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ZD&T Learner's Edition Questions

  • 1.  ZD&T Learner's Edition Questions

    IBM Champion
    Posted Wed October 13, 2021 09:59 AM
    Will the Learner's Edition come with ZOWE? GIT? MiniConda?

    Will the learner be able to order/download z/OS maintenance so they can learn how to perform system maintenance at the PTF and RSU levels?

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    Lionel Dyck <><
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  • 2.  RE: ZD&T Learner's Edition Questions

    Posted Thu October 14, 2021 04:13 AM
    As the FAQ says:

    Yes. ZD&T for Learners Edition comes with a preconfigured package of IBM Z software that includes z/OS and middleware, such as CICS®, IMS™ and Db2®, including z/OS components of multiple DevOps for Enterprise Systems tools.

    I doubt very much it will come with GIT or Miniconda as they are not IBM products. As this is a Learner edition, then this will give learners a chance to learn how to install them. As this is a ZD&T product, then you might want to go over to the ZD&T product page and look there  as to what will be offered:

    https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zdt/13.2.0?topic=overview

    In fact there, it even tells you it comes with Zowe and all the other products available too.

    Sebastian

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    Sebastian Welton
    Managing Director for EMEA Support. zSystems, Linux, and Cloud
    Information Technology Company
    Darmstadt
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  • 3.  RE: ZD&T Learner's Edition Questions

    IBM Champion
    Posted Thu October 14, 2021 06:59 AM
    Thank you for the pointer to the packages. ZOWE but not Git - seems strange but yes - something for the learner to learn to install.

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    Lionel B. Dyck <><
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  • 4.  RE: ZD&T Learner's Edition Questions

    Posted Thu October 14, 2021 11:03 AM
    There's a Git client shipped together with DBB.

    You can use independently or as part of a DBB build.

    Unfortunately we don't have MiniConda deployed yet but it may happen in a future release

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    Luis Carlos Silva
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  • 5.  RE: ZD&T Learner's Edition Questions

    IBM Champion
    Posted Thu October 14, 2021 11:13 AM
    DBB - that will be interesting - thank you.

    Will the Learner's Edition be able to order/install IBM maintenance so the Learner can learn how to use that process (workflow, SMP/E, PTF/RSU order/receive, etc.) ?

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    Lionel B. Dyck <><
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  • 6.  RE: ZD&T Learner's Edition Questions

    Posted Thu October 14, 2021 11:35 AM
    I can't really see that happening as both zPDT nor ZD&T users can do it. This puts a whole new perspective on the system in that users would need an account with IBM, such as Shopz and then IBM would need to have the extra staff to build the maintenance for this system which is not exactly the same as that installed on a z. Presumably if you're willing to pay, then presumably IBM would have no problem with that :-)

    Actually, with the zPDT and PWD system, it is possible to download RSU created by Dallas, maybe they could also be provided as long as you have the bandwidth and disk space to download them.

    Sebastian

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    Sebastian Welton
    Managing Director for EMEA Support. zSystems, Linux, and Cloud
    Information Technology Company
    Darmstadt
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  • 7.  RE: ZD&T Learner's Edition Questions

    Posted Thu October 14, 2021 12:46 PM
    Edited by Luis Carlos Silva Thu October 14, 2021 12:48 PM
    As Sebastian mentioned, the z/OS stack that comes with Learners Edition which is an extended version of ADCD, is offered as-is and unsupported.

    This means no access to ShopZ is offered and therefore no maintenance parts like PTFs. However, we intend to offer at least one release per year and it will bring the latest z/OS stack available by the release time.

    This approach is similar to the one used by the enterprise grade versions of ZD&T like Personal or Enterprise Editions, where ADCD (z/OS) is also offered as-is and unsupported.

    Last but not least, zPDT and PWD (mainly for SIs) are not part of ZD&T family, albeit they share some similarities under the hood. An example is ADCD. The one that comes with ZD&T is a modified and extended version of ADCD.

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    Luis Carlos Silva
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  • 8.  RE: ZD&T Learner's Edition Questions

    IBM Champion
    Posted Thu October 14, 2021 01:00 PM
    Luis - thank you. I was hoping that the Learner's Edition would provide a full learning platform for those trying to learn to support z/OS to work with.

    Perhaps something to think about down the road depending on how well this offering it used.

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    Lionel B. Dyck <><
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  • 9.  RE: ZD&T Learner's Edition Questions

    Posted Fri October 15, 2021 09:56 AM
    Theoretically speaking, if you wanted a learner to learn how to support z/OS you wouldn't give them a system with an ADCD but instead just the basic ZD&T and then provide a COD along with either a CBPDO or ServerPac of the OS. Then they could download CBPDOs or ProductPacs of the various subsystems or applications but that is far too much. As it is, although the ADCD and the major components are configured for first time use, many of the applications are not, for example:

    - zCX. I used the provided workflow and documentation to configure this to be used and this requires much more than clicking on a few buttons, TCPIP has to be configured for DVIPA so there is a good learning curve there. For myself, it was one of the first real uses of zOSMF workflows so was a good learning experience. There are other workflows provided for other tasks and as this is an area that is increasing in popularity, then I would suspect a learner would be more interested in this area along with other DevOps tools. It maybe that, and we're seeing that with z/OS 2.5, you won't need SMP/E skills, just download the PTF and use a workflow to install it
    - Want another DB2 SSID then all the stuff is there for you to do that, just read the DB2 installation manuals. The same goes for CICS, IMS, etc. All the DLIBs and TLIBs are there so you can do this and much more
    - There are plenty of 'freebie' products from IBM which can be downloaded and installed and some of these are SMP/E so just download something and go ahead

    But first, as this is primarily for learners, people new to z/OS, I think just logging on and then learning the basic system tasks (ie.e PDF, ISPF, SDSF, etc) is going to be enough to start with.

    Sebastian

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    Sebastian Welton
    Managing Director for EMEA Support. zSystems, Linux, and Cloud
    Information Technology Company
    Darmstadt
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  • 10.  RE: ZD&T Learner's Edition Questions

    Posted Mon October 18, 2021 10:46 AM
    Another factor to consider (from a z/OS maintenance point of view) is that ADCD is not suitable for applying RSU's or any kind of bulk maintenance. Applying a PTF from time to time may be fine. The reason is that z/OS is running from the SMPE target libraries and so applying any kind of maintenance on live libraries is risky. Applying an RSU update would very likely cause bad things to happen. Of course someone learning z/OS could take it upon themselves to build up a cloned set of volumes to IPL z/OS from and therefore apply maintenance to offline copies .. but this takes a good amount of extra disk space and a bit of know-how.

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    GREG KEUKEN
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