VSE is running in a LPAR without physical tape attached. Following is a sample job to take a SDAID trace to a wraparound buffer of the maximum size of 256K. It uses the SDAID batch utility to perform SDAID trace initialization in direct input mode in the partition, the DTRIATTN utility to issue AR commands, ...

z/VSE Newsflash December 2020

By Jens Remus posted Fri December 18, 2020
Overview: Important z/VSE 6.2 APARs/PTFs Upcoming conference 15th European GSE/IBM Technical University for z/VSE, z/VM, KVM and Linux on IBM Z from 21. - 23. June 2021 in Leipzig I wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and a happy, successful, and healthy New Year! Stay safe and enjoy your holidays. Important z/VSE 6.2 APARs/PTFs APAR DY47843 “WHEN USING * $$ PUN MEM= VSE/POWER may abend with 1Q2CI PSW=… ILC=2, CC=20 SEGMENT TRANSLATION… PHASE=IPW$$XJ” resolves VSE/POWER abends when using * $$ PUN MEM= to redirect Punch Output to a Librarian sublibrary member. It is flagged HIPER and is included in the PSP Upgrade ZVSE620, Subset ...

How to subscribe to notifications of new z/VSE Blog posts

By Jens Remus posted Wed December 02, 2020
Currently you have the following options to subscribe to receive notifications of new posts in the z/VSE Blog: RSS feed of Jens’ z/VSE Blog RSS feed of the z/VSE topic group (Blog and Discussions) Daily e-mail digest of the z/VSE topic group (Blog and Discussions) Real time e-mail notification of the z/VSE topic group (Discussions only; Blog via discussion thread) RSS feed of Jens’ z/VSE Blog You can subscribe to only my blog posts using a feed reader of your choice. See my article How to subscribe to Jens’ z/VSE Blog via RSS for a detailed step-by-step instruction. RSS feed of the z/VSE topic group You can subscribe to the z/VSE topic ...

How to transfer an AWS tape image via 3270 IND$FILE transfer to z/VSE

By Jens Remus posted Tue November 24, 2020
In this post I am going to take you through the steps how to transfer a tape image in AWS-format via 3270 IND$FILE transfer into a VSAM ESDS file. From there the contents of the tape image can then for example be accessed using the z/VSE Virtual Tape function (VTAPE). This for instance allows to install additional components or products from the z/VSE extended base tape or z/VSE optional product tape images. The transfer is performed using a terminal emulator via the Host Transfer File (HTF). The preferred method to transfer a tape image to z/VSE is of course the use of a TCP/IP stack and the FTP protocol. In conjunction with the z/VSE Virtual Tape Server the ...

POWER PNET TCPIP performance improvement in z/VSE 6.2

By Jens Remus posted Mon November 02, 2020
By Sergey Grimaylo, Martin Walbrühl, and Jens Remus. VSE/POWER PNET TCP/IP performance has been greatly improved by the PTFs UD54380 and UD54381 for APAR DY47835 "NJE DATA TRANSFER FROM|TO VSE/POWER VIA PNET TCPIP CONNECTION IS LIMITED TO 90KB/SEC FOR EACH CONNECTION". This fulfills RFE 50430 "Increase PNET/TCP throughput". Please note that PNET TCP/IP Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) performance does not yet benefit from this. Formerly, VSE/POWER Networking (PNET) was limited to transmit data via a PNET TCP/IP connection at about 90 KB per second when using the maximum buffer size. In contrast other Network Job Entry (NJE) transmission protocols like PNET/SNA ...

z/VSE Newsflash October 2020

By Jens Remus posted Fri October 23, 2020
Overview: Important z/VSE 6.2 APARs/PTFs Update of the z/VSE 6.2 Knowledge Center z/VM 7.2 available Virtual conference 14th European GSE / IBM Technical University for z/VSE, z/VM, KVM and Linux auf IBM Z SCRT 28.1.0 reports on System Recovery Boost events Important z/VSE 6.2 APARs/PTFs APAR DY47825 “OPENSSL UPGRADE TO 1.1.1D” (PTF UD54364) upgrades OpenSSL to 1.1.1d. APAR DY47832 “SYSTEM RECOVERY BOOST SUPPORT” (PTFs UD54376, UD54377, and UD54378) adds native support for the System Recovery Boost feature of the IBM z15 Models T01 and T02. See my related blog post Support for System Recovery Boost in z/VSE 6.2 fur further details. ...

Daylight Saving Time (DST) change to local standard time with z/VSE

By Jens Remus posted Tue October 20, 2020
Continuing Ingolf's tradition this post is about z/VSE considerations for the upcoming Dayling Saving Time (DST) change in October/November 2020 to local standard time. The clock is turned one hour backward on: USA : Sunday, November 1, 2020 at 2 a.m. local daylight time Germany : Sunday, October 25, 2020 at 3 a.m. local daylight time Regarding z/VSE considerations I'll quote Ingolf from his post from February 2, 2019 in Ingolf's z/VSE Blog: "A local time change forward has normally no effect on subsystem operation. It may have an impact on accounting, however. A local time change backwards could affect subsystems and accounting routines more severely. ...

Support for Crypto Express7S in z/VSE 6.2

By Jens Remus posted Fri September 11, 2020
The PTF UD54382 for APAR DY47834 “CRYPTO EXPRESS 7S CARD IS SHOWN AS CRYPTO EXPRESS 6S OR CEX6S IN COMMAND OUTPUT FOR HARDWARE CRYPTO COMMANDS AND MESSAGES” adds support for the Crypto Express7S (CEX7) card to z/VSE 6.2. The Crypto Express7S is the new generation cryptographic coprocessor and accelerator on the IBM z15 Model T01 and T02 servers. You can read more about it on the CEX7S / 4769 web site . With the PTF applied, z/VSE 6.2 identifies the Crypto Express7S cryptographic coprocessors and accelerators as such and reports them as “CEX7” in messages and command output. Without the PTF applied, Crypto Express7S cards are used in toleration mode and treated ...

IBM z15 Model T01 & T02 enhancements announced including z/VSE System Recovery Boost support

By Jens Remus posted Tue August 11, 2020
IBM announced IBM Z server IBM z15 Model T01 and T02 enhancements on August 4, 2020. The announcement includes native support for System Recovery Boost in z/VSE 6.2: With the PTFs for DY47832 , z/VSE 6.2 provides native support for the System Recovery Boost featured of the z15 T01 and z15 T02. This support enables z/VSE to boost general purpose processors (CPs) running at subcapacity to full capacity for a limited time. The speed boost will last up to 60 minutes during IPL and standalone dump processing and up to 30 minutes during system shutdown. Please see my recent article Support for System Recovery Boost in z/VSE 6.2 for further details. See ...

Support for System Recovery Boost in z/VSE 6.2

By Jens Remus posted Fri July 31, 2020
System Recovery Boost is a new feature of the IBM z15 Models T01 and T02 (M/T 8561 and M/T 8562). Speed Boost is a capability of System Recovery Boost that improves the recovery time of exploiting operating systems when running on a subcapacity machine (CPC). It is designed to provide higher temporary processing capacity to LPARs for speeding up IPL, shutdown, and stand-alone dump operations, without increasing IBM software costs 1 . It delivers improved overall system and application availability by minimizing the downtime that results from system shutdown and restart operations. See the IBM Redpaper Introducing IBM Z System Recovery Boost (REDP-5563) for ...

Presentations and recordings of the VM Workshop 2020 z/VSE sessions available

By Jens Remus posted Tue July 07, 2020
The VM Workshop is a non-profit organization of customers, ISVs, and business partners that holds a workshop on z/VM, z/VSE, and Linux on Z every year. This year the VM Workshop 2020 took place from Tuesday 6/16 to Friday 6/19/2020 as a virtual event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The presentations are available in the 2020 Presentation Archive on the VM Workshop web site. The session recordings are available on the VM Workshop YouTube channel . It also provides playlists of the recordings related to z/VM , z/VSE , and Linux on Z . Following are the sessions from the z/VSE playlist: VM Workshop 2020 Opening and Keynote [ presentation , recording ...

How to run the z/VSE Installed Software Report Tool without TCP/IP

By Jens Remus posted Thu July 02, 2020
My colleague Ingo shared the following hint on VSE-L some time ago. It is also documented in the readme.txt file that is part of the z/VSE Installed Software Report (ISR) Tool package. You can download it from the connectors and tools section on the z/VSE web site . The z/VSE Installed Software Report Tool can be used to create an Installed Software Report that is used by IBM Shopz to determine which software components and which PTFs are installed on z/VSE. Such a report is required when you want to order Preventive Service Planning (PSP) critical service fixes for your z/VSE installation. By default the z/VSE Installed Software Report Tool provides ...

Please participate in the IBM Z OSA-Express OSE CHPID type usage survey

By Jens Remus posted Thu June 04, 2020
The following might be of interest for all z/VSE customers that still use OSA-Express configured as CHPID type OSE in non-Queued Direct Input/Output (non-QDIO) operating mode. IBM would like to understand current client usage of native SNA (through OSE channels) on IBM Z, and what plans, if any, clients have in place to migrate to an alternative. If your enterprise is currently using OSA-Express in OSE mode (for SNA or TCP/IP) IBM would like to understand your plans. A survey has been provided to help IBM understand your current and future needs around this technology. Based on the results of this survey IBM will evaluate the need for investment in alternative ...