Summer 2024 Edition July 15, 2024
We’ve already had two different kinds of summer here in North Carolina this year – the first was hot and very dry, the second hot but lots of rain. I’ve been trying to learn Italian using the Duolingo app, and have become addicted to doing the New York Times daily games (Wordle, Mini-Crossword, Connections and Spelling Bee). No major announcements yet about the 9.5 release going out of support, or the 10.2 release for z Workload Scheduler (there will also be a 10.2.3 release of the distributed Workload Automation probably around November 2024, and a Fix Pack 5 (FP5) for 10.1 in third quarter 2024). Look for the announcements from IBM in September 2024 (around the time z/OS 2.4 goes out of support).
One interesting note about the 10.2.3 release is that it is not going to include AIX for MDM orDWC.
See the report at:
The DWC releases after 10.2.3 and new fix pack levels for 10.1 may need to add support for some newer JAVA versions (like version 17 and 23) and some new developments in DB2. As an example of this, DB2 V13R1M503 requires a newer JDBC level than previous DB2 V13 levels.
See:
New developments in cases:
We are seeing the CPBPLIM parameter being set incorrectly like CPBPLIM(99). This setting only allows one percent of the region to be used for anything other than CP (current plan) buffers. The default value of CPBPLIM(40) works better. If you are using CPDTLIM(100) which is the best setting, be sure that you don’t have CPBPLIM set much higher than the default value of 40. That will prevent some S878 abends (and severity 1 cases).
Another thing we are seeing is that when z/OS is upgraded (like from z/OS 2.4 to z/OS 2.5 or 3.1) that sometimes the zWS maintenance is back-leveled (zWS on the new z/OS is at a lower maintenance level than on the old z/OS) or sometimes PTFs are present on the new z/OS which were not installed on the old z/OS. If you introduce new PTFs, even when upgrading z/OS, you STILL have to perform the ACTION HOLDS for the PTFs. Be careful of this if you are planning on upgrading z/OS in the next few months.
Flashes
If you don’t receive notification for flashes, check your settings at www.ibm.com/support/mynotifications
No new FLASHes since April 2024.
Hipers
These are the new HIPERs since April 2024:
PH61254 AUTHORIZATION FAILED (EQQM001E) FOR ADDING NEW OCCURRENCES TO CP
9.5 UI97275
10.1 UI97276
PH61305 MESSAGE EQQHT34E ERROR RESERVING A BLOCK OF STORAGE OF xxx BYTES
IS ISSUE AFTER START THE CONTROLLER
9.5 UI96932 (superceded by UI97408)
10.1 UI96933 (superceded by UI97409)
PH60267 AN ABEND S0C4 IS ISSUED WHEN SPECIFYING IN THE USER FIELD SUBJOB
USER WITH A USER NOT DEFINED TO SAF
10.1 only UI96438
Technotes
Revised technotes:
ZWSTECHNOTE : Datastore performance is slow and message EQQFJKGW ARCHIVING FAILED is seen
New technotes:
ZWSTECHNOTE: AWSUI6005W No engine connection is available
ZWSTECHNOTE : DWCZOS : Creating / Installing the certificates for DWC 10.2.1 or higher on z/OS
ZWSTECHNOTE: Can all IWSz dump datasets use zEDC compress format?
ZWSTECHNOTE: Creating a submit-only tracker for TWS z/OS
ZWSTECHNOTE:IRX0157E Routine EAGRTXIN of the run time processor EAGRTPRC was not found
NOTE: There are quite a few technotes now about the DWC installed on z/OS ( these have ZWSTECHNOTE : DWCZOS in the title). I plan to make a single technote which has hyperlinks to all the other DWCZOS technotes, to make them easier to find.
Ideas (formerly RFE)
Z Workload Scheduler:
Change IWS Reporting of User Abends as Hex Values to true User Abend Decimal Values [ZWS-I-253]
Allow TWS to cancel jobs it has submitted early [ZWS-I-252]
Issue another message if job is Auto Recvered – EQQE036I replaced by EQQE036A [ZWS-I-249]
ETT Trigger Feature [ZWS-I-247]
Modify command to display parms of running controller [ZWS-I-246]
Fixing and adding additional fields in DWC metrics [ZWS-I-245]
Workload Automation:
I selected a few that may be of interest to zWS customers:
We are requesting that the DWC time field support the more conventional 12:00 – 12:59 AM/PM and/or 24 hour clock value. [WAO-I-532]
Shadows jobs’ folders [WAO-I-530]
The DWC running on DB2 has to be able to use z/OS Db2 (DB2Z) at the levels of z/OS that run on DB2 (V12 .1 and V13.1) [WAO-I-523]
Password Reset option in DWC (like older versions) [WAO-I-520]
BLOGs
You can see all the BLOGS related to workload automation (distributed workload scheduler, DWC and zWS) at http://www.workloadautomation-community.com/blogs
New BLOGs:
STREAMLINING WORKSTATION NAMING CONVENTIONS: A STRATEGIC APPROACH
Wrap Up
Enjoy your summer holidays/vacation time if you have some (or winter vacation if you are in the Southern hemisphere). By the time of the next newsletter in October, the situation with the 9.5 and 10.2 releases should be more clear.
