IBM z/OS plans to continue the tradition of adopting a continuous delivery (CD) model for z/OS V2.5. New features and enhanced capabilities will be available quarterly, without requiring the effort of a full release upgrade and with no impact to stability, complexity or costs. 

This 4Q 2021 CD announcement is packed full of innovative key features across areas from systems management, resiliency, and storage management, to help extend the capabilities of z/OS V2.5. Check them out below! 

• New IBM z/OS Management Services Catalog (zMSC)

This new IBM z/OS Management Facility (z/OSMF) task is designed to modernize how z/OS system programmers manage their z/OS environments by leveraging z/OSMF workflows and services. Experienced z/OS system programmers can create a catalog of customized services, each written with unique institutional knowledge, protocols, and processes. Services provide a presentation layer on top of z/OSMF workflows, intended to enable less experienced system programmers to complete z/ OS management tasks faster and with fewer errors. Spending less time on routine tasks should provide more time for investments in strategic IT functions to increase value to your enterprise.  To learn more about z/OS Management Services Catalog, including instructions on how to get started, see the z/OS Management Services Catalog content solution web page. 

• Cross-system Coupling Facility (XCF) note pad resiliency enhancements

Multiple resiliency enhancements are provided to improve the availability of applications making use of XCF note pads. Functionalities include a global note pad failure notification request, which allows requests that XCF automatically initiate note pad delete processing when connectivity loss is detected. Additional functions include dynamic note pad size changes, which enable an application to increase or decrease the number of notes in a a note pad in response to demand, without disruptions in availability. With the PTFs for APAR OA60571, these enhancements are available for z/OS V2.3 and later.

• Coupling Facility Resource Management (CFRM) support for 4096 CF structures in a sysplex

The maximum number of CF structures that can be defined and used concurrently within a sysplex environment has been increased from 2048 to 4096. This support provides increased CF structure capacity for Parallel Sysplex environments that might be approaching the current limit of 2048 CF structures, and enables the definition and use of more instances of sysplex functions that each require their own unique CF structures, such as sysplex data-sharing groups. CFRM support for up to 4096 CF structures is available on z/OS V2.5 and with the PTFs for APAR OA60356 on z/OS V2.3 and V2.4.

• z/OS Management Facility (z/OSMF) enhancements

IBM z/OSMF provides a framework for managing various aspects of a z/OS system through a task- oriented, web browser interface. z/OSMF continues to deliver 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. This quarter, z/OSMF has been enhanced with the following key productivity functions:

• • New capabilities to perform more data set and UNIX system services (USS) file operations directly on the z/OSMF desktop This includes new functions to copy, rename, and update the attributes of a file or data set.  With the PTFs for APAR PH39637, these enhancements are available for z/OS V2.4 and later.
  • z/OSMF has a rich set of programming APIs called REST services. These services are provided such that any authenticated and authorized user can drive the APIs to accomplish a task. The latest updates include:
    • Sysplex CFRM policy data so that sysplex configuration and management can be performed through a program. Available with the PTFs for APAR PH39685 for z/OS V2.4 and later.
    • Data set and file operation improvements include the capability to specify an account number on a request as well as handling additional special international characters in a data set or file name. With the PTFs for APAR PH39690, these enhancements are available for z/OS V2.4 and later.
    • Storage management information, new in this deliverable with the PTFs for APAR PH40099 for z/OS V2.4 and later, provides the capability to retrieve a data class or storage class. 

• z/OS Container Extensions (zCX) enhancements

z/OS Container Extensions enhancements to improve the capability to run Linux on IBM Z software in z/OS include the following: 

• • With the PTF for APAR OA61912 on z/OS V2.4 and later:
    • zCX large UID and GID range support. This is designed to enable a zCX server to fully integrate with an enterprise-wide LDAP infrastructure.
    • zCX Linux kernel is updated to use 5.4.0-81-generic. This updates the zCX with software package versions, security fixes, and patches, and overall Linux kernel under-the-hood improvements.
    • Updates to zCX Docker and container runtime package versions which can improve overall stability, security, and performance. 

• • The following capability is available on z/OS V2.5 and with the PTF for APAR OA61189 on z/ OS V2.4:
    • zCX support to back out disk allocation failures. zCX z/OSMF add_data_disks workflow has been enhanced, which is designed to provide the capability to back out changes when a disk allocation failure occurs when adding a new user or swap data disk to an existing zCX instance. 

To learn more about z/OS Container Extensions, including instructions on how to get started, see the zCX content solution web page. 

• Integrated Cryptographic Service Facility (ICSF) enhancements

With the PTFs for APAR OA61253 for z/OS V2.2 and later, ICSF is updated to provide a range of cryptographic service enhancements such as new callable services and new key types and usages that support encryption. 

• IBM z/OS Workload Interaction Correlator updates: 

z/OS Workload Interaction Correlator enables z/OS components and middleware to generate cost-effective summary data enriched with exceptionalism every 5 seconds. IBM has implemented the following new entitlement structure for the Workload Interaction Correlator: 

• • For z/OS V2.4 clients, there are two ways to get the z/OS Workload Interaction Correlator:
    • It is entitled at no additional charge when RMF is licensed
    • License the z/OS Workload Interaction Correlator, if RMF is currently not licensed 
  • For z/OS V2.5 clients, there are three ways to get the z/OS Workload Interaction Correlator:
    • It is entitled at no additional charge when RMF is licensed
    • It is entitled at no additional charge when ADG is licensed (Note: ADG it is entitled at no additional charge when RMF is licensed)
    • License z/OS Workload Interaction Correlator, if RMF or ADG is currently not licensed 

Any client who has not purchased RMF or ADG can still purchase the z/OS Workload Interaction Correlator independently as a z/OS priced feature, just as they could prior to this new entitlement structure. 

• Enhanced support for Network File System (NFS)

The z/OS NFS server supports the Apple macOS as an NFS client using the NFS V4 protocol and can operate with or without Kerberos authentication. This support now enables users to share z/OS data found in MVS data sets and z/OS UNIX files with Macintosh computers using the NFS protocol. This client/server combination is supported on z/OS V2.5 with the PTF for APAR OA61716. 

RPM, originally Red Hat Package Manager, now a recursive acronym, is a free and open-source package management system. Users of the z/OS NFS server can now build RPM packages on RHEL, SLES, or AIX for the z/OS NFS client utilities of mvslogin, mvslogout, and showattr. RPM packages enable a more convenient way for users to distribute the z/OS NFS client utilities across servers. This enhancement is available on z/OS V2.5 and with the PTFs for APAR OA61128 on z/OS V2.4. 

• Partitioned data set extended (PDSE) zEnterprise Data Compression (zEDC) support

z/OS, together with the priced z/OS zEDC feature, offers high-performance, CPU-efficient, and low-latency compression, designed to improve disk utilization and support data-intensive applications with ease. Enhancements to PDSE enable the capability to create SMS-managed compressed format PDSE V2 data sets, enabling PDSE members to be compressed utilizing zEDC without any application changes. Support for PDSE compression is provided on z/OS V2.5 and with the PTFs for APAR OA61168 on z/OS V2.3 and V2.4. 

• IEBCOPY support for PDSE member generations

Similar to generations for data sets, Version 2 PDSEs support multiple levels, or generations, of members for backup or archival purposes. IEBCOPY, a commonly used utility, provides the capability to copy PDSE member generations to another PDSE using new COPYGROUP or COPYGRP keywords on z/OS V2.5 and with the PTF for APAR OA60639 on z/OS V2.3 and z/ OS V2.4. 

• DFSMS archived key support

In z/OS V2.5, ICSF supports the capability to limit the use of archived keys to decryption operations. A new DFSMS function has been added for decrypt-only archived encryption keys for VSAM and non-VSAM encrypted data sets.  An attempt to open an encrypted VSAM or non-VSAM data set with a decrypt-only archived encryption key for anything other than input will fail. This enables encrypted data to be accessed but prevents creating new encrypted data with the archived key. This item is only available with z/OS V2.5. 

• Faster Db2 active log writes with Media Manager parallel write support using zHyperLink

zHyperLink is a low-latency short-distance connection between an IBM z14, or later, IBM Z system and IBM storage controllers that enables I/O to be performed synchronously. With the DFSMS Media Manager support for zHyperLink writes, Db2 12 for z/OS can improve log throughput by exploiting zHyperLink for active log writes. 
Performance improvements include support for Media Manager dual logging and Db2 exploitation when writing dual-copy active logs in a zHyperLink environment without requiring any application changes. Media Manager support for parallel writes is provided on z/OS V2.5 and with the PTFs for APARs OA57833, OA58134, and OA59581 on z/OS V2.3 and z/OS V2.4. 

• Transparent Cloud Tiering (TCT) multicloud support

TCT is enhanced to support multiple cloud definitions per DS8000, such as a combination of IBM Cloud Object Storage and IBM TS7700 DS8000 Object Store, to expand the flexibility of TCT. TCT backup and archive workloads can be split to use different cloud targets so that, for example, you can keep confidential data onsite in a private cloud while other data can move to a public cloud, or more active backups or frequently recalled data can remain onsite in a TS7700 object store while unreferenced colder data is stored on public clouds. DFSMS has been enhanced to support multiple cloud definitions in TCT configurations with the PTFs for APARs OA60977 and OA61013 on z/OS V2.3 and later. 

• DFSMShsm EXPIREBV support for UNIX files and directories

Enhanced DFSMShsm EXPIRE Backup Version (EXPIREBV) provides new UNIXPATH and RECURSE keywords to narrow the expiration examination to specific UNIX file backups or UNIX file directories and sub-trees. DFSMShsm support is provided on z/OS V2.5.

• DFSMShsm support for read-only file systems during incremental backup

DFSMShsm is enhanced to recognize when a UNIX file is located in a file system that is mounted read-only and use the latest backup date from the hierarchical storage management inventory to decide whether a new backup needs to be taken. This avoids taking an unnecessary incremental backup of UNIX files in a read-only file system when they have not changed since the last backup. DFSMShsm support is provided on z/OS V2.5 and with the PTF for APAR OA61472 on z/OS V2.3 and z/OS V2.4. 

• DFSMShsm UNIX file incremental backup enhancement

DFSMShsm has been enhanced with a new Java program that offloads the work of searching a UNIX directory sub-tree for files that have changed since the last backup to enable the hierarchical storage management host to be more efficient. Offloading the search for changed UNIX files is available with the PTF for APAR OA61080 on z/OS V2.3 and later. 

• TS7700 Control-Unit Initiated Reconfiguration (CUIR) enhancement

The TS7700 Virtualization Engine R5.2.1 CUIR support is enhanced to enable devices in an unhealthy cluster to be automatically varied offline and online. With the full function support, an automatic vary capability is provided for the TS7700 to notify a host that a distributed library is having issues. This enables each of the supporting host systems to automatically vary the device offline, and once the issue with that cluster has been resolved, the TS7700 can notify the host that the device should be brought online. z/OS support is provided with the PTFs for APARs OA60929 and OA61050 on z/OS V2.3 and later. 



Additional Resources:
Read the full 4Q 2021 Announce 
z/OS homepage
New Function APARs