Z Os Release Dates

[Maybell Hughs]

Thiscame as welcome news to many Db2 users as the six years between V12 and V13 was the longest ever between new releases of mainframe Db2. But this was by design, as IBM adopted a continuous delivery strategy for Db2 as of V12.

The continuous delivery model allows organizations to adopt new features and enhancements at their own pace, based on their specific needs and requirements. It provides a more incremental and agile approach to software updates, allowing customers to stay current with the latest features and improvements while minimizing disruption and reducing the complexity associated with traditional major release upgrades.

Unlike all the other function levels, FL510 does not add any new features or capabilities, nor does it introduce any new changes to the Db2 Catalog. So, what does it do? FL510 is basically there to prepare for the new release of Db2. You can think of it as housekeeping and tidying up to prep for Db2 13. When you activate FL510 it verifies and enforces pre-migration conditions that have to be met before you can migrate to Db2 13, such as ensuring that all Db2 12 function levels are activated and that all catalog updates for Db2 12 have been applied. Additionally, FL510 will check to make sure that your application packages were rebound recently enough to ensure that they are supported by Db2 13. If any of the previous conditions are not met, then the activation of FL510 will fail. You will have to remediate your system and try to activate FL510 again before you can move forward to the new version.

Seeing as how we are now more than a year into the lifecycle of Db2 13 for z/OS, it is important to note that there have been two new FLs delivered for this new version since general availability. FL502 was delivered in October 2022 and FL503 was delivered in February 2023.

Function level 502 introduces Db2 controlled Sysplex workload balancing and adds infrastructure for statement-level invalidation. Function level 503 introduces improved default behavior for added ROW CHANGE TIMESTAMP columns in existing rows, accelerator-only support for queries with IN list predicates with more than 32K elements with IBM Db2 Analytics Accelerator V7 for z/OS, and optimize-clause support for SELECT INTO statements.

According to information provided by IBM, the regular schedule for Function levels on-going is 2 per year, with one in the spring and another in the fall. Although past FLs have not always been delivered exactly on that schedule, this is the cadence that you should expect and plan for into the future.

OK, so far, so good, but what about the new functionality in Db2 13? The first thing to take note of is the on-going synergy between Db2 and IBM Z. Many DBMS products are designed to be heterogeneous; that is, to function across multiple operating systems with little or no changes required. But Db2 for z/OS is engineered specifically for the IBM Z mainframe and can therefore take advantage of unique aspects of the hardware.

One example of this synergy is the exploitation of the IBM Integrated Accelerator for Z Sort, and its SORT LISTS (SORTL) machine instruction, available on IBM z15 and later models. This can greatly improve the efficiency of sorting Db2 data.

Another example of zSynergy is the ability to take advantage of more concurrent data sets and threads, as delivered by z/OS 2.5. The maximum number of open data sets in Db2 13, as controlled by the DSNZPARM DSMAX, has been doubled, from 200,000 to 400,000.

Regular Planet Mainframe Blog Contributor

Craig Mullins is President & Principal Consultant of Mullins Consulting, Inc., and the publisher/editor of The Database Site. Craig also writes for many popular IT and database journals and web sites, and is a frequent speaker on database issues at IT conferences. He has been named by IBM as a Gold Consultant and an Information Champion. He was recently named one of the Top 200 Thought Leaders in Big Data & Analytics by AnalyticsWeek magazine.

MFX Support LifeCycle Schedule provides advanced notification of planned changes in product support. This information helps customers and partners with product planning and information technology decisions.

Beyond the timeframe of full support, Syncsort continues to provide extended support until five years after GA of a release. The extended support includes access to Syncsort support engineers per terms of the license agreement, access to already existing software updates/fixes and knowledge base support, but can exclude new software maintenance and content updates. The investigation by Syncsort into new issues is limited and will not include any development. Any support requests for MFX releases beyond their extended support dates are handled on a case by case basis by Syncsort support engineers.

Product support extensions, designed to allow migration to the current release to be completed, may be available for an additional fee. For additional information on product technical support extensions beyond the Extended Support period, contact your Syncsort representative.

To maintain proper z/OS support and to take advantages of the latest z/OS capabilities, we recommend that all SecureZIP installations (including PartnerLink sponsors and partners) upgrade to Smartcrypt for z/OS 16.1 L6. For SecureZIP Partner environments executing under legacy versions and releases of z/OS outside of the supported levels of 16.1 L6, it is recommended that you continue to operate with SecureZIP Partner executables up through level 15.0.19 - (build date 02/12/2021).

The upgrade to SecureZIP for z/OS version 15 is Smartcrypt for z/OS version 16. If you are a SecureZIP for z/OS customer who has a current maintenance contract, you can upgrade to Smartcrypt for z/OS version 16 at no cost.

Supported versions of Smartcrypt, PKZIP and SecureZIP for z/OS are available for all releases of z/OS still supported by IBM. Not all supported versions of PKZIP and SecureZIP run on all recent releases of z/OS. PKZIP and SecureZIP versions 14 and older are no longer supported on any versions of z/OS. Supported versions of PKZIP, SecureZIP, and Smartcrypt for z/OS are available for all releases of z/OS still supported by IBM. The last publication of SecureZIP Partner supports z/OS 1.12 - 2.4. For z/OS 2.5 support, please upgrade to Smartcrypt for z/OS 16.0 or higher.

A ZIP archive can be transferred from one platform to another, and can be decompressed or modified by a copy of PKZIP or PKUNZIP which is running on that platform. The internal format of a ZIP archive is identical no matter which platform compressed the files that it contains. To ensure compatibility, ZIP archives must be created by PKZIP 2.50 running on MS-DOS or PKZIP version 5 or higher on other platforms.If you wish to transfer data across platforms using any other version of PKZIP or SecureZIP you should check with your supplier first to confirm that your versions of PKZIP / SecureZIP are compatible.

Both Smartcrypt and SecureZIP for z/OS offers all of the same features and functionality found in our PKZIP product lines. Smartcrypt/SecureZIP simply adds the ability to secure the data being stored or compressed within the ZIP file. PKZIP Enterprise Edition users can decrypt and decompress any passphrase-encrypted archive created by SecureZIP, even if a strong encryption algorithm (AES128, AES256, etc.) was used to encrypt the data.

Yes, this new system parameter, released in July, 2018 by IBM, has been tested with all PKWARE products and no issues have been identified when using PKWARE software with OSPROTECT=1 for the following releases: V15 and V16 of PKZIP for z/OS, SecureZIP for z/OS, SecureZIP Partner for z/OS, Smartcrypt for z/OS, and Smartcrypt Manager for z/OS. No updates to PKWARE software are necessary to support use of this parameter.

The first PKZIP/PKUNZIP job that is run on an unlicensed system (typically due to a CPU upgrade/downgrade or expired license) must be submitted by a user with write authority to the PKWARE license dataset to invoke the grace period.This authority is only required the first time PKZIP/PKUNZIP is run on the unlicensed system; it is not required after the grace period has been successfully invoked (this is one time per CPU, not one time per IPL).During the grace period, error messages will be displayed on the console (and the printout) for each execution of PKZIP/SecureZIP for z/OS. At the end of the period, if the license is not updated, the product will no longer function except to VIEW an archive. The five-day grace period is designed so that the program will not cease to function on a weekend or the Monday following the five-day grace period. You must contact PKWARE at pkcustom...@pkware.com during the grace period to obtain licensing to allow extended use.

Yes, you will need a new license when upgrading from one version to another (i.e. version 14.0.0H to version 15.0.0) due to the differences in codes. Please keep in mind that you will not be able to apply your 15.x license to older product versions.Additionally, if you are going from PKZIP to SecureZIP, or vice versa, a new key is required, even if the version number remains the same.To request a key please contact pkcustom...@pkware.com .

PKWARE requires a license report be sent to our Customer Service Department when requesting a new or updated license key.To run a license report you must edit and submit the LICSHSYS member located under the *.INSTLIB dataset.Once the job has completed successfully please copy and paste the resulting output into an email addressed to Customer Service at pkcustom...@pkware.com

PKWARE has a 24 hour turn-around policy for returning authorization codes. There are exceptions to this policy (i.e. production is down, no jobs can run, etc.).Contact Customer Service for appropriate turn around times at 937.847.2374, option 3, or via email at pkcustom...@pkware.com

PKZIP and SecureZIP for z / OS v14.0 license keys use a different logic than the previous PKZIP / SecureZIP version license keys. You will want to verify that the version of the key matches the version of the product the key it is being applied to.If you do see that the versions do not match, then please contact Customer Service to receive a new license key for the appropriate version of the product you are using. You can contact Customer Service via Email, or by phone at 937-847-2374 and selecting option 3.If the version does not seem to be the problem, another thing to verify is to begin all lines of the Zap in column two. Be sure all letters, spaces, commas, periods, etc are aligned exactly how the email shows them to be. If you continue to experience problems, please call PKWARE Technical Support at 937.847.2687 or submit your request online.

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