Deploying an architecture to share files between Windows machines and the mainframe is a common requirement for many organizations and is fairly simple to provide. Providing a fault-tolerant method of sharing these files is more complicated. This article will show you how to set up and configure the OS/390 or z/OS DFS SMB server to provide this fault-tolerant, file-sharing service…

Many companies are curious about billing for TCP/IP usage on the z/OS platform to users or applications based on their use of associated resources. TCP/IP started tasks and the services that rely on TCP/IP—such as File Transfer Protocol (FTP), DB2, Tivoli Service Manager, and WebSphere MQ—use scarce, expensive host CPU time. The purpose of billing is to encourage conservation of CPU usage, network traffic, or other scarce resources…

Too frequently, Linux under z/VM running on IBM zSeries hardware is like worlds in collision: VM systems programmers and Linux system administrators typically differ greatly in age and background. Worse, they each know little about the “other” system…

By the time you read this column, VSE/ESA 2.7.3 will be available for order. VSE 2.7.3 will contain the latest maintenance levels of the products and a few enhancements. The enhancements will be listed on the VSE home page…

Over the last 10 years, we’ve participated in 14 release or version upgrades of OS/390, CICS, DB2 and z/OS, all of which were installed using ServerPac. These software migrations, which were performed jointly with members of our client’s staff, gave us the chance to see how different sites implement ServerPac and some mistakes they made along the way. As with so many projects, these  mistakes are due to inexperience, a lack of planning and research, and an unwillingness to change. Here are 10 mistakes we’ve seen made with ServerPac and the impact these miscues can have on a software migration…

DFSMShsmis a component of the DFSMS/MVS family of products that provides facilities for managing data stored on MVS storage devices. A primary task of DFSMShsm is to ensure that space is available on your DASD volumes so you can allocate new data sets or extend existing ones. DFSMShsm ensures that backup copies of your data sets are available in case of corruption or unintentional deletion of data. It automates manual storage management tasks and improves DASD usage…

Sometime during the fourth quarter, IBM will deliver the VSE ESA 2.7.3 refresh. Unfortunately, this refresh won’t contain the “service option,” which includes VSE/ESA 2.6.3. Therefore, you will no longer be able to order VSE/ESA 2.6.x from IBM. …

VSE/ESA increasingly focuses on interoperability between VSE and other modern platforms. Interoperability is critical for today’s mixed IT environments and is a key part of IBM’s strategy for VSE. …

In today’s 24x7 data center, one copy of a critical application volume isn’t enough. To run backup operations, load data warehouses, or test new versions of applications without disrupting the flow of information to users and applications, IT administrators must create multiple copies of primary production volumes…

If you’ve been debugging ISPF applications for a long time, you’re probably familiar with the functions of dialog test. You’ve probably loaded your programs with debugging statements and even found that, sometimes, the only way to debug something is to rip out parts of your program until the error stops occurring…