IBM Z System Automation

SA z/OS V4.1.0 new function APAR OA55386 is available on June 29th.  This APAR provides the following enhancements:

Support for Service Management Unite (SMU) Automation V1.1.4

• The installation of SMU is simplified with a prebuilt Docker image.
• "Ask Watson" dashboard is added as an open beta feature to provide a cognitive documentation search.
• To ensure a reliable system with high performance and less downtime, you can set up SMU with high availability.
• With Universal Automation Adapters, SMU Automation can automate applications that run on non-z/OS systems.
• SA operations experience is enhanced:
  • For a stop, start, or suspend request, you can choose the new REMOVE=SYSGONE option to automatically remove the request when the system where the selected resource runs, leaves the sysplex.
  • The resource status of a system is now represented as the worst compound status of all top-level resources running on that system. This can be combined with a Resource name filter or Resource class filter as data set parameter. In this case, the worst resource state is derived by the worst compound state of all resources on the system that match the specified filter criteria.
  • A Hide operational tasks option is added into the automation domain topology and automation node list data sets. Choose this option if the context menu of nodes that are contained in these data sets should not include any operational tasks, such as excluding a node.

Note:  The listed SMU Automation V1.1.4 functions are supported by SA z/OS V4.1 APAR OA55386. If you want to use those functions with SMU V1.1.4 Automation, install SA z/OS V4.1 APAR OA55386 first.

End-to-end automation

SA z/OS V4.1 extends its cross-sysplex automation capabilities to true end-to-end cross platform automation. Resources on distributed systems, for instance running on Linux, can be managed by the Universal Automation Adapter that is a part of Service Management Unite Automation.

Processor Operations

Processor Operations is enhanced to support dynamic creation of target system names. The new AOF_AAO_ISQ_DYNTGT option is introduced to define the dynamic name pattern. The benefit is that you can define a backup LPAR for another processor entry, without the need to define a corresponding system entry and the need for a 'dummy' system name.

Other enhancements, requested through RFEs:

• SDF now supports the status update of the primary focal point and the backup focal point in parallel.
• The new DSN parameter is added to the INGPLEX IPL command. It allows you to specify a different IPL data set for displaying and comparing IPL information. It might be useful in case of a disaster recovery when you need IPL information of the sysplex that is down.
• The new MAXINT parameter is added to the INGRCHCK command to limit the maximum times of resource status check. You can use it to avoid infinite resource check, which is task blocking.

To read more, see Continuous Enhancements in Knowledge Center.