It's that time of the quarter again and as always, the z/OS continuous delivery models aims to deliver new enhancements and features without requiring the effort of a full release upgrade and no impact to stability, complexity or costs.
Following the IBM z/OS continuous delivery cadence, new enhancements and capabilities are now available for 3Q. Similar to past deliveries, this quarter's consists of functional enhancements that clients are entitled to and can enable with the corresponding APAR. New function APARs are collected here in a convenient reference format.
---------- What's New ----------
System Recovery Boost
System Recovery Boost now delivers new recovery process boosts that enables clients to leverage a new class of boost that can be applied to a range of sysplex recovery processes, including sysplex partitioning, coupling facility structure and coupling facility data sharing member recovery, and IBM HyperSwap® recovery. Clients are now able to decrease the turnaround time to normal operations as well as quickly get through workload backlog after a sysplex event.
Use of the recovery process boosts requires:
- z15 T01 or z15 T02 with logical partition (LPAR) firmware support for recovery process boosts, provided by LPAR machine change level (MCL) P46602.005, or later, for z15 Driver 41C.
- z/OS PTFs for z/OS V2.3 or z/OS V2.4. The z/OS PTFs will be included in
- a z/OS FIXCAT, specifically for System Recovery Boost support, named IBM.Function.SystemRecoveryBoost, and includes PTFs for enablement for APAR OA59813 and its related prerequisite APARs.
DFSORT Exploitation of IBM Integrated Accelerator for Z SORT
IBM z15 provides an integrated Accelerator for Z sort that can be exploited by software using the new SORTL instruction. By providing one sort accelerator per core, frequently used functions can be accelerated to help cut down on CPU costs and improve the elapsed time for eligible sort workloads, which typically occur during client batch windows. DFSORT exploits the SORTL instruction. The IBM Z Batch Network Analyzer (zBNA) V2.2 provides support for the Integrated Accelerator for Z Sort. zBNA has a new application, DFSORT Z Sort, which uniquely identifies DFSORT-eligible candidates and estimates the z15 benefits, using data from the current environment and does not require a z15. The new information integrates with the traditional batch information already available in zBNA. This no-charge tool is available for download on the IBM Techdocs Library webpage.
DFSORT support is available on z/OS V2.3 with PTF UI90067 and V2.4 with PTF UI90068.
z/OS Container Extensions (zCX)
zCX provides the capability to run Linux containers on z/OS. It is still by far one of the coolest features of z/OS 2.4 and it continues to deliver on enhancements to enable operational efficiency and deliver on incremental performance. zCX is now enhanced with support for large pages, thus improving the efficiency of zCX workloads. zCX can now support up to 1,000 containers, although practical limits may be lower based on resources. Lastly the amount of guest memory can be configured up to 1TB, although practical limit may be lower.
zCX enhancements are available on z/OS V2.4 with PTFs for APAR OA59865.
As previously announced, zCX 90 Day Trial is still available for clients to deploy relevant workloads without incurring the cost of the hardware feature code (FC 0104). Learn more here.
z/OS Software Installation
In 4Q2019 the first ServerPac portable software instance was introduced. It enabled an efficient and accelerated install using a common, simple, and guided process within z/OSMF for installing and maintaining z/OS CICS subsystems and program products without requiring extensive z/OS systems skills. We continue the journey of improving software installation, configuration, and deployment for clients with IMS and IMS program products, as well as Db2 and Db2 program products as ServerPac Portable Software Instances. All are available for ordering and download today on IBM Shopz. To learn more, visit the ServerPac Installation using z/OSMF content solution.
In addition, a new z/OSMF task in z/OSMF Software Management called Software Update will be available with the PTFs for APAR PH28412 on z/OS V2.3 and V2.4. The graphical user interface in Software Update provides a simplified and guided process to install any SMP/E-packaged PTF, regardless of software vendor. With use cases for installing corrective, recommended, and functional updates to your system, Software Update with z/OSMF achieves the same results as the traditional method, while requiring less time and experience to perform it. To learn more and get started, visit the Software Update with z/OSMF content solution.
z/OS Management Facilities (z/OSMF)
IBM z/OSMF provides a framework for managing various aspects of a z/OS system through a task oriented web browser interface. Every quarter, z/OSMF delivers enhancements and new functionality to help drive its effort of automating traditional tasks and simplifying areas of system management to help reduce the level of expertise needed for managing a system. What's new in z/OS this quarter are listed as follows:
z/OSMF is enhanced with the PTF for APAR PH24527 to provide a simple UI that enables administrators to enable or disable most z/OSMF services. This provides more flexibility and also better usability for administrators to tailor a minimum z/OSMF runtime. In addition to using the UI, users can tailor z/OSMF runtime by uploading a simple JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) file to the z/OSMF configuration directory. This is designed to simplify settings deployment across multiple z/OSMF instances.
z/OSMF Workflows is enhanced with the PTF for APAR PH24190 to support auto-deletion after a workflow is completed. This helps to reduce the clutter in the z/OSMF file system from workflows that you don’t want to save.
z/OSMF Diagnostic Assistant is enhanced with the PTF for PH2569 to support the display of z/OSMF data file system utilization on the z/OSMF desktop taskbar. It supports automatic cleanup of z/OSMF diagnostic data based on a predefined policy. This is designed to help maintain the health of the z/OSMF data file system.
z/OSMF Ansible Collection availability was announced last quarter and is enhanced to support job operations and MVS operator commands based on z/OSMF REST APIs. They are available on the Ansible Galaxy web page.
Pervasive Encryption
IBM Pervasive Encryption enables clients to encrypt data efficiently, cost-effectively and without application changes. z/OS V2.4 continues to drive pervasive encryption efforts within an enterprise with enhancements to support additional z/OS data set types. This includes sequential basic format and large format System Managed Storage (SMS)-managed data sets. Support for sequential basic format and large format SMS-managed data sets enables applications using standard Basic Sequential Access Method (BSAM) and Queued Sequential Access Method (QSAM) APIs to encrypt data with no, or minimal changes to applications. It also helps to simplify the compliance tasks.
Support for sequential basic format and large format SMS-managed data sets is available on z/ OS V2.3, or later, with the PTF for APAR OA56622.
Object Access Method Cloud Tier Support
OAM's Cloud Tier Support is now available. OAM has added a new cloud tier to its existing storage hierarchy. OAM objects can be stored directly to the cloud or can transition to the cloud based on access requirements. Also provided is the ability to recall an object stored in the cloud to the disk level of the storage hierarchy; enabling clients to efficiently manage data storage.
This enhancement is available with the PTF for APAR OA55700 for z/OS V2.3, or later.
---------- Hear What z/OS Clients are Saying ----------
“ z/OS V2.4 brought us many benefits improved system management, improved availability and security through a set of new functions, to our mission critical environments. The ease of installation and migration helped us to run smoothly the new z/OS release and deliver the service our users depend on.”
- Marc Theis, Head of Mainframe and Production, Centre des Technologies de l’Information de l’Etat (CTIE)