It’s  almost the summer solstice  (June 21 this year  in the northern hemisphere) as I write this. In honor of the LONGEST day of the year I may do my SHORTEST update.  The big news at home the last few weeks is that my Maltipoo Bailey got bit by a copperhead snake (which is a type of viper). She is fine now but the experience was enough to get me to spend a vacation week making my backyard less attractive to snakes. This should also serve as a reminder to us all not to get “bit by” a HIPER (sorry- it rhymes with viper).

TECHNOTES 

The HIPER technote was recently updated with a few new additions so take a look at it and make sure you have read the most recent FLASH.

IBM is in the process of replacing the “DCF” database which contained all the technotes and techdocs with something new called “DRUPAC”. I’m not familiar with DRUPAC yet, but if it changes the way that the technotes are stored I will let you know.

CHANGES 

Johnny Tips is now the manager for the level 2 support teams for IBM Workload Scheduler and IBM Workload Scheduler for z/OS. Giovanni Palumbo is still the manager for level 3 and development for IWS z/OS.  As more PMRs than ever before seem to involve both z/OS and distributed issues this should be a positive change.

Speaking of change, there is this little thing called GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) from the European Union (EU), which is having a major impact on the way documentation is handled for all customers (except for companies covered by the U.S.  HIPAA regulations which are using the secure “Blue Diamond” server).  While IBM and HCL are working out all the details, be aware that the EASIEST files for support to access right now are tersed files and plain text (.txt) files.  Any changes in the way documentation needs to be sent will be covered in my info APAR II13819 (HOW TO SEND CUSTOMER DOCUMENTATION FOR PMRS).

I mentioned last quarter that Tivoli Workload Scheduler for z/OS 9.1 is going out of support April 2019. There are plans for another SPE for IBM Workload Scheduler for z/OS 9.3 in a few weeks (I don’t have the details yet). Meetings have already begun for the IBM Workload Scheduler for z/OS  9.5 release (my guess is that it will be out before the end of 2018 but this is not officially announced yet).

Organizations still running Tivoli Workload Scheduler for z/OS 9.2 still have a few years of support (end of support for 9.2 is not announced yet) and may want to consider going to 9.5 when it is available instead of migrating to 9.3 (unless you have immediate need for any of the new functionality only available for 9.3).  Migration from 9.1 to 9.5 will also be an option, but there will be less time to do this before 9.1 goes out of support (unless you opt to get an extension for 9.1 support).

OPEN MAINTENANCE

  • APAR PI84857 provides support for TLS 1.1 and 1.2 (TLS 1.0 is already supported) . An APARFIX Is available for 9.2 and 9.3 if you need this support right away.
  • APAR PI96007provides parameter enhancement for EQQUX014 . EXIT14 is for time dependent operations (across different timezones) and was also improved by PI47506 (SPE 9301).
  • APAR PI97807 is a fix for a RC=4 issue with EQQAUDIT that has been reported by quite a few customers.  The PTFs are OPEN but should be available soon:
    • UI56458 3
    • UI56459 8.6
    • UI56461 9.1
    • UI56460 9.2

The last section is about an issue with WAPL (Workload Automation Programming Language and SPE9309. So if you don’t use WAPL you can skip to the end.  If you do use WAPL but are not at SPE9309 level yet read on.    If you are ALREADY at SPE 9309 level you may have seen this issue but not realized what the workaround is.

WORKLOAD APPLICATION PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE aka WAPL

With the DEVOPS  SPE  (SPE9307) it was written in the WAPL User’s Guide:

By installing APAR PI79321, you can run Workload Automation Programming  Language without the need of reference files at startup time, and with a JCL that is simpler and more efficient. Therefore, the old procedure EQQYXJCL is deprecated; it is still provided to support legacy SOE and WAPL jobs. Unfortunately this was not mentioned in an ACTION HOLD so you may have missed it (I did). The new JCL procedures for WAPL are EQQYXJPX and EQQYXJPL but EQQYXJCL should still work.

When you apply the PTFs for PI93526  (part of SPE 9309) – PTFs UI55007 and UI55006 or subsequent APAR PI70568 (PTFS UI55314 and UI55315) you may see a RC=12 issue if you still use EQQYXJCL. Yes, PI70568 has a PREREQ of PI93526 not vice versa. The error you can see along with RC=12 is: EQQI207F Invalid keyword 00036

To fix this all you have to do is specify FILESPEC=EQQFLNON in EQQYXJCL instead of FILESPEC=FILENONE or FILESPEC=FILEALL or FILESPEC=EQQFLALL.  At the new APAR levels FILEALL or EQQFLALL is no longer required, but if you use it you will get the EQQI207F error.   I plan to put this information into a technote and add an AI (additional Information) to the PTFs to clarify this.   Also at the newer APAR levels it is no longer necessary to run the EQQWPLCO sample member.

The most recent WAPL APAR as mentioned above PI70568 resolves a possible loop condition when a WAPL job contains a VARSUB statement that changes something in the USER FIELD so this is recommended for anyone using WAPL.  The PTFs are UI55314 and UI55315.

Have a great summer!