IBM has a lot of system-related announcements, and I'm providing a quick summary below. Many are no additional charge, and at least a couple are even better than that. If you'd like the full announcement letters they're available here:
https://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/5/897/ENUS118-075/ENUS118-075.PDF https://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/2/897/ENUS218-152/ENUS218-152.PDF https://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/7/897/ENUS118-077/ENUS118-077.PDF https://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/4/897/ENUS218-324/ENUS218-324.PDF https://www.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/5/897/ENUS218-325/ENUS218-325.PDF Highlights: * Various improvements in the IBM Common Cryptographic Architecture (CCA) and in the Trusted Key Entry (TKE) Workstation. * New OSA-Express7S 25 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) SR (one port) and 25 GbE RoCE Express 2 (two port) adapters. * zHyperLink Writes to accelerate Db2 for z/OS log writes. * Various Hardware Management Console (HMC) enhancements. * Parallel Sysplex-related improvements including dynamic activation of I/O configurations for stand-alone Coupling Facilities, Asynchronous Cache Cross-Invalidation (XI), and nondisruptive Server Time Protocol (STP) Coordinated Time Network (CTN) split and merge. * Enhancements to Dynamic Partition Manager (DPM) including master storage templates, dynamic FICON reconfiguration support, and support for more hardware adapters. * For customers that order the 16U Reserved feature in IBM z14 ZR1 and IBM Rockhopper II machines (which provides reserved rack mount space within the machine frame for installation of practically any rack mountable equipment), the ability to change their minds and delete that feature if/when they need additional I/O drawers. * New IBM Adapter for NVMe, FCP Express32S LX, and FCP Express32S SX features for LinuxONE Emperor II and Rockhopper II machines. The FCP Express32S adapters support 32 Gb/s Fibre Channel Protocol (FCP), while the IBM Adapter for NVMe allows customers to install independently acquired Solid-State Drives (SSDs) directly into the I/O subsystem. Please note that these particular NVMe SSDs do not support initial program load (IPL), so this form of storage is (for now anyway) to augment rather than to replace other storage. * IBM Secure Service Container for IBM Cloud Private, which runs Docker container-ized workloads in an isolated, extremely secure environment. * Solution Consumption License Charges (SCLC), providing pay-as-you-go pricing for new z/OS-based workloads ("NewApps") based on actual consumption, regardless of hourly peaks and spikes. SCLC is available on IBM z13 servers and higher, and with z/OS 2.1 and higher (2.2 or higher if you'd like to avoid LPAR separation of workloads). Qualifying SCLC products include CICS TS Version 5.1 and higher, Db2 Version 11 and higher, IMS Version 14 and higher, MQ Version 8 and higher, NetView Version 6 and higher, and z/OS itself. * Enhancements to the IBM Application Development and Test Solution, which allows you to increase your current z/OS-based DevTest capacity up to triple its current size with zero additional Monthly License Charges (MLC). * Statements of Direction: (a) The next generation of machines will have HMCs that can manage that generation of machines and two prior generations (not four prior generations as is current practice), which will make it easier for IBM to deliver more HMC features more quickly. Of course you'll still be able to use previous model HMCs you already have if you need to reach back to manage older generation machines ("N-3" and older). (b) At some point the "System (Sysplex) Time" task will be removed from the Support Element since the HMC now has the "Manage System Time" task. (c) The z14 machines will be the last to support Ensembles and zManager. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Timothy Sipples IT Architect Executive, Industry Solutions, IBM Z & LinuxONE, Multi-Geography E-Mail: sipp...@sg.ibm.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
