Running Mainframe z on Distributed Platforms

“Should you choose to implement zPDT, RDz UT, or RD&T in your team’s arsenal, you will find Barrett and Norris’s insights, genius, and hard work illuminating as to how to rationally and economically manage the environment.” —Scott Fagen, Chief Architect—System z Business, CA Technologies

“A must-read for anyone interested in successfully deploying cost-efficient zPDT environments with agility in an enterprise that requires simple or complex configurations. The case-study-based exposition of the content allows for its easy consumption and use. Excellent!” —Mahendra Durai, SVP & Information Technology Officer, CA

Running Mainframe z on Distributed Platforms reveals alternative techniques not covered by IBM for creatively adapting and enhancing multi-user IBM zPDT environments so that they are more friendly, stable, and reusable than those envisaged by IBM. The enhancement processes and methodologies taught in this book yield multiple layers for system recovery, 24×7 availability, and superior ease of updating and upgrading operating systems and subsystems without having to rebuild environments from scratch.

Most of the techniques and processes covered in this book are not new to either the mainframe or distributed platforms. What is new in this book are the authors’ innovative methods for taking distributed environments running mainframe virtual machine (VM) and multiple virtual storage (MVS) and making them look and feel like other MVS systems.

The authors’ combined expertise involves every aspect of the implementation of IBM zPDT technology to create virtualized mainframe environments by which the mainframe operations on a z series server can be transitioned to distributed platforms. All of the enhancement methods consecutively laid out in this book have been architected and developed by the authors for the CA Technologies distributed platform. Barrett and Norris impart these techniques and processes to CIOs and CTOs across the mainframe and distributed fields, to zPDT and RDz UT implementers, and to IBM’s independent software vendors and customers.

What you’ll learn

In particular, readers will learn from Running Mainframe z on Distributed Platforms:

• how to create and maintain pristine z/OS and z/VM multi-user sysplexed environments
• how to establish a mainframe distributed lab with repeatable processes and easy maintenance
• how to ensure backup/recovery integrity and business continuity
• standards and conventions, including the use of symbols in the system IPLs
• z/OS and z/VM optimizations
• DASD repository methodologies

Who this book is for

CIOs and CTOs across the mainframe and distributed fields, zPDT and RDz UT implementers, administrators and ISVs and customers.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Understanding the Mainframe Environment, Technologies, and Methodologies
Chapter 2. Creating a Mainframe Virtualized Environment: Requirements and Choices
Chapter 3. Building the Hypervisor Host
Chapter 4. Creating a Base Environment
Chapter 5. Constructing the z/VM Environment
Chapter 6. Establishing a DASD Repository for a Multi-Server Environment
Chapter 7. Staging for z/OS Optimization
Chapter 8. Migrating to Mainframe zEnterprise DASD
Chapter 9. Customizing the z/OS Environment with Symbols
Chapter 10. Updating the Environment
Chapter 11. Preparing for Recovery
Chapter 12. Deploying Virtualized Mainframe Environments
Chapter 13. Software Licensing
Chapter 14. Setting the Standards and Conventions
Chapter 15. IEASYS Member Example
Chapter 16. LOAD Member Example
Chapter 17. Glossary