SPARTA News September 2001

September 2001

SPARTA Chapter President’s Corner

- by Brad Carson

Our August meeting brought us a review of the happenings at SHARE by Ed Webb of SAS and Duane Reaugh of DTS Software. Before we got started, Ed provided us with some of the highlights of SAS’s 25th anniversary celebration. The parody done by WRAL was quite good, including the commercials.

After that Duane got down to business and began telling us about the DFSMS happenings. One of the big things talked about was “Transactional VSAM” and how you will be able to share VSAM data between CICS and batch (or IMS, MQ, whatever). Duane also discussed changes being made to VSAM data striping, zFS (the new zSeries File System for Unix System Services), and SMS volume selection routines. Ed then continued the presentation talking about the recommended APAR list and the goodies available from the “Bit Bucket” session. After that Ed discussed the changes in IBM Maintenance which is called CST or “Consolidated Service Test”. This changes the way that RSU’s (Recommended Service Updates) are created and validated on the Monthly/Quarterly basis. As always Ed and Duane provided plenty of information for the group.

During the last month LabCorp had do perform a disaster recovery test. A quick two day trip to Comdisco (HP) in Chicago to recover the OS and test one small application. One good thing was a visit to Wrigley field to see the Cubs play the Marlins. One big thing we learned was that our application folks will have to do a lot a work to make a big disaster recovery test viable. Let’s see how it goes next year.

I want to thank SAS Institute for hosting our August meeting. It was a nice change of pace to meet somewhere else, and SAS had an excellent facility for our meeting. This month we will be meeting back at LabCorp and have Chris Blackshire talk to us about putting on a presentation. I look forward to seeing you all on the 25th.

Our next meeting is on Tuesday, September 25th, at LabCorp. Pizza, drinks, and dessert will be provided.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)


Sept. 25 Making Presentations by Chris Blackshire of Perot Systems
Oct. 30 CA software topic TBA (probably enterprise storage software and/or CA’s newly branded software lines, etc.) by Jerry Patterson

We need ideas and volunteers for future speakers. Presentations don’t have to be fancy, just informative and interesting. Even a 5 or 10 minute talk can start an interesting interaction. Contact John Bryant by phone or e-mail as noted below.

2001-2002 SPARTA
Board of Directors

Brad Carson - President
LabCorp 919-572-7504
1912 Alexander Drive
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 Brad_Carson@labcorp.com

John Bryant - Vice President
GlaxoSmithKline 919-483-9548
5 Moore Drive; D.111
RTP, NC 27709 JEB33378@gsk.com

Mike Lockey - Secretary
Guilford Co. Information Services 336-412-6235
201 N. Eugene St. 336-227-2021 (Home)
Greensboro, NC 27401 MLOCKEY@netpath.net

Duane Reaugh - Treasurer
DTS Software 919-833-8426
2913 Wake Forest Road
Raleigh, NC 27609-7841 Duane@DTSsoftware.com

Ed Webb - Communications Director
SAS Institute 919-531-4162
SAS Campus Drive 919-362-0232 (Home)
Cary, NC 27513 EDWISTUO@aol.com

Meetings

Meetings are scheduled for the last Tuesday evening of each month (except no meeting in December), with optional dinner at 6:15 p.m. and the meeting beginning at 7:00 p.m.

These monthly meetings are held at LabCorp’s Center for Molecular Biology and Pathology (CMBP) near the Research Triangle Park (see last page). Take I-40 to Miami Boulevard and go north. Turn right onto Alexander Drive. Go about a mile or so. Then turn right into LabCorp complex and turn Left to the CMBP Building. In the lobby, sign in as a visitor to see Brad Carson. Brad will escort you to the conference room.

Call for Articles

If you have any ideas for speakers, presentations, newsletter articles, or are interested in taking part in a presentation, PLEASE contact one of the Board of Directors with your suggestions.

Newsletter Mailings

The SPARTA chapter policy is to mail a copy of the monthly chapter newsletter to each SPARTA member, NaSPA national, each advertiser, persons who have requested a copy, and to other chapters who send us a copy of their newsletter. The newsletter is mailed about the 20th of each month so you can prepare for the meeting. The mailing list is maintained by Mike Lockey at (336) 412-6235; if you have corrections or problems receiving your newsletter, call Mike.

Latest CBT Tape Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V438 (dated August 1, 2001) are available from www.cbttape.org.

If you need a complete tape, contact Brad Carson at LabCorp or Ed Webb at SAS (see Board of Director’s list for contact info).

Minutes of the August 28, 2001 Meeting

•Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Brad Carson, the Chapter President.

•Twelve (12) people were present; all were members.

•Everyone in the room introduced themselves, told where they worked, and briefly described their job function.

•The minutes of July 2001 meeting were accepted as published in the August 2001 newsletter.

•The Treasurer’s Report was by Duane Reaugh, the Chapter Treasurer. As of August 28, 2001 the balance is $488.08.

OLD BUSINESS

•Articles are needed for this newsletter. If you would like to write an article for this newsletter, please contact Ed Webb. Keep in mind that you don’t really need to write the article, it can be an article that you read that you would like to share with the membership.

•The SPARTA Web page is now available. To access the SPARTA Web page, point your Web browser to this site: www.netpath.net/~mlockey/sparta.html. Please send any comments or suggestions about the Web page to Mike Lockey (mlockey@netpath.net). Be sure to check the Web page every once in a while to see any new or changed information.

NEW BUSINESS

•Future Speakers and Topics:

September 2001 - TBD
October 2001 - TBD
November 2001 - TBD
Other ideas:
- Conversion to RMM - Tommy Thomas
- TDMF - Ken Frump
- WLM Goal Mode - Jim Horne
- UNIX Services for OS/390
- IBM New Announcements
- CICS Web Bridge

If you have suggestions about speakers and topics, contact John Bryant.

•John Bryant mentioned that EMC would like to host one of our meetings. Those in attendance had no problem with EMC hosting a meeting.

•Food for the September 2001 meeting will be pizza and sodas.

•The September SPARTA meeting will be held at LabCorp in RTP.

•Thanks to Ed Webb of SAS for hosting the August meeting.

•The business portion of the meeting ended at 7:30 PM.

•Duane Reaugh of DTS Software and Ed Webb of SAS gave their reports after attending the recent SHARE conference in Minneapolis.

Duane presented some of the trends and directions for DFSMS. He talked about:

DFSMS Volume Selection
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
Non-Striping
Striping
z/OS DFSMS 1.3
Larger Volume Size
32K cylinders
3390 architecture
Max Volume Count
Data Class parameter
Overflow Storage Group
Storage Class parameter
Physical Control Unit (PCU) Separation
Separation profiles in PARMLIB
DFSMS will try to allocate data sets in different PCUs
Other
No more "compat" mode
zFS file system
HFS but different
No function shipping
Fuzzy backup only

Ed talked about:
z/OS runs on G5/G6 processors through z/OS V1R4 (late 2002)
R5 and above requires z/Architecture processor
Sub-Capacity pricing available for z/OS on z/900 September 30, 2001
IBM License Manager delayed, but is coming
Consolidated Service Testing (CST) and new RSU strategy
Recommendation of a tested maintenance level for z/OS, OS/390 and key subsystems
Two types of RSU
Quarterly
Monthly
In z/OS V1R2, SMP/E is a non-exclusive element
ICSF (Cryptographic hardware) enablement is important
Required for SMP/E RECEIVE FROMNET (available 10/01)
Included on 9672 G5/G6 and z/900
Additional cost for older 9672 and MP3000
ShopzSeries
Order products via ePDO
Will eventually replace SUF
ServerPac enhancements (available March 2001) with z/OS 1.1
If OS/390 R10 or subsystems ordered after March 2001, you get the ServerPac enhancements.
z/OS V1R2 Root HFS exceeds 2200 cylinders (up from 950)
Hercules (S/390 open source emulator) Turnkey CD-ROM
MVS 3.8, JES2 4.1 installs on PC or laptop in 10 minutes.
Post SHARE news
ISPF moves to Australia
JES2/JES3 moves to India

•The meeting was adjourned at 8:55 PM.

Treasurer’s Report for August 2001

contributed by Duane Reaugh

As of August 28th we have $488.08 in the bank.

Items of Interest

Recent IBM Flashes

contributed by Ed Webb

Consolidated Service Test and the New IBM RSU Maintenance Philosophy

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/PubAllNum/Flash10106

IBM Intends to Drop JOBCAT and STEPCAT Support in the Future

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/PubAllNum/Flash10102


GRS Wildcard RNLs in OS/390

contributed by Ed Webb

APAR OW49779 provides compatibility support for GRS Wildcard RNLs in OS/390 R8 and R10. PTFs that implement this enhancement are UW82055 for OS/390 R8 and R9, UW82056 for R10 and z/OS V1R1, and UW82057 for z/OS V1R2.


Humor


The Real Story of the Internet

contributed by Chris Blackshire

An old, bearded shepherd with a crooked staff walked up to a stone pulpit and said, “And lo, it came to pass that the trader by the name of Abraham Com did take unto himself a young wife by the name of Dot.”

And Dot Com was a comely woman, broad of shoulder and long of leg. Indeed, she had been called Amazon Dot Com. And she said unto Abraham, her husband, “Why doth thou travel far, from town to town, with thy goods when thou can trade without ever leaving thy tent?” And Abraham did look at her as though she were several saddle bags short of a camel load, but simply said, “How, Dear?” And Dot replied, “I will place drums in all the towns and drums in between to send messages saying what you have for sale and they will reply telling you which hath the best price. And the sale can be made on the drums and delivery made by Uriah’s Pony Stable (UPS).”

Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with the drums. And the drums rang out and were an immediate success. Abraham sold all the goods he had, at the top price, without ever moving from his tent.

But this success did arouse envy. A man named Maccabia did secret himself inside Abraham’s drum and was accused of insider trading. And the young man did take to Dot Com’s trading as doth the greedy horsefly take to camel dung. They were called Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominican Siderites, or NERDS for short.

And lo, the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the deafening sound of drums, that no one noticed that the real riches were going to the drum maker, one Brother William of Gates, who bought up every drum company in the land. And indeed did insist on making drums that would work only if you bought Brother Gates’ drumsticks. And Dot did say, “Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken over by others.” And as Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel, or as it came to be known ‘eBay,’ he said, “We need a name that reflects what we are.”

And Dot replied, “Young Ambitious Hebrew Owner Operators.” “Whoopee!”, said Abraham. “No, YAHOO!” said Dot Com.. . And that is how it all began.

It wasn’t Al Gore after all.