Ibm ZVSE ROADMAP User Manual

z/VSE: A Roadmap For Cost savings and Exploiting Technology

Prepared for:

IBM Corporation

By: Sine Nomine Associates IBM-2007-04569-E-01

43596 Blacksmith Square August, 2007 Ashburn, VA 20147 SNA Proprietary – Confidential

z/VSE Roadmap

6 September 2007

z/VSE - 4569

iii

Table of Contents

1 INTRODUCTION AND PREFACE........................................................................1

1.1 Executive Summary.............................................................................................................................1

2 THE Z/VSE PIE STRATEGY..................................................................................3

2.1 Pieces of the PIE....................................................................................................................................3

2.1.1 Protect ....................................................................................................................................................... 3

2.1.2 Integrate....................................................................................................................................................3

2.1.3 Extend ....................................................................................................................................................... 4

2.1.3.1 Exploiting Connectors .....................................................................................................................4

2.1.3.2 Web Serving......................................................................................................................................4

2.1.3.3 DB2 Connect.....................................................................................................................................4

2.1.3.4 CICS Transaction Gateway ............................................................................................................4

3 TECHNOLOGY ENABLEMENT ............................................................................5

3.1 System z9.................................................................................................................................................5

3.2 z/VSE 4.1 .................................................................................................................................................5

3.2.1 z/Architecture ..........................................................................................................................................5

3.2.2 Storage Constraint Relief......................................................................................................................6

3.2.3 New Pricing Metrics...............................................................................................................................6

3.2.4 Network Connectivity ............................................................................................................................6

3.2.5 Security Enhancements ..........................................................................................................................6

3.2.6 SCSI Disk Support..................................................................................................................................7

3.3 Overall Technology Impact................................................................................................................7

4 PRICING AND ROI ..................................................................................................8

4.1 The Introduction of MWLC Pricing ...............................................................................................8

4.1.1 What counts as Full-Capacity? ............................................................................................................. 8

4.1.2 What counts as Sub-Capacity?.............................................................................................................9

4.1.3 Why MWLC? ..........................................................................................................................................9

4.1.4 Applicability............................................................................................................................................9

4.2 ISV Support............................................................................................................................................9

4.2.1 CSI International.....................................................................................................................................9

4.2.2 CA .............................................................................................................................................................9

z/VSE - 4569

4.3 Reporting Sub -Capacity Utilization..............................................................................................10

4.4 Does it work? .......................................................................................................................................10

4.5 z9 Hardware.........................................................................................................................................11

4.6 Human Resources...............................................................................................................................11

4.7 Environmental Savings.....................................................................................................................11

5 SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS..........................................................13

APPENDIX A - PRICING SCHEMES....................................................................15

A.1 MWLC Levels ......................................................................................................................................15

A.2 TWLC Tiers.........................................................................................................................................15

A.3 MWLC Eligible Program Products...............................................................................................15

APPENDIX B - Z/VSE UTILITIES AND IBM CONNECTORS..........................17

APPENDIX C - RAW DATA....................................................................................19

C.1 Maintenance Costs .............................................................................................................................19

C.2 Environmental Data...........................................................................................................................30

APPENDIX D - REFERENCES..............................................................................32

GLOSSARY....................................................................................................................33

z/VSE - 4569

List of Tables

Table 1: Sample Comparative Pricing ............................................................................... 11

Table 2: MWLC Levels...................................................................................................... 15

Table 3: TWLC Tiers ........................................................................................................ 15

Table 4: Program Products eligible for MWLC................................................................. 16

Table 5: z/VSE Utilities and IBM Connectors .................................................................... 18

Table 6: Maintenance Data................................................................................................ 30

Table 7: Environmental Characteristics ............................................................................ 31

1 Introduction and Preface

“With its announcement of z/VSE 4, IBM has executed a hat trick. It has brought new technical life to an operating system that has not been part of the swift flow of mainstream computing. It has brought the usage-based pricing model used by z/OS mainframe shops to the VSE users who had previously been neglected. And it has set the stage for fresh hardware initiatives by speeding the exit of users with older machines.” Hesh Wiener, Big Iron

The intent of this document is to provide those responsible for making the long-term decisions on the nature and direction of their company's IT strategy with the information and arguments to continue with their investment with z/VSE.

This white paper illustrates the value of upgrading hardware and software portfolios to VSE customers currently running pre- z/VSE 4.1 systems on pre System z9 processors. For those running a standard portfolio of z/VSE products on Multiprise, 9672 or z8xx/z9xx classes of machine, there are significant TCO savings to be realized.

1.1 Executive Summary

Tracings its heritage back to the days of S/360, z/VSE continues to meet its users business requirements with a robust, lean, and efficient environment. Sine Nomine Associates’ own experiences with z/VSE date back over twenty years to an organization that had been a VSE customer since the DOS Rel 16 days. It was the backbone of an organization that turned over $4 billion per year and did so with great reliability.

Subsystems such as VTAM, CICS, POWER, and TCP/IP provide the infrastructure that satisfies most of the VSE customer requirements. To VSE customers like these it is no wonder why the question of “Why are you still running VSE?” is one that is usually answered with “Because it works and works very well.”

Increasingly, however, there are business requirements and cost pressures that cause those running VSE to look at how their investment can be maximized and the needs of their users satisfied. With the introduction of the System z9 family and the availability of z/VSE 4.1 IBM has attempted to help the VSE community address these concerns.

Today, for those customers facing end of life on their existing hardware there are compelling technical and financial reasons to look at upgrading both the operating system and the hardware on which it belongs. The combination of z/VSE and z9 address the questions of:

Ø How can value be most efficiently generated to maximize ROI? Ø How can modernization of technology be applied to preserve the best of the existing

applications and enable developing services to rapidly adapt to new demand?

z/VSE 4.1 provides a strong foundation and enabling services to allow organizations to adapt without risking the farm through:

Ø Technology enablement:

Ø 64-bit VSE constraint relief Ø z/Architecture Ø z/VSE connector strategy which is part of the “Protect, Integrate and Extend”

(PIE) strategy described later in this document

Ø Companion Operating System to server consolidation strategy Ø Operational coordination benefits Ø Security features

Ø Pricing and ROI improvements:

Ø Mid-Range Workload License Charge (MWLC) Pricing Ø z9 hardware pricing Ø Lower operational costs resulting from coordinated management

Ø Environmentals Ø Personnel optimization

VSE brings all those features into a focused coherent solution that provides strong ROI today, and room to grow for tomorrow.

2 The z/VSE PIE Strategy

The IBM VSE team have coin ed the acronym “PIE” to scribe a strategy of “Protect, Integrate, and Extend” for z/VSE:

Ø Protect existing customer investments in core z/VSE programs, data, equipment, business

and IT skills, plus business processes, and end user training. This is achieved by modernizing applications by extending z/VSE resources to the web; exploiting the latest in IBM servers and storage; and enhanced z/OS affinity.

Ø Integrate z/VSE with the rest of IT, based on open and industry standards via the use of

VSE connectors, SOA Web Services, and IBM middleware.

Ø Extend solutions by using Linux on System z to exploit existing core VSE investments

and introducing new applications and workloads in a low cost, low risk, fast time-tomarket manner.

2.1 Pieces of the PIE

The following sections describe how the PIE strategy can be used to future-proof z/VSE-based systems.

2.1.1 Protect

On facet of the protection part of the z/VSE PIE comes in the form of subsystems such as CICS Transaction Server (TS), TCP/IP, and VTAM which facilitates the interoperation and affinity with z/OS. Another facet is the enhanced hardware support that z/VSE provides which enables the exploitation of devices such as the DS8000 or the encryption capabilities of the TS1120 tape subsystem.

2.1.2 Integrate

Connectors enable the integration of VSE systems with other network-enabled systems and provide real-time access to VSE resources (like VSAM, POWER, DL/I, Librarian, ICCF, console) from remote platforms. VSE programs can also access remote data like databases or flat files. In addition there are a set of utilities for download, that helps you to manage your VSE system. Table 4 in the appendices describes these connectors and utilities.

Connectors are the building blocks used to connect different applications on heterogeneous plat forms and operating systems. z/VSE connectors are based on J2EE standards and use WebSphere Common Connector Framework. They consist of:

Ø Client components written in Java: meaning they can run on any Java-compatible

platform, such as Linux running on the IBM System z

Ø Server components that run on the VSE host

2.1.3 Extend

The extend slice of the PIE can be implemented by a Linux system acting as both a gateway to the Internet and as a host for new e-business applications. Running in an IFL the Linux system will not affect the MSU rating of the System z and thus the software bill for the z/VSE portfolio. It also allows its applications to be accessed from z/VSE at memory-to-memory speeds via the use of hipersockets. Linux is able to exploit the z/VSE connectors to extend the reach of the existing z/VSE applications and to promote the growth of new ones.

There are several ways people are using Linux on System z to extend their existing applications.

2.1.3.1 Exploiting Connectors

Java-based connector provide connectivity to z/VSE via TCP/IP. They provide access to, for example a Web Application Server, VSAM, POWER, the Librarian, ICCF and the z/VSE console.

The DB2-based connector uses DRDA over TCP/IP to provide JDBC/ODBC access to z/VSEbased DB2 systems as well as VSAM and DL/I based data.

Tools such as the z/VSE navigator provide a face to z/VSE that is intuitive to today's workstation users which means they can be immediately productive when using the system: there is no requirement to train them how to use the older 3270 mechanisms.

2.1.3.2 Web Serving

One simple strategy is the serving of z/VSE data exported via NFS through an Apache webserver. This can be done via a z/VSE-based webserver but using Apache allows access to a greater pool of programmers are familiar with Apache's way of doing things.

A more complex strategy is to run WebSphere on the Linux system and using facilities like the MQ client, DB2 Connect and the CICS Transaction Gateway to serve data and transactions to and from the z/VSE system.

2.1.3.3 DB2 Connect

DB2 Connect enables a Linux system, and the clients that connect to it, to access z/VSE-based DB2 instances.

2.1.3.4 CICS Transaction Gateway

The CICS Transaction Gateway enables Java applications running on another server or workstation to access a CICS system running on z/VSE via the Java Daemon gateway. This technology enables the serving of Java applets from a webserver.

Impact: The PIE strategy is a roadmap for maintaining and enhancing the viability of z/VSE based systems into the future. The connectors and utilities are not “vaporware” and are available now to facilitate the extension of z/VSE systems and applications. Access to strategic middleware such as WebSphere and thus to a range of new applications is also a key to enhancing the value of z/VSE.

3 Technology Enablement

When it comes to z/VSE one side of the business driver coin is the advances in technology that come with the new processors and z/VSE 4.1. The advances in technology translate into improved application delivery, the integration of existing applications to the web, and secured extension of data visibility to new applications.

3.1 System z9

The latest in the mainframe family of processors are the System z9 Business Class (z9 BC) and Enterprise Class (z9 EC) series.

The z9 BC is designed as a midrange mainframe and promises extensive growth options and excellent price/performance for those customers requiring a lower-capacity entry point and more granular growth options than offered with the System z9 Enterprise Class. There are two models: R07and S07, each capable of running from 1 to 7 processors. The full range of speciality engines (IFL, CF, ZIIP and ZAAP) and an extensive range of cryptographic assists are available.

The z9 EC is designed as a large mainframe solution that is highly scalable and has greater cryptographic capabilities and a higher capacity entry point than the z9 BC. It also supports the full range of speciality engines. Five models are available: S08, S18, S28, S38 and S54, which provides from 1-54 n-way processors.

Impact: The z9 provides a range of processors with improved performance with enough granularity for users to choose an entry level appropriate to their needs and to grow when required. The speciality engines enable collaborative processing with the introduction of Linux. The cryptographic facilities enable rapid security services to be implemented which are needed when extending z/VSE to the network.

3.2 z/VSE 4.1

Version 4.1 of z/VSE was announced on January 9, 2007 and made generally available on March

16. There are some significant features described in the announcement that may have both technical and financial implications to a VSE-based IT operation.

3.2.1 z/Architecture

z/VSE works in z/Architecture mode only and thus requires a processor capable of operating in this mode. It exploits z/Architecture's ability to address 64-bit real storage although it only uses 31-bit virtual addresses. Candidates for exploiting this feature include “data-in-memory” techniques such as CICS Shared Data Tables, VSE Virtual Disk, or more and larger buffer pools.

z/VSE is supported on the IBM System z9 EC and z9 BC servers as well as the IBM eServer zSeries z990, z890, z900 and z800 servers.

Impact: Selected system functions of z/VSE are able to exploit 64-bit real addressing which means the below 2GB requirements for these functions is relieved and the space available for

other purposes. The 64-bit real addressing mode may mean that the VSE system is able to run without a page data set.

3.2.2 Storage Constraint Relief

z/VSE supports up to 8GB of real storage compared to the previous level of 2GB. Impact: In conjunction with the 64-bit real addressing support, machines with larger physical

memory may be more effectively used by the operating system.

3.2.3 New Pricing Metrics

As part of the announcement a Capacity Measurement Tool was described. It's purpose is to facilitate the introduction of a new pricing mechanism known as Midrange Workload License Charges (MWLC). This scheme is available on the IBM System z9 EC and z9 BC processors only and provides for improved price performance with both full-capacity and sub-capacity modes of operation.

Impact: The ability to “pay for what you use” rather than pay for what might be used presents a major opportunity for z/VSE sites to reduce their monthly software bill. A detailed analysis is provided in the next section of this document.

3.2.4 Network Connectivity

Since z/VSE 3.1 there has been support for the Open Systems Adapter-Express2 1000BASE-T Ethernet card that enables a larger network load to be supported compared to the previous options.

Impact: High-speed network support will enable VSE-based systems to ship data to and from the network at gigabit speeds and facilitate faster response times to the end-users.

3.2.5 Security Enhancements

z/VSE 4.1 has implemented significant enhancements to its encryption support. z/VSE V4.1 is designed to support 2048-bit RSA keys in addition to 512-bit and 1024-bit RSA keys. z/VSE now supports the CP Assist for Cryptographic Functions (CPACF) for using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) for 128-bit keys.

TCP/IP is designed to use 512-bit and 1024-bit RSA keys transparently. TCP/IP will support 2048-bit RSA key with a Crypto Express2 adapter in either coprocessor or accelerator mode. Similarly, z/VSE V4.1 e-business Connectors are designed to support 2048-bit RSA keys in addition to 512-bit and 1024-bit RSA keys. TCP/IP also supports AES.

In addition z/VSE now supports the IBM System Storage TS1120 encrypting tape drive which will encrypt data using the 256-bit AES algorithm. Management of keys is performed using IBM Encryption Key Manager (EKVM) which is a Java-based application running on z/OS, AIX, Linux, i5/OS, HP, Sun, and Windows systems.

Impact: As the reliance on the Internet and network-enabled applications continues to increase it is important that any platform providing such applications can be confidently secured. The features of z9 and their exploitation by z/VSE provides this confidence.

3.2.6 SCSI Disk Support

z/VSE 3.1 introduced support of SCSI-based devices through an FBA-emulation layer that provides transparent access to these devices by existing, unmodified, applications. Facilities such as N_Port ID Virtualization (NPIV) allows secure access to SCSI end-points.

z/VSE 4.1 has introduced support of directly connected SCSI devices instead of ma ndating the presence of a switched fabric environment.

Impact: z/VSE may now participate in a SAN environment which may improve the management of the storage environment of the site. Direct connection allows a site to “put their toe in the water” when it comes to SCSI without the expense of a complete switched fabric.

3.3 Overall Technology Impact

The impact of the technologies described in the previous sections is two-fold:

1. More effective integration with other mainframe and non-mainframe systems.

2. Provides the building blocks which positions z/VSE to fully participate in enterprise-wide

SOA strategies.

+ 26 hidden pages