Cy’s Corner #100

100 and Counting!

One hundred editions … that’s something special! Only 39 TV series in the US have had 100 or more episodes – here are a few:

Take a Walk Down Memory Lane

Doug Specht gave me a copy of the very first “Cy’s Corner,” which was first written seventeen years ago in 1993.

“I get few opportunities to talk to folks who aren’t “broken” in one way or another, so I jumped at this chance to discuss OPC tips and techniques, and to mention some “interesting” problems I’ve seen recently,” stated Cy.

As he was for many colleagues and customers, he was my friend and mentor. I thought it would be appropriate to share excerpts from his first article in #100. As you will see in Cy’s Corner #1 , I have tried to follow his tradition of providing users of IBM Z Workload Scheduler (several OPC generations later) with tips, techniques and solutions to help you bring the best of automation to your business.

In this edition, we will help you:

• Make a request to support to report a new problem
• Understand product naming conventions in the request for enhancement tool
• Locate important technical notes
• Review the latest important maintenance fixes

Making Your Case

One thing that may NOT be clear when you go to www.ibm.com/mysupport to open a new case or escalate an existing case is how to find the local contact number(s) to request a page out if it is after normal work hours or on a weekend. I am trying to get this fixed. Until then here is the link, that provides this information for all countries:  www.ibm.com/planetwide. For example, if you choose UNITED STATES, under Support / Technical support you will see:  IBM Hardware and Software Support (Operating Systems, WebSphere, Information Management, Netezza, Cognos, SPSS, Lotus, Tivoli, Security Systems & Rational) Toll: 1-919-864-3512 Toll free:1-800-426-7378. That toll free number (1-800-IBM-SERV) will get you to a real human being, who can page a technical to get you the support you need, when you need it.  NOTE:  If you need someone to call you back quickly, then you have to pick up the phone and request a page-out for a severity 1 case. If you just open a severity 1 case, it will not be handled until normal business hours.

Request for Enhancement (RFE)

The product name has been changed. It is now CLOSE to the official product name of Z Workload Scheduler).  For an RFE you should use these:

Here a few recent RFEs that you may want to vote for:

• RFE ID 137868: Need to enforce rule that the EQQEVDS dataset cannot be shared between tasks (controller, tracker)
• RFE ID 137706: More granularity to secure CP work station over and above work station name.
• RFE ID 137437: Dynamically Restart Job Occurence

TECHNOTES:

I have been trying to keep one “master technote”, which points to the most important technotes for each release. To find a link to this technote at www.ibm.com/mysupport select “Product” from the navigation bar, then click on “z Workload Scheduler” from the product list, which will bring you to a page with the following 3 resources:

• IWSz MustGather
• BLOG Site
• Key Technotes for IWSz

A case can also be opened by clicking on OPEN A CASE on the right of this panel.

HIPERS:

Finally, a look forward at the next Dynamic Workload Console 9.5 fix pack (Fix Pack 2) and 9.5 SPE  (SPE 9502), which should be available in late first quarter 2020 (more about this in Cy’s Corner 101). There are some features which should be very popular (maybe enough to make you more interested in migrating to the 9.5 release).

Here are a few of the highlights:

• Selection of multiple engines from the new Dynamic Workload Console dashboard
• Sending an email when an alert condition is met (zWS 9.5)
• Controlling the system where a z/OS job is to be run (example- prevent jobs from being submitted to an LPAR if that LPAR has a scheduled IPL soon)
• Integrate Workload Automation for z with ZOWE Command Line Interface (CLI)

Best wishes for great LEAP YEAR 2020!

I hope to see everyone in Cincinatti in April for ASAP University Automation 2020 envisioning the future of automation.