IBM Z Service Management Suite, which is part of IBM Z AIOps portfolio, has delivered its version 2.4 on March 24, 2023! The doc is also available on: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/zsms2/2.4.0. The following components are included in this release:

• IBM® Discovery Library Adapter for z/OS® 3.2
• IBM Service Management Unite Enterprise Edition 1.1.10
• IBM Tivoli® Management Services on z/OS 6.3.2
• IBM Z ChatOps 1.1.3
• IBM Z Common Data Provider 5.1.1 with Apache Kafka with Kafka
• IBM Z NetView® 6.4
• IBM Z Resource Discovery Data Service 1.2.0
• IBM Z Software Asset Management 8.2
• IBM Z System Automation 4.3
• IBM Z OMEGAMON® for CICS® 5.6.0
• IBM OMEGAMON for IMS on z/OS 5.5.0
• IBM OMEGAMON for Messaging on z/OS 7.5.0
• IBM OMEGAMON for Storage on z/OS 5.5.0
• IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Application Diagnostics 7.1.1
• IBM OMEGAMON for Db2® Performance Expert on z/OS 5.5.0
• IBM Z OMEGAMON for JVM 5.5.0
• IBM Z OMEGAMON Integration Monitor 5.6.0
• IBM Z OMEGAMON Monitor for z/OS 5.6.0
• IBM Z OMEGAMON Network Monitor 5.6.0

This new release delivers new features for the following components:

IBM Discovery Library Adapter for z/OS 3.2

IBM Discovery Library Adapter for z/OS 3.2 includes the following updates and enhancements:

• All z/OS DLA 3.1 APAR fixes are included.
• A new option ENABLE_ZRDS is added to support IBM Z Resource Discovery Services to consume z/OS DLA discovered data. For more information, see SET directive.
• DB2® DDF location information is enhanced. For more information, see sys.zOS.DB2Subsystem.

IBM Service Management Unite Enterprise Edition 1.1.10

IBM Service Management Unite Enterprise Edition 1.1.10 provides new integration with z/OS Workload Interaction Navigator and Z Operational Log and Data Analytics.

Starting in 1.1.10, IBM Service Management Unite is integrated with z/OS Workload Interaction Navigator and Z Operational Log and Data Analytics. You can launch the dashboards of these two products directly from Service Management Unite performance dashboards to view more detail. For Z Operational Log and Data Analytics, you can launch two types of dashboards: the Z Data Analytics platform dashboard that is included in Z Operational Log and Data Analytics or the Splunk platform where Z Operational Log and Data Analytics is deployed. For more information, see IBM Service Management Unite integration with z/OS Workload Interaction Navigator and IBM Service Management Unite integration with Z Operational Log and Data Analytics.

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Application Diagnostics on z/OS 7.1.1 (Delivered in December 2022)

IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager for Application Diagnostics on z/OS 7.1.1 delivers currency and critical maintenance, including:

Version 2 of the persistent data store (PDS V2) replaces the original persistent data store (PDS V1). PDS V2 is used for near-term history improving performance and reducing the use of virtual storage. It improves performance and reduces use of virtual storage.

IBM Tivoli Management Services on z/OS 6.3.2

New enhancements with this release include the following:

• Containerization of the Tivoli Enterprise Portal Server (TEPS) enables the deployment of an Open Container Initiative (OCI) compliant image on IBM zSystems hardware running Docker on the Linux® on zSystems operating system. This TEPS container saves time and simplifies maintenance by removing the need for users to manually install, configure, start, stop, and maintain the TEPS software application and all TEPS software prerequisites.
• Inclusion of IBM Cognos® 11.1.7 to replace Tivoli Common Reporting that is no longer supported. IBM Cognos will enable clients to build and report on historical monitoring data based on business need.
• Currency updates to Db2® (11.5.8) to provide expanded platform support, including Windows Server 2022.
• Zowe™ 2.0 support for IBM Z Service Management Explorer (IZSME).

IBM Z ChatOps 1.1.3

IBM Z ChatOps 1.1.3 provides the following key new features:

• Intelligent response

  When you type commands without entering required options, Z ChatOps can now prompt you with the option you must enter next as a drop-down list or lists of resources that you can select. This further simplifies your command experience. This feature supports data from System Automation, OMEGAMON®, and Z Workload Scheduler. See Using auto-prompt for required options for more information.

• Command aliases

  You can now create aliases for your frequently used commands with as little as a single character. This allows you to create shortcuts for commands and improves your productivity by saving you a lot of time to type the same commands again and again. For example, you can set 1 as the alias for the workstation list status --en SAT1IWS command.

  To create an alias, you can modify the config/bnz-command-alias.yaml configuration file and then run bnzsvr restart. For more information, see Configuring aliases and Using command aliases.

IBM Z Common Data Provider 5.1.1 with Apache Kafka

IBM Z Common Data Provider 5.1.1 with Apache Kafka enables the following integrations:

• Stream IBM Z Workload Scheduler data and distribute it to a variety of analytics engines, such as Splunk, IBM Z Data Analytics platform, or Elasticsearch.
• IBM Z System Automation can use the Kafka infrastructure to distribute System Display Facility (SDF) events to IBM Service Management Unite and other consumers.

Note that the IBM Z Common Data Provider 5.1.1 with Apache Kafka includes the same new features as 5.1.0.

IBM Z Resource Discovery Data Service 1.2.0

IBM Z Resource Discovery Data Service 1.2.0 enables hybrid cloud event correlation from OMEGAMON generated events with IBM Cloud Pak® for Watson™ AIOps.

For a full list of new features for Service Management Suite 2.4, see "What's new in 2.4.0". If you have any comments on the doc, please contact me (Michelle: bjlyul@cn.ibm.com).