Years ago, when a million CICS transactions a day was a lot, the data went on tape because it was so “huge.” Today, 500 million DB2 transactions may be considered small and, in many installations, the jobs that post-process System Management Facility (SMF) data have become among the largest applications. With the rising cost of software to support the ever-burgeoning volume of data, it’s important to decide what to keep and process daily. The tests run and examples provided here were all conducted with MXG, but the same techniques could be applied to other software performing the same functions.

The 64-bit virtual support introduced in z/VSE 5.1, available since November 2011, lifts a boundary and provides more options for growth and new applications. Before we consider how 64-bit virtual is implemented and what it provides, let’s examine the evolution of real and virtual addressing in VSE.

IPv6 news is everywhere these days. The availability of z/VSE 4.2.2 (and newer releases) provides the foundation of z/VSE's IPv6 support. Combine this with IBM's new TCP/IP solution, IPv6/VSE, which provides a single product solution for both IPv4 and IPv6 TCP/IP communications, and you have a powerful way to take z/VSE into the future. This article will examine the shortcomings of IPv4, the basics of IPv6, and what type of support is available for IPv6 in IBM's z/VSE operating system.

Over the past 11 years, the Linux operating system has gradually taken the business world by storm. Now, many corporations use Linux on mainframes to save money and improve quality of service. To maximize these important benefits, the IT staff is being tasked with ensuring that Linux management is set up in the most efficient, cost-effective way. This article addresses how IT can help accomplish this goal by automating and simplifying common z/VM and Linux on System z tasks.

Creating high-quality software without the proper tools is cumbersome. This article concentrates on memory debugging on Linux for System z using the dynamic program analysis framework, Valgrind. A proven technology, Valgrind has been used successfully for more than 10 years on multiple platforms, and is used by developers of the Firefox Web browser and Linux desktop GNOME. The Valgrind package is available under the GNU Public License (GPL). It’s been available for Linux on System z since November 2011.

VM and the VM community have proved to be survivors; a tough journey has made VM and its users stronger.

It’s interesting to see how the capabilities of the mainframe have evolved dramatically to meet critical business requirements. We’ve gone from machines with one or two CPUs with little storage and fixed partitions to today’s IT environment with scores of central processors and multiple virtual systems that can run simultaneously.

The CPU Measurement Facility (CPU MF), the hardware support for collecting information about how the software and hardware interact on your system, is an important feature introduced with the System z10. Supporting CPU MF is a new z/OS component, Hardware Instrumentation Services (HIS). This article describes how data available from the CPU MF and HIS can provide insight into software and hardware interaction on your processors.

With the advent of architectural plurality in zEnterprise, the term integration requires additional consideration. Introducing x86 and POWER-based blade servers in the zEnterprise BladeCenter Extension (zBX), zEnterprise shifts focus from the instruction set architecture question to workload needs.

IBM is delivering on its promise to support Microsoft Windows Server on its zEnterprise 196 (z196) and 114 (z114) mainframes. That’s welcome news for enterprises with significant investments in IBM’s mainframes and Windows. There have always been many ways to integrate mainframes and Windows, but none that would let us connect the two as closely, albeit not necessarily seamlessly, as we will discuss.