SPARTA News March 2012

March 2012

SPARTA President’s Corner

by Brad Carson

Here we are in March and Spring has arrived for all of us. Judging by the amount of yard work I've been doing lately, spring has been here for about a month. I don't know about all of you, but I'm not going to put all my trust in a ground hog for future winter predictions. With our light winter weather, we're going to have a lot of bugs (not the coding kind) around here this summer.

In February we had a visit from Erich Hoppe of IBM to talk to us about the CICS Explorer that is included with the CICS/TS 4.1 distribution. CICS Explorer gives a CICS administrator a consolidated view of CICS regions and CICSplexes and makes the management of them a lot easier. With less and less people handling more and more CICS regions, this is a "must have" for any CICS system programmer and administrator. It can communicate directly with a single CICS region or via the CICSplex/SM infrastructure. When we get CICS/TS 4.1 running here, we're going to setup CICSplex(s) and implement the CICS Explorer. Just have to wait for our DB2 V10 project to get completed.

Speaking of DB2 V10, we now have the RSU 1112 maintenance up on our production LPAR and things are looking good. We are still waiting for IBM to close the APAR for dealing with the performance issues with the "OPTIMIZE FOR 1 ROW" clause on some of our CICS SQL. This was a big performance hit in CICS when we tried to migrate our big production DB2 from V8 to V10 back in January. We've tested the fix in one of our test DB2 subsystem on our QAAD LPAR and things look very good. I just need to formalized fix installed for our production environment. That should be coming soon. We would like to plan to convert our last DB2 to V10 during April if possible. I'll keep you informed on how this goes in future newsletters.

Our z/VM 6.2 installation is move along still but very slowly. I'm looking forward to getting our second level system up and running to check things out. I am planning on setting TCP/IP up with IPv6 support there and see if our network folks notice anything. If it goes all right there, we'll do the same thing as we bring up z/OS 1.13 this summer.

This month our speaker will be Ed Webb from SAS Institute to talk to us about his trip to SHARE in Atlanta.  See you on the 27th at LabCorp.


Future Speakers
(subject to change)


Mar. 27 SHARE Conference Reports by Ed Webb of SAS
Apr. 24 LRS Product Update by Robbin Lanning

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 Ron Pimblett by phone as noted below.

2011-2012 SPARTA
Board of Directors

Brad Carson - President
LabCorp 336-436-8294
3060 S. Church St.
Burlington, NC 27215

Ron Pimblett - Vice President
DTS Software 919-nnn-mmmm

Raleigh, NC 276zz

Mike Lockey - Secretary
Guilford Co. Information Services 336-641-6235
201 N. Eugene St.
Greensboro, NC 27401

Tommy Thomas - Treasurer
LabCorp 336-436-4178
3060 S. Church St. 919-361-7267
Burlington, NC 27215

Ed Webb - Communications Director
SAS Institute 919-531-4162
SAS Campus Drive
Cary, NC 27513

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 usually 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 Tommy Thomas. Tommy 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 e-Mailings

The SPARTA policy is to e-mail a monthly notice to our SPARTA-L Group. The newsletter is posted to the website about five (5) days before each meeting so you can prepare. The SPARTA-L Group is maintained by Brad Carson; if you have corrections or problems receiving your meeting notice, contact Brad at 336-436-8294.

December 2011 “CBT Tape” Shareware Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V483 (dated December 25, 2011) are available from www.cbttape.org.

If you need help obtaining one or more files, contact Brad Carson at LabCorp or Ed Webb at SAS (see Board of Director’s list for contact info).

Minutes of the February 28, 2012 Meeting

•Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM by Brad Carson, the Chapter President.
•The meeting was held at LabCorp in RTP, N.C.
•Eighteen (18) people were present of which fifteen (15) were members.
•Everyone in the room introduced themselves, told where they worked, and briefly described their job functions.
•The minutes of the January 2012 meeting were approved as published in the February 2012 newsletter.
•Tommy Thomas, the Chapter Treasurer, gave the Treasurer's Report. As of February 14, 2012, the balance is $788.32. Motion was made and approved to accept the Treasurer's Report as published in the newsletter.

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 available. To access the SPARTA Web page, point your Web browser to this site: http://www.spartanc.org. Please send any comments or suggestions about the Web page to Mike Lockey. Be sure to check the Web page every once in a while to see any new or changed information.

•Brad Carson reminded everyone to leave the LabCorp conference room clean.

•Future Speakers and Topics (subject to change based on internal politics, budget, the weather):

If you have suggestions about speakers and topics, contact Ron Pimblett.

•The March SPARTA meeting will be March 27 at LabCorp in RTP.

•Food for the March 2012 meeting will be Chicken.

NEW BUSINESS

•SPARTA Annual Dues of $30 should be paid in February.

•Thanks to LabCorp and Tommy Thomas for hosting the meeting.

•Send any e-mail address changes to Brad Carson so he can update the SPARTA Listserv.

•The business portion of the meeting ended at 7:55 p.m.

•Erich Hoppe of IBM gave a presentation about CICS Explorer Updates:

•Agenda
- Overview of CICS Explorer
- CICS Explorer Installation directions
- CICS Explorer Configuration Options
- CMCI Backend setup instructions
- Demo of Key Features
- Additional Resources
- Q&A

Concept
Connection Configurations
Distribution and Maintenance
Service and Update
Installing the CICS Explorer
Configuring the FTP server for CICS Explorer
Configuring the CICS Explorer
Defining Connection Credentials
Configuring a CICS System Connection
Configuring an FTP System Connection
Changing your Explorer Workspace
Setting up the CICS management client interface
Setting up CMCI with CICSPlex SM
Setting up CMCI in a stand-alone CICS region

Demo
Additional Resources
Any further Questions?

•The presentation will be posted on the SPARTA website.

•Meeting ended at 9:00 PM.

Treasurer’s Report for March 2012

contributed by Tommy Thomas

The balance in the account is $1212.70 as of March 16, 2012.

Financial Report
3/01/2012 through 03/16/2012

Items of Interest


SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2012

contributed by Tommy Thomas and Chris Blackshire

Mar. 27 - Chicken
Apr. 24 - Pizza
May 22 - Chicken
June 26 - Subs
July 31 - BarBQ
Aug. 21 - DBAP Buy Your Own
Sep. 25 - Pizza
Oct. 30 - Chicken
Nov. 27 - Subs
Dec. 25 - No Meeting, Happy Holidays


z/OS Goes to Two-Year Release Cycle

contributed by Ed Webb

12Mar2012 excerpt from Cheryl Watson’s “Cheryl’s List”:

Today at SHARE, Jeff Magdall, z/OS Program Leader from IBM, described an upcoming SOD (Statement of Direction) for z/OS. Starting with z/OS 1.13, z/OS releases will now be available every other year instead of every year. That means that the next release of z/OS will be the second half of 2013 (not September 2012, as expected). I think this is terrific news for our customers! IBM has found that only 5% of z/OS customers migrate every year, while the great majority of customers migrate every other year or so.
 
Why do I think this is great news? There are several reasons. Foremost is that customers no longer need to decide whether to be on an "odd" or "even" release. I highly recommend that you now plan on two things: 1) migrate to z/OS 1.13 whenever you can, and 2) migrate to every release from that point on (whether they call it z/OS 1.14 or z/OS 2.1 - this is not a pre-announce - I really have no idea). Most customers take six months to 18 months to roll a new release out to all production LPARs, and don't have time to exploit the enhancements in each release. Providing time to exploit the enhancements is the second reason that I think this is a great move.
 
The third reason is that IBM can provide more complete solutions in each release. For example, Extended Address Volumes (EAVs) first became available in z/OS 1.10, with minor enhancements in 1.11, 1.12, and 1.14. With a release every other year, you would have received much more function in the first release. And finally, I think that each of the functions will be more thoroughly tested before becoming generally available (GA).
 
A few customers and a few software vendors have some reservations about this change, but I'm positive that this will provide many benefits to everyone. There might be a few people who might see this as IBM moving away from z/OS as a strategic platform. I definitely disagree with this. I understand that IBM is spending more resources on z/OS today than in the recent past. I know personally how much future development is going into z/OS development, and how much development is going into CICS, DB2, and WebSphere on z/OS. I still believe that z/OS and zEnterprise provide THE platform of the future.
 
If you have any worry about your current end-of-service, don't worry. IBM will be changing those dates to ensure that you'll be okay. You should expect a formal statement of direction within the next two months with more information.


Good News in z Land - SUPERC Now Reports VOLSER

contributed by Ed Webb

After many years of my complaints about the need for data set VOLSER info on the SUPERC (ISRSUPC) Compare Report, and one year after I submitted two related requirements via SHARE asking for just that function, IBM quietly shipped z/OS R12 and R13 PTFs for OA38467 (ISPF, 21Jan2012) and HLASM Toolkit V6 PTFs for PM38213 (HLASM Toolkit, 21Dec2011) - Enhance SUPERC Compare Listing to Provide Volume Information.

In true IBM development fashion, this enhancement is over-engineered, requiring the SUPERC user to add VTITLE option to her invocation of the program in order to get the VOLSER displayed under the Data Set Name. But I am so grateful that I am not complaining any more.


Grace Hopper to Programmers: Mind Your Nanoseconds!

contributed by Ed Webb

The legendary Grace Hopper’s take on CPU speed is captured on a short video:

http://highscalability.com/blog/2012/3/1/grace-hopper-to-programmers-mind-your-nanoseconds.html


DTS Software Announces JCL-QA

contributed by Ed Webb

DTS Software, Inc. announces JCL-QA, an affordable, high-speed JCL analysis, validation and reporting tool

Raleigh, NC – March 1, 2012 – DTS Software, Inc. announces the introduction of JCL-QA, a new product within the MONitor suite that performs JCL analysis, validation and reporting – effectively and inexpensively. Expanded from the base Scan JCL feature that exists in MONitor, JCL-QA uses the z/OS Converter/Interpreter to perform JCL conversion, and then scans the converted DD statements to extract necessary data set usage information.

“During the past few years” said Bill Prinzivalli of DTS Marketing, “several customers and DTS distributors have asked for the JCL scan feature to be upgraded into a full-fledged JCL validation product. We responded and released JCL-QA in late 2011.”

JCL-QA will scan individual JCL job streams, entire JCL libraries, or job streams extracted from job scheduling systems. The product can be used to enforce installation standards, or perform a system validation test. The system validation tests can be performed on either the local system, or remote systems that are also running JCL-QA.

For more information, check out the DTS Software website at www.DTSsoftware.com

Humor


Hack the Memeframe, Er, Mainframe

contributed by Ed Webb

(Ed. Note: From http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/)

 The shrinking number of workers who can program and administer a mainframe, sometimes referred to as the “red-haired stepchild of IT,” are members of an exclusive club with a language and sense of humor all their own.

 We’ve compiled a few of our favorite mainframe-related jokes and catchphrases from the Internet. Be forewarned that some are groaners, but if you’re a mainframer — or even if you’re not — you might just chuckle.

 Old mainframers never die. They just take a dump and re-IPL.

 Elvis and Jesus are editing their programs on TSO when the system crashes. Who lost his files?
Elvis, because Jesus saves.

 It might be a mainframe:

·         If you can fit a bed and mini fridge inside.

·         If the power supply is bigger than your car.

·         If the only “mouse” it has is the one living inside it.

·         If you need earth-moving equipment to relocate it.

 You might be a mainframer:

·         If the phrase “green card” doesn’t make you think of immigration.

·         If you think all computers belong on a raised floor.

·         If your definition of “bursting” has nothing to do with too much turkey on Thanksgiving.

 A systems programmer is at lunch with some data processing auditors. The waitress asks the sysprog what he wants to order. “Pork chops,” he says. “What about the vegetables?” she asks. The sysprog says, “Oh, they can order for themselves.”

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

7 p.m.

LabCorp in the RTP

Free Food: Chicken, Drink, Dessert

Program:

SHARE Atlanta 2012 Conference Report

Speaker:

Ed Webb of SAS Institute Inc.

SPARTA News
P.O. Box 13194
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-3194

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