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Episode 36 "Watts Up" What’s New z17 ME2, single frame and rack mount! Webpage of the Moment: Java dependencies for z/OS elements and components We've moved z/OS dependency from Semeru 21 to 25!Mainframe - New System Recovery Boost Goodies Provided in  OA66837 Message enhancement, more information in SMF 90.40 and 89. New Recovery Process Boost for dynamic I/O activation. There are now 8 of these types of recovery process boosts.Available on z/OS 3.1 and higher, for z16 and higher. Performance - IBM z17 Sustainability Metrics Power consumption data is provided on z/OS 3.1 and higher, in SMF 70.1 CPU Control Section.Available at both LPAR and Machine level. Machine consumption level has: infrastructure, unassigned (not deployed to any LPAR), and total. LPAR consumption level has: CPU (both GCP and zIIP), memory, and I/O.Martin's observations: LPAR consumption is largely driven by CPU, and there is a substantial amount of non-LPAR power consumption. Topics - Restarting Things Martin and Marna discuss why software gets restarted (z/OS IPLs and middleware restarts).Martin has noticed in engagements that it takes time for things to warm up. Most notably, Db2 buffer pools maturing.It is helpful to know when your warm-up period happens, such that you can be ready when your heaviest workload arrives. Restarts don't necessarily mean a workload or service outage, because of IBM Z technology advances (sysplex, workload balancing, ...) On the blog ⁠Marna's blog⁠⁠Martin's blogSo It Goes⁠

Episode 36 "Telum Like It Is"What’s Newz/OS dependencies moved from Semeru 17 to 21. EOS for Semeru 11 is 30 Nov 2025.Manual of the Moment: z/OS 3.1 Planning for Installation refresh, Software Dependencies sectionMainframe - Position z/OS for IBM z17z/OS V2.4 and higher is supported on IBM z17. Use SMP/E FIXCATs to find the necessary service.z/OS Sysplex requirements for coexistence is z15, z16, and z17.Exploitation for z17 in z/OS includes: Workload level sustainability and power consumption, Workfload classification pricing, new CL6 link technology, BCPii and HMC hardened security, CF Level 26, and more.Mainframe Also - Preview of z/OS 3.2z/OS 3.2 will IPL on z15 and higher servers. Planned GA is 3Q2025.Some new functions previewed, but stay tuned for further announcements with more complete functions.Highlights: new REST APIs for doing installation of service updates, support for direct encryption to tape, new z/OSMF Storage Management interface, RACF certificate support for multiple altnames, and more.Performance - IBM z17 highlightsTelum 2 processor has the 2nd generation on-chip AI accelerator, with 8-bit integer (INT8) and 16-bit floating point (FP16) datatypes for more thruput.5nm (from 7nm), with clock speeed of 5.5 GHz (from 5.2).DPU has 4 port cards (from 2), with energy consumption reduction. DPU accessible from other chips and DCMs.1 to 4 processor drawers. 4-drawer models are Max183 and Max 208.Memory 64 TB (from 40).Measurements with new Channel Measurement Groups 4 and 5, with SMF 73 support.TopicsMartin and Marna discuss how they prepared materials for IBM z17, with the Upgrade Workflow and Redbooks.On the blogMarna's blogMartin's blogsSo It Goes

What’s New z/OS dependencies moved from Semeru 11 to 17 before November 2025 Manual of the Moment: MVS Extended Addressability Guide for learning about address spaces, data spaces, and hiperspaces. Mainframe - Looking at ages of fixes you haven't installed yet IBM has started adding a REWORK date to PTFs. The date may be a day or two before the actual availability date. Use case example: requirement with a policy that Security/Integrity (SECINT) PTFs that meet some criteria must be installed within xx days of availability. Fits nicely with the z/OS UUID support, from Episode 34. Performance - Drawers, Of Course Martin explores the IBM z16 drawers, frames, and cache hierarchy. All of an LPAR’s logical processors and memory should be in the same drawer. Important because cross-drawer memory and cache accesses are expensive. Topics - Excel Love It Or Hate It Martin and Marna discuss how they use Excel, and what they like and dislike about it. Graphing and customization difficulties were investigated. On the blog Marna's blog Martin's blogs So It Goes...

Episode 34 "Homeward Bound" Mainframe - z/OSMF Software Management UUID What it is: ability to programmatically retrieve a unique value (UUID) which can then be used to find out installation information about the active z/OS system. This function is optional. Requires: z/OS 3.1, an SMP/E CSI specific to that software instance, and an installed usermod which is provided by z/OSMF Software Management. How it works: once the UUID has been encoded into your z/OS system's LPALIB data set, you can use a REST API to retrieve the UUID. Then, this allows you to use the UUID to run many other REST APIs to look at the installed software with assurance that you are looking at the actively running system software instance. You must ensure that for each new software instance, you install a new UUID. The UUID is also available from the D IPLINFO command. Performance - Logical Processor Home Addresses This is the LPAR's preferred physical location for a specific logical process to be dispatched. Drawer, DCM, chip, core. Degrees of meaning for Verical High, Medium, Low, and Dedicated. z16 support is in the SMF 70-1 records, OA62064 . Better than SMF 99-14 in some ways. Useful for an analysis of effect of PR/SM weights and HiperDispatch, verify location of ICF and IFL LPARs. Logical processor is not always dispatched to its home address. VH and Dedicated will always dispatch to the home processor. Location of memory is not included, although SMF 113 gives hints. Might need SMF 99-14 in addition, as it has affinity nodes, which 70-1 doesn't. All in all, a very useful advancement in the instrumentation. Topics - Useful Tips for Debugging a DFSORT E15 Exit Martin explores his experiences with DFSORT E15 and offers advice. DFSORT E15 is great at flattening records and enhancing filtering. You might find yourself needing to maintain this exit, which others have written. Some useful advice is: let the exits do the I/O for you, do a COPY first, stop after one record at first, write diagnostic data into output records, forcing an abend can help, code a SYSUDUMP DD, maintain a DFSORT symbols convention, GETMAIN your working storage, and you can write to the spool. On the blog Marna's blog Martin's blogs So It Goes

Episode 33 "These Boots Were Made" What’s New Preliminary z/OS 3.1 Upgrade materials Python 3.1.1 zIIP enablemment OA63406 and PH52983 Mainframe - Requires: z/OS V2.5 with PTFs, IBM z16 with microcode. Has both driving and target system requirements, use IBM.Function.ValidatedBoot FIXCAT. Front end: Siging the in-scope artifacts (NUCLEUS, LPA, IPL Text, and SA Dump Text), z16 is not required here although z/OS V2.5 and PTFs are. Back end: Verification of those signed in-scope artifacts. z16 with correct microcode level is required here (with z/OS V2.5 and PTFs). Security set up work is required. Performance - Open Data Sets, Part 2 Follow on, from Part 1 which was physical open and close of data sets as seen by z/OS. This is about Db2 with the notion of logically Open and Closed data sets. Its main role is to manage inter-Db2 read/write interest, for Datasharing efficiency purposes. Two Db2 subsystem parameters have traditionally been used to control pseudoclose: PCLOSET and PCLOSEN. PCLOSEN is gone in V12 with APAR PH28280, as part of a DSNZPARM simplification effort. So PCLOSET would need adjusting down to whatever mimics PCLOSEN - in anticipation of this APAR or V13. Topics - Messing With Digital Electronics Martin explores his experiences with input devices (Stream Decks, Quick Keys, ...) Martin has even built his own input devices: having an RFID card kick off automation, rotary encoders, USB Human Interface Device. On the blog Marna's blog Martin's blogs So It Goes

Episode 32 "Scott Free" What’s New Preview of z/OS 3.1 Mainframe - SMFLIMxx Parmlib Member IEFUSI exit replacement with a parmlib member, related to storage and limits that can be specified. Functions are delivered as continuous delivery, such as the SAF check filter, and number of shared pages used. In z/OS 3.1: Dedicated Real Memory Pools to assign memory to a specific application, like zCX, in all frame sizes. Performance - Open Data Sets, Part 1 Looking at many open data sets (100s of thousands) for middleware. ALLOCxx's SWBSTORAGE has to specify ATB to put control blocks above the bar. Applications need to exploit the service. Monitoring virtual storage is key here, and remains important. The number of volumes needed affects how much memory is needed, so there is no one answer. Topics - Evolution of a Graph Martin explores the large improvements he's made with his custom graphing programs. Start with naive rows and columns, with rigid labels. Then, generating the titles with REXX. Then, using REXX to drive GDDM directly. Then, use REXX to generate many more data point and plotting them directly. Then, have REXX generate the series names. Martin encourages all to evolve their graphs, to tell the story better, and run more efficiently. Customer Requirement ZOSI-2195 "Extended GDG causes space issues", has been satisfied. IGGCATxx's GDGLIMITMAX with OA62222 on V2.3. On the blog Marna's NEW blog location is here Martin has quite a few new blog articles here So It Goes

Episode 31 "Take it to the Macs" show notes. This episode is about our After Show. (What is that?) Long show notes can be found here. What’s New New news for CustomPac removal date, it is July 10, 2022. Data Set File System released OA62150 closed April 28th, 2022 only on z/OS V2.5 Mainframe - z/OS Management Services Catalogs: Importance of z/OSMF Workflows z/OS Management Services Catalog, zMSC, allows you to customize a z/OSMF Workflow for your enterprise, and publish it in a catalog for others to "click and use". There are 7 initial sample Services that IBM provides, or you can provide your own with a starting Workflow. zMSC Services are based on z/OSMF Workflows. You can see why the discussion on knowing z/OSMF Workflows is important. Performance - System Recovery Boost (SRB) Early Experiences System Recovery Boost provides boosts of two kinds: speed and zIIP. There are different capabilities of SRB, based on which HW server you are running (z15 or z16):Shutdown - which allows you to have 30 minutes worth of boosting during shutdown. This function must be requested to be used each time. IPL - which allows you to have 60 minutes worth of boosting during IPL. This function, provided by default, is on. Recovery Process Boost, provided on IBM z15. Extends to structure or connectivity recovery, for instance. Newer additional functions for Recovery Process Boost, specifically on IBM z16, for stopping and starting certain middleware. Martin has several early field experience, which he has summarised in four blog posts. Topics - Stickiness This topics explores what makes some technologies sticky, and some not. Martin and Marna discuss some of the attributes are important for continuing to be used, and what makes a function fall away over time.Value Completeness Usability and immediacy Reliability Setup complexity On the blog Marna's blog is here Martin has quite a few new blog articles here So It Goes

Short show notes - long show notes here We have a special guest joining us for the performance topic, Scott Ballentine. What’s New New news for CustomPac removal date, which has been extended past January 2022. The reason was to accommodate the desired Data Set Merge capability in z/OSMF which customers needed. For the new withdrawl date, it is planned to be announced in 2Q2022. Mainframe - Only in V2.5 This topic was looking at some new functions that are only in z/OS V2.5. Data Set File System, planned to be available in 1Q 2022. Dynamic Change Master Catalog RACF data base encryption has a statement of direction. Increase z/OS Memory limit above 4TB to 16TB. More Concurrently ”Open” VSAM Linear Datasets. Db2 exploits with Apar PH09189, and APAR PH33238 is suggested. ISPF Updates to ISPF in support of PDSE V2 member generations, and SUBMIT command to add an optional parameter SUBSYS. Access Method Services - IDCAMS - DELETE MASK has two new options TEST and EXCLUDE z/OS Encryption Readiness Technology zERT There’s a lot of other stuff rolled back to V2.4 Performance - What's the Use? - with special guest Scott Ballentine This discussion is a summary from a joint presentation on Usage Data and IFAUSAGE The topic is motivational because customers can get a lot of value of out this usage data, and understand the provenance of IFAUSAGE data. A macro vendors or anybody use can use to show which products are used and how. It can show names: Product Vendor, Name, ID, Version, Qualifier, Show numbers: Product TCB, Product SRB, FUNCTIONDATA The data is ostensibly for SCRT, which is fed by SMF 70 and SMF 89 Scott talked about encoding via IFAUSAGE, appears in SMF 30 and 89-1 SMF 89-1: Software Levels query, Db2 / MQ subsystems query SMF 30: Topology (e.g. CICS connecting to Db2 or MQ), Some numbers (Connections’ CPU) Both SMF 30 and 89: FUNCTIONDATA Examples were mentioned that might inspire developers to think about how they code IFAUSAGE Hope is developers will delight customers by using IFAUSAGE right, and customers will take advantage in the way shown with reporting examples. Topics - Choices, Choices This topics is about how to choose a language to use for which purpose. Different languages were discussed for different needs. Use Case: Serving HTML? Host consideration: Running on e.g. laptop? Host consideration: Running on z/OS? Overall lesson: Choose the language that respects the problem at hand. On the blog Marna's blog is here Martin has quite a few new blog articles here So It Goes

This episode is about how to be a better z/OS installation specialist, z/OS capture ratios, and a discussion on using Trello. We have a special guest joining us for the performance topic, Miroslava Barahona Rossi.  Long show notes are found here . Mainframe - Being a Better Installation Specialist "Better" here means lessons learned, not competing with people. "Installation Specialist" might just as well have used "System Programmer" or another term. There's definitely a reason to be optimistic about being a person that does that Installation Specialist or System Programmer type of work: There will always be a need for someone to know how systems are put together, how they are configured, how they are upgraded, and how they are serviced...how to just get things to run. Consider the new function adoption needs too. There are so many "new" functions that are just waiting to be used. A really good installation specialist would take information they have and use it in different ways. Knowing parmilb really well. You can't be better by only doing things yourself, no one can know everything. You've got to work with others who are specialists in their own area. Last but not least, learn how to teach yourself. Know where to find answers (and that doesn't mean asking people!). Learn how to try out something on a sandbox. Performance - Capture Ratio Our special guest is Miroslava Barahona Rossi, a technical expert who works with large Brasilian customers. Capture Ratio - a ratio of workload CPU to system-level CPU as a percentage. Commercial considerations when billing for uncaptured cycles. You might worry something is wrong if the capture ratio is low. Reasonable value is usually 80 - 90. Seeing more like 85 - 95 these days. It has been improved because more of I/O-related CPU is captured. Summary: Don’t be upset if you get a capture ratio substantially lower than 100%. That's normal. Understand your normal. Be aware of the relationship of your normal to everybody else’s. But, be careful when making that comparison as it is very workload dependent. Understand your data and causes. See if you can find a way of improving it. Keep track of the capture ratio over the months and years. Topics - Hello Trello Trello is based on the Kanban idea. Why are we talking about Trello?  We moved to it for high level podcast planning.  Template used for hatching new future episodes. We move cards around sometimes between episodes. Marna uses it to organise daily work, with personal workload management and calendaring. But it is not a meetings calendar. Probably with Jira will be more useful than ever. We'll see. Martin uses it for team engagements, with four lists: Potential, Active, Dormant, Completed. Engagement moves between lists as it progresses Martin's blog Marna's blog So It Goes.

This episode is about several of the z/OS V2.5 new functions, which were recently announced, for both the Mainframe and Performance topics. Our Topics topic is on Martin's Open Source tool filterCSV.  Full long show notes are here. We have a guest for Performance: Nick Matsakis, z/OS Development, IBM Poughkeepsie. Many of the enhancements you'll see in the z/OS V2.5 Preview were provided on earlier z/OS releases via Continuous Delivery PTFs. The APARs are provided in the announce. If you use FTPS for your IBM software electonic delivery, a change is taking place on April 30, 2021. We strongly recommend you use HTTPS instead, but if you still want to use FTPS see IBM software electronic delivery change - take notice! Mainframe - Selected z/OS V2.5 enhancements IBM will have z/OS installable with z/OSMF, in a portable software instance format! z/OS V2.4 will not be installable with z/OSMF, and z/OS V2.4 driving system requirements remain the same. z/OS V2.5 will be installable via z/OSMF, so that is a big driving system change. Learn z/OSMF Software Management at this website. Notification of availability of TCP/IP extended services Workload Manager (WLM) batch initiator management takes into account availability of zIIP capacity Change the Master Catalog without IPL IDCAMS DELETE mask takes TEST and EXCLUDE. IDCAMS REPRO moves I/O buffers above line. New RMF Concept for CF data gathering RMF has been restructured, but all the functions are still intact. z/OS V2.5 RMF is still a priced feature. Performance - zCX enhancements zCX is important for co-locating Linux on Z containers with z/OS. Popular use cases can be found here and in the Redbook here. Another helpful source is Ready for the Cloud with IBM zCX. zIIP eligibility enhancements New enhancements include support 1 MB and 2 GB large pages (still fixed) for backing guests. Guest memory is planned to be configured up to 1 TB Another relief is in Disk space limits Monitor and log zCX resource usage of the root disk, guest memory, swap disk, and data disks in the servers job log. zCX resource shortage z/OS alerts to improve monitoring and automated operations. SIMD (or Vector). SIMD is a performance feature, and can be used for analytics. Nick's presentation (with Mike Fitzpatrick) is here. Topics - filterCSV and tree manipulation Mindmapping leads to trees. Thinking of z/OS: Sysplex -> System -> Db2 -> Connected CICS leads to trees. Has very little automation of its own. But crucially you can mangle the CSV file outside of iThoughts, which is what filterCSV does. filterCSV is a python open source program that manipulates iThoughts CSV files, colouring CICS regions according to naming conventions So it goes.

Episode 27 "And Another Thing" show notes.  Long show note are here. Follow up Additional System Recovery Boost enhancements: Sysplex partitioning recovery: Boosts all surviving systems in the sysplex as they recover and takes on additional workload following the planned or unplanned removal of a system from the sysplex. Two more portable software instances: Db2 and IMS added to Shopz on Aug 20, 2020, in addition to CICS (Dec 2019). ASK MPT Martin was asked about which systems in a System Recovery Boost Speed Boost situation get their GCPs sped up to full speed. Mainframe - Trying out Ansible for driving z/OSMF Workflows Marna's been learning about Ansible and how it can drive z/OSMF work. So far with z/OSMF Workflows, from ansible-galaxy collection for ibm.ibmzoszosmf Needed lots of assistance from two gracious Poughkeepsie system testers (massive thanks to Marcos Barbieri and Daniel Gisolfi !!) Learning about an Ansible Encountered two kinds of problems: Security issues connecting the Linux environment to a large Poughkeepsie System Test z/OSMF environment Workflow-related: duplicate instances when part of the playbook ran ok, and selecting an automated workflow. Performance - So You Don't Think You're An Architect? Brand new presentation for 2020, builds on the “who says what SMF is for?” slide in "How To Be A Better Performance Specialist" Presentation talks about 3 layers The Top Layer - Machines, Sysplexes And LPARs The Middle Layer - Workloads And Middleware: Spikes, Restarts, Cloning, Topology, Software Levels The Bottom Layer - Application Components: Db2 and MQ Accounting Trace, DDF topology, data sets Fulfilling the definiton Of Architecture? Understand what's really going on and valuable to system architects Topics - Notifications They are unsolicited messages appearing on the device, generally interruptions whether wanted or not. Examples of what is received and where/ IFTTT still a favorite of Marna's, mentioned in Episode 23 “The Preview That We Do” Topics topic. Martin just subscribed to Premium, but at a low-ball price. How do you manage them to reduce their number. An advanced topic is how you can generate your own On iOS the Pushcut app: a webhook from eg IFTTT can cause a notification On Android we have MacroDroid. Customer requirements Customer Requirement 138729 : z/OS Console message help support JES2 messages IBM response: This RFE has been delivered via APAR PH24072 at end of June 2020. It's available on both V2R3 and V2R4. The JES2 message prefix such as $ can be setup in "Configure Message Help" dialog in z/OSMF Console UI. On the blog Martin's blog posts are here Marna's blog posts are https://blog.share.org/Article/tag/marnas-musings So it goes.

Here are the show notes for Episode 26 "Sounding Board". The show is called this because it relates to our Topics topic, and because we recorded the episode partly in the Pougkeepsie recording studio where Martin sounded zen, and partly at home. What’s New APAR PH21919: NEW FUNCTION - WORKFLOW SUPPORT SAVE JOB OUTPUT PTF Numbers are UI68359 for 2.3 and UI68360 for 2.4 APAR OA56774 (since 2.2) Provides new function to prevent a runaway sysplex application from monopolizing a disproportionate share of CF resources Not based on CF CPU consumption. Is based on deteriorating service times to other structures - which you could measure with SMF 74-4 Coupling Facility Activity data. Mainframe - z15 FIXCATs IBM.Device.Server.z15-8561.RequiredService: Absolute minimum needed to run on a z15. Usually intent is to keep these PTFs to a minimum - and keep the number of PTFs relatively constant.  > IBM.Device.Server.z15-8561.Exploitation: Needed for optional functions, and you can decide when you want to use them. This PTF list could grow - if we add new functions IBM.Device.Server.z15-8561.RecommendedService: Usually to fix a defect that is found but haven’t risen up to required. Might want to run an SMP/E REPORT MISSINGFIX to see what’s in this FIXCAT. Might install some, all, or none of the fixes. Might want to be more selective. Based on how much change you want to encounter, versus what problems are fixed By the way there are other FIXCATs you might want to be interested in for z15, e.g. IBM.Function.SYSPLEXDataSharing Performance - DFSORT And Large Memory A very special guest joins us, Dave Betten, former DFSORT performance lead. Dave talked about DFSORT memory controls DFSORT has historically been an aggressive user of memory Installation defaults can be used to control that But the EXPOLD parameter needs special care - because of what constitutes "old pages", which aren't actually unused. DFSORT Tuning Guide, especially Chapter 3 Dave talked about how handy rustling up RMF Overview Reports can be, with several Overview conditions related to memory. Most of the information in this topic is relevant to LPARs of all sizes Topics - Update on recording techniques Recording of podcast - still using Skype to collaborate Production - Editing - Moved to Ferrite on iPad OS Publishing - same process as before, but on a new publisher! Customer requirements (assume usual disclaimer) RFE 139477 “Please include the CPU Time Limit for a Job/Step in SMF Type 30” After the fact - End of step looks useful. Could run query comparing to actual CPU time, then track to see if ABEND is on the horizon “ As it happens ” - Would like on the SMF Interval as well as Step End records. May not need the SMF information if vendor and IBM tools already do it today. On the blog Martin's has blog posts since the last episode. Marna has three on her blog here. So it goes...

Here are the show notes for Episode 25 “Flit for Purpose”. The show is called this because it relates to our Topic, and also can be related to our Mainframe topic (as a pun for “Fit for Purpose”). Mainframe Topic: Highest highlights of z/OS V2.4 and z/OS on z15 Highlight 1:  zCX Highlight 2: z/OSMF Lots of z/OSMF enhancements that have arrived in z/OS V2.4, and the good news is that most of them are rolled back to V2.3 in PTFs that have been arriving quarterly. Security Configuration Assistant: A way within z/OSMF to validate your security configuration with graphic views, on the user and user group level. Designed to work with all three External Security Managers! Available back to V2.3 with APAR PH15504 and additional group id enhancements in APAR PH17871 Diagnostic Assistant for z/OSMF : A much simplier way to gather the necessary information to need for a Service person to perform debug for your z/OSMF problem. Hightlight 3: SRB on on z15: System Recovery Boost :Speeds up your shutdown for up to 30 minutes and speeds your re-IPL for 60 minutes, with no increase to your rolling four hour average. Performance Topic: z15 from chip design on upwards Disclaimer: personal view, not from Development or Marketing. Marna and Martin were talking about the z15 Chip design – and we thought those observations might be useful to include in the Performance topic. Two traditional levers were raising clock speed or shrinking the feature size. GHz and nm aren’t the be all and end all. Look at chip design. Start with a similar sized CP chip and putting more on it. It helped to get rid of the Infiniband-related circuits, and some layout enhancements. At the top end there are up to 190 characterisable cores, coming up from 170. This can give us a fifth drawer – which is quite important. Topic: How To Do A Moonlight Flit This topic is about moving one’s social output, in particular blogs and podcast series. Martin’s blog had to move, because the IBM developerWorks blog site is being shut down.  Martin's blog has had to move, as well as this podcast. Immediately people might worry about Request For Enhancements being affected , and it is not. Martin and Marna discuss important aspects to consider when moving your social media. You must consider all the pieces when do you the most. You must also try to redirect your audience. Contacting us You can reach Marna on Twitter as mwalle and by email. You can reach Martin on Twitter as martinpacker and by email and blogs at blog.

Here are the show notes for Episode 24 “Our Wurst Episode”. The show is called this because we both attended the IBM TechU in Berlin, Germany, and our Topics topic is our trip report. Mainframe Topic: CICS ServerPac in z/OSMF IBM’s first delivery on new installation strategy, will be with CICS and associated SREL products. This is the first of many (really, all). Choice on new installation strategy or old during ShopZ ordering. We encourage making the z/OSMF choice, as that is consistent between IBM and other vendors, and is intended to be easier. Infrastructure already available in continuously delivery PTFs, and rolled back to z/OS V2.2. This makes the driving system have the proper infrastructure so anybody can package and deliver that way. All software that you ordered as a ServerPac, and installed either way, will give you the same (or hopefully better) equivalent installation. There is an IBM Statement Of Direction that this installation choice is coming, but we do not have an exact date yet. For other software ISVs, they can exploit the new z/OS installation strategy whenever they are ready. Prepare now by becoming familiar with z/OSMF Software Management and Workflows Performance Topic: DB2 And I/O Priority Queuing Follow on from Screencast / Martin's Blog post topic:, "Screencast 12 – Get WLM Set Up Right" Recent talk has been about whether to turn off I/O Priority Queuing in WLM. Service classes with DB2 subsystems in are heavily I/O Sample oriented, which is unusual among service classes in a system. Means access to CPU is not properly managed, as CPU & zIIP samples few, relative to I/O samples. Reminder: Most of DBM1 is now zIIP-eligible. Can achieve goal even with lots of delay for zIIP or CPU, but that’s definitely not what you want. You don’t want to just turn off WLM I/O Priority Queuing, as it’s sysplex-wide, it might affect other work that needs it, and Db2 might actually need it. First you need a reasonably achievable goal for the service class. Make sure you’re more or less achieving the existing goal. Second, calculate what the velocity achieved would be without I/O priority queuing . You should evaluate or adjust the goal attainment, but that is BAU. Changing WLM always needs some care. Topics: Berlin Trip Report May 20-24 We both attended IBM Z TechU in Berlin, and got to see each other. Marna had about six sessions. The SMP/E Rookies session had fabulous attendance – 44. Some were more experienced, but most were not. z/OSMF had good attendance too, about 82. More are interested in this topic, especially if you compare to just a couple of years ago. Best attended was the z/OS V2.4 Preview, with about 150 people. There was excellent interest in what is coming in the new release. Marna did her own poster to help with z/OSMF configuration, and several people came by to chat. Both Marna and Martin shared a poster about this podcast. We helped with getting one person a podcast app (on each platform), and a subscription to this podcast. Martin had five sessions.  One was co-written with Anna, “2 / 4 LPARs” Two were solo efforts: Parallel Sysplex Performance Topics, and Even More Fun With DDF. Contacting Us You can reach Marna on Twitter as mwalle and by email. You can reach Martin on Twitter as martinpacker and by email and blogs at blog.

Here are the show notes for Episode 23 “The Preview That We Do”. The show is called this because we talk about the newly previewed z/OS release, V2.4, in the Mainframe section. This is our 24th episode too! How convenient! Mainframe: z/OS V2.4 Preview “z/OS Container Extensions” (zCX)  zCX Information z/OS Upgrade Workflow, no book More in Pervasive Encryption zFS enhancements MCS logon passphrases Biggest question one may have: what level of HW will z/OS V2.4 IPL on? z/OS V2.4 will run on zEC12/BC12 and higher. Performance: Coupling Facility Structure Duplexing Two types of CF structure duplexing: User-Managed: Only DB2 Group Buffer Pools (GBP) System-Managed: e.g DB2 IRLM LOCK1 Structure Structure performance matters: User-Managed not an issue. System-Managed matters. Asynchonous CF Structure Duplexing Announced October 2016 Important considerations if Async CF Duplexing good all the time: People make architectural decisions and this should not be a leap in the dark . Ideally should be established with a little testing, with testing as close to production behaviors as possible. Generally it’s good for you. Configuration: Format couple data set, put into service, and then REALLOCATE. Again speaks to planning and testing. The main event for this item is SMF. SMF 74-4 Coupling Facility Activity data, primarily interested in structure-level, especially for structure duplexing of any kind. Though CF to CF pathing information also available. New Async CF Duplexing instrumentation APAR OA49148 Early days of Async CF Duplexing despite having been announced in 2016. Martin has been using a customer’s test data, and would like to build experience. Only a portion of this new SMF 74-4 data is surfaced in RMF Postprocessor reports. z/OSMF Sysplex Management can help visualize and control the Sysplex resources. This function to help with control is in PI99307: SYSPLEX MANAGEMENT APPLICATION ENHANCEMENTS TO MODIFY SYSPLEX RESOURCES. Topics: Smart home thermostats Marna just installed two Nest thermostats, one in each zone (of a three-zone house). Is sharing data with Nest, and presumably whoever owns Nest currently (Google). Instrumentation benefit is having an app in which she can look at what is happening at home, when away, and control it too. There are excellent graphs on what has been used (hours of heating, cooling) in the app. Martin doesn’t have a smart home thermostat, but does have a remote oil tank sensor to determine how much oil is left. This sensor feeds back into a device in the house, and connects to an app on his phone. It costs 5 GBP a month, but is unsure yet if it is worth it. Contacting Us You can reach Marna on Twitter as mwalle and by email. You can reach Martin on Twitter as martinpacker and by email and blogs at blog.