Today's a big day for IBM Z (note the changed brand name) and z/OS! We've been looking forward to this day for a long time, when we can talk about all the GA functions in z/OS V2.3 *and* the next z14 server. Because I know there's a lot of flurry about this, I wanted to provide a short list what I think might be the handiest technical information that you might need.
- z/OS V2.3 PDFs . And you can download any of the zipped Adobe-indexed files from here: Adobe-index z/OS V2.3 PDFs . I'm seeing several broken links to KC at the time of this writing, so you might want to give KC a little time to get those fixed.
- Looking for the new z/OS V2.3 Migration book? You can get the PDF directly with this link: z/OS V2.3 Migration book PDF ...BUT why would you? The Workflows for z/OS V2.3 Migration are so much better.
- The z/OS V2.3 Migration Workflows are available now on github. Using github for us, is a new direction and I'm hoping that you'll find it easy to retrieve them. z/OS V2.3 Migration Workflows on github
- No userid/password is required to download from github.
- As always, make sure you download as binary and put all the necessary files in the same directory. Check the permissions after download, as I always need to change it on my systems.
- The z/OS V2.3 Migration Workflow uses more features of z/OSMF. You'll need at least the z/OSMF V2.1 level to drive the Workflow, with "recent" PTFs (meaning, at least from January 2017, but more recent is better to ensure you don't hit known problems).
- The first new step is a discovery step, meaning that we will automatically skip any priced features, the unused JES, and perhaps zFS migration actions, if you are not using those functions. You can always still execute them even if we automatically skipped them, so don't worry about them not being there for you to see.
- We have used the newer infrastructure for doing Feedback within z/OSMF itself. This means we don't have Feedback as a different step for a migration action, and you can quickly provide feedback to IBM if you wish. Just look for the new tab after the Perform tab.
3. For z14 information, get it on ResourceLink (as usual): ResourceLink z14 Information . Did you want a z14 Workflow to see what you have to do for z/OS to run on z14? We've got that too on github: z/OS on z14 Workflow on github . The information is also in the z/OS V2.3 Migration book, for all z/OS levels that will run on z14 (R13 and higher).
4. Interested in z14 SMP/E FIXCATs? Here they are (and you'll see in Enhanced HOLDDATA very soon):
- IBM.Device.Server.z14-3906.RequiredService
- IBM.Device.Server.z14-3906.Exploitation
- IBM.Device.Server.z14-3906.RecommendedService
Of course, you already know the z/OS V2.3 FIXCATs, since they've been in use since February 2017:
- IBM.Coexistence.z/OS.V2R3
- IBM.TargetSystem-RequiredService.z/OS.V2R3
5. IBM Education Assistance (IEA) Modules, so you can poke around to see some new functions in z/OS V2.3? They are also found on github here, and will be added to over the coming days: IBM Education Assistance on github. As you can see, we've got the V2.1 and V2.2 education modules there as well (completely moved over), so this will be the one-stop location for IEA. (As I mentioned more on V2.3 will be added shortly, but some are there now.)
Hopefully this concise list of helpful information will get you started in discovering all the great new items announced today!
-Marna