Brian, I see that Timothy jumped in to mention that you do not need to have an IMS, Db2, or CICS license to try out a z/OSMF Portable Software Instance today. Any IBM customer can have a sample Portable Software Instance. And that other major software vendors are already delivering z/OSMF Portable Software Instances of their own code to customers, so that is another way to learn about this packaging format.
I agree that there is little any software vendor can do to make a customer do an upgrade. It is entirely up to him to make that decision, fully knowing that the longer the wait the harder it will be. If the business decision is made to do a "long jump", so be it, but we can clearly identify the challenges they will face, and they just mount up the longer the jump is. I do not expect anyone to order interim z/OS releases that will not be used. My example was for z/OS V2.1 customers going to V2.3, but will be doing that after z/OS V2.3 was no longer orderable - it was not a "long jump" scenario. I still stand by that - if you are doing a coexistence supported upgrade, and your target release is about ready to go end of marketing - please do order while it is marketed. But if anyone wanted to upgrade to a release after it was no longer orderable and they did not have a copy of it, that is what the archive process is for. That archive will be severely downlevel in service which makes it really no better (and much worse as the product content is not customized) than ordering a ServerPac and not using it. I'd hope that a customer would take this all into consideration as they make their business decision in upgrading. Getting an archive is the last resort method for obtaining a z/OS release...absolutely the last resort and should avoided. I do know exactly how long z/OS (or really, OS/390) on a CBIPO and ServerPac coexisted - zero months, zero days. OS/390 R1 was not available in a CBIPDO, and was only available (and still is only available) in a CBPDO and ServerPac. Now, I'm certainly not saying that ServerPac was smooth sailing for OS/390 R1, and even R2, which is why we have dual packaging options today *across 3/4 of the SRELs* and even *across the industry* to get it used, before moving it to z/OS V2.5. So given that this z/OSMF packaging format has been provided in other areas for years, and a sample Portable Software Instance can be used for learning, I think the resistance is with using z/OSMF itself. For that point, remember, the driving system requirement for z/OS V2.5 is z/OS V2.3. z/OS V2.3 is the release where we autostarted the z/OSMF server and indicated that that release was where we expected z/OSMF to be up and running at least in one location of the enterprise. That was in 2017. I understand that some folks are not yet on z/OS V2.3, although I've seen the numbers and I know that many more are at and above V2.3. We could reasonably expect that z/OSMF is running on those systems because we have made that so by default. Overriding that default must be done with the knowledge and acceptance that it is only delayed, and not avoided. Anyone at my "Upgrading to z/OS" sessions or that uses the Upgrade Workflow knows that one my "Big Migs" is to get z/OSMF automatically started with z/OS V2.3 (either with the default base function, or with automation). We've been setting the stage for this since z/OS V2.3 first IPL. Anyone upgrading to z/OS V2.5 should plan to use the z/OSMF ServerPac, since that is the recommended way to go as it will be the only way as of January 2022. I would tend to have a conversation with a client - and I do at every chance I can - on how is z/OSMF going on their driving system, since that is what will help them most, rather than trying to time a z/OS V2.5 product order in the short overlap when z/OSMF isn't a driving system requirement. z/OSMF is necessary for other important exploitation functions, and I certainly hope that customers are eyeing those new functions and getting to z/OSMF for those reasons too. That is why I talk about z/OSMF and its importance to z/OS. Not just because of installation. -Marna WALLE z/OS System Install and Upgrade IBM Poughkeepsie ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
