I'm looking to upgrade RD&T from 9.5 to 10.0 along with z/os 2.1 to 2.2.

I have upgraded the RD&T components and moved from usb key licensing to software licensing, so that part is done.  I'm still running z/os 2.1 and distributions on the new 10.0 base.

I have a good bit of customizations in the USER data set and some additional user data sets that don't contain system customizations.  I'm looking to get these data sets moved over to the upgraded os.

I'm guessing I have a couple upgrade paths for the customizations in USER....  The additional data sets are on a volume I created so I can just put that one in the config map.

1.  Backup and restore the F1CFG1 volume and restore it on the new os to the B2CFG1 or C2CFG1 (10.0.1 changed that volume to C2...) .  I really don't know how to accomplish this since I have very limited z/OS skills.

2.  Change the SYS1.IPLPARM members to point to the USER.PARMLIB on F1CFG1 volume.  My concern is what other PARMS refer to a volume name that may break something. Plus will the library concatenation be OK or is that referred by volume name somewhere?

My preference would be #1 because the current way we backup our instance cleanly is to shut it down, backup and restart.  Being able to do backups and then have them backed up would be a great time saver.

Any advise would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Hi

The USER datasets on CFG1 are all empty. So you can copy members from the old one to the new one, but there might be differences here and there between z/OS versions.

You should never change the PARMLIB libraries as you suggest, but concatenate them. So you would have:

USER.*

FEU.*

ADCD.*

SYS1.*

By going back to IPL'ing on 00 instead of AL you would have the chance to fix any errors in USER.*

Or you can IPL the SARES1 volume, if everything else fails (like an error in MSTJCL00 :-()

Br Michael

Hi John, we are improving our documentation to help our customers with questions like yours, but they are coming yet. By now, yes, your option 1 should work. One think to have in mind is were you could put your backup to be restored when you have your new system installed.

I suggest you to keep the old volume F1CFG1 and other disks if you have any other updated dataset untouched. Donwload and install your new zD&T v10.0.1 (my recommendation), download the new disks of the ADCD December 2016 Edition (C2xxx volumes) and install them in the same directory as you have the old ADCD disks. While building your devmap file, include your old F1CFG1 volume in the new devmap file. It will make this old disk available for you when you IPL the new z/OS system, so you will be able to copy your changed data to the new disks.   

Thanks Michael for your help.

Thanks for the input.

I used the opportunity to learn/write a couple Rexx programs to make backups of the needed dataset and restore them on the upgraded instance.  So I'm good on getting my user files over and the USER files copied and restored.

The next question is, what is the easiest way to get the RACF database copied over.  I know there were various changes made to the database plus a couple userids were created.  I can't seem to find an easy method to do this so any guidance would be appreciated.

Thanks.

There is specific documentation to preserve RACF data base definitions while upgrading z/OS version/releases. Some releases requires updates using RACF utilities.

Please check if it applies to z/OS v2.2.

Working with RACF DB is not complex, but requires some customization knowledge and you must be careful. It any error occurs, you may not be able to IPL or use your z/OS.

The easiest way to do it would be using a backup where you can switch to.

1. Customize your z/OS to work with a RACF backup DB

2. Make the authorizations in the RACF profiles to enable your user id to ACTIVATE and SWITCH to the backup DB

3. Copy your old RACF DB to the new backup DB. If possible, crate this backup DB and keep it available to the z/OS on your work volume.

4. Issue the RACF commands ACTIVATE and SWITCH for the new backup DB. Now you should be using your backup DB (that becomes primary) and the primary DB will be INACTIVE.

If you want to, copy also the old RACF DB to your primary you can do it. The recommendation is to have them all the time with the same content.

Learn more at https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSLTBW_1.13.0/com.ibm.zos.r13.icha200/help.htm.

What you really want to do here is merge the old RACF database with the new RACF database.  This requires some knowledge of RACF utilities.  The specific one of interest here is IRRUT400.  The process and the utility is documented in the following publication:

This utility might be helpful too:

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/os/zos/features/racf/downloads/dbsync.html

Br

Michael Erichsen