z/VSE Newsflash May 2021
Overview:
- Announcement of z/VSE 6.2 storage, processing, security, recovery, and data transfer enhancements
- Important z/VSE 6.2 APARs/PTFs
- Important z/VM APARs/PTFs when using EDEVICEs
- Conference 15th European GSE/IBM Technical University for z/VSE, z/VM, KVM and Linux on IBM Z in Leipzig rescheduled to October 25–27, 2021
Announcement of z/VSE 6.2 storage, processing, security, recovery, and data transfer enhancements
IBM announced storage, processing, security, recovery, and data transfer enhancements for z/VSE 6.2 on May 4, 2021. See my related blog article z/VSE 6.2 storage, processing, security, recovery, and data transfer enhancements announced and the corresponding announcement letter for your geography:
- IBM Japan: JP21–0246
- IBM Americas — United States: 221–201
- IBM Europe, Middle East, and Africa: 221–201
- IBM Asia Pacific: AP21–0194
- IBM Americas — Latin America: LP21–0246
- IBM Americas — Canada: A21–0321
Important z/VSE 6.2 APARs/PTFs
- APAR DY47842 “VSE/POWER PNET SSL CONNECTIONS DO NOT SUPPORT UP TO DATE ENCRYPTION” provides support for TLS 1.3 in VSE/POWER.
- APAR PH35841 “CONNECTOR WORKSTATION UPDATES FOR OPENSSL TLS 1.3” provides support for TLS 1.3 in VSE Connectors workstation components. This includes the VSE Connector Client, VSE Virtual Tape Server, VSE Script Server, VSAM Redirector Server, and Database Connector. Note that the respective downloads on the z/VSE connectors and tools downloads web page have been updated as well.
Please see the z/VSE Service and Support — Corrective Service web page for complete lists of the latest APARs by z/VSE components and products.
Important z/VM APARs/PTFs when using EDEVICEs
z/VSE 6.2 transparently supports z/VM emulated devices (EDEVICE or short EDEV) that represent real SCSI devices. Using z/VM EDEVICE the real SCSI disks appear as FBA devices to the guest.
z/VM APAR VM66383 corrects a problem on systems with EDEVICEs with a missing/lost interrupt which could cause an EDEVICE to hang.
In this context please be aware that there are some limitations in z/VSE to consider for FBA, VFBA, and FBA-SCSI devices:
- For FBA devices (e.g. z/VM EDEVICE, z/VM FBA minidisk, and z/VM virtual FBA disk) as well as VFBA devices (i.e. z/VSE virtual disk), VSE/VSAM files must be located within the first 2 GB.
- For FBA-SCSI devices, that are FCP-attached SCSI disks used in combination with the z/VSE Support for SCSI Disks, VSE/VSAM files must be located within the first 16 GB.
See the VSE/VSAM User’s Guide and Application Programming manual, section Support for FBA Disk Devices (FBA and SCSI), subsection Technical Considerations for further details.
Conference 15th European GSE/IBM Technical University for z/VSE, z/VM, KVM and Linux on IBM Z in Leipzig rescheduled to October 25–27, 2021
The conference 15th European GSE/IBM Technical University for z/VSE, z/VM, KVM and Linux on IBM Z scheduled to take place in Leipzig, Germany has been postponed to October 25–27, 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. You can obtain more information and register on the conference web site.
I greatly appreciate your feedback via the z/VSE contact form.
Disclaimer: My posts and opinions are my own.
Originally published in Jens’ z/VSE Blog within the IBM Z and LinuxONE Community on IBM Community on May 28, 2021.