Technical problems will occur regardless of the environment (just ask Mr.
Murphy of Murphy's Law fame).
I consider this to be purely a management issue.
Option 1. Do not use the new features until all environments are at the minimal
level needed to support those feature (e.g. compliler parm ARCH(xx)).
Option 2. Compile the programs at each stage. This will ensure the source
matches the load, and also ensures the correct parms (e.g. ARCH(XX)) are
selected for that environment,
and that any incompatibilities are flushed out at each stage.
Ensuring that (e.g. ARCH(xx)) is correct for each stage is still another
management issue.
Bottom line: Pick a method and stick with it!
<snip>
HOW are you in your shop managing your sources and load modules and the
versions of compilers and z/OS?
*Intro:*
My customer (a data center) has several environments/LPARs:
1. SYSTEMS environment (for the system programmers team:
installations, system tests, ...)
2. DEVELOPMENT environment (for the application developers)
3. HOMOLOGATION environment (it doesn't matter for the discussion
what it's purpose is)
4. ACCEPTANCE environment
5. PRODUCTION environment
They deploy the installations of z/OS in that order. I.e. PRODUCTION at the
end of the chain.
Idem for the compiler versions.
The development department also deploy their applications in that very same
order.
Till now, the application programs are RE-COMPILED in each environment; this in
order to avoid the slightest problem. For example:
* Runtime LE 1.13 in development and runtime LE 1.12 in production
MIGHT possibly generate a different behavior if the applications were not
recompiled
* A program compiled with the highest PL/1 version and executing
with a too low LE might also have problems.
</snip>
Disclaimer: I have not used ChangeMan. My experience is with Endeavour.
ChangeMan should be able to handle compile scripts as well as copy scripts.
<snip>
The customer is considering now to use Serena's ChangeMan/ZMF to manage the
application sources and load modules. That tool does not really support
re-compile.
Consequence:
The modules, compiled in development, are COPIED to the different environments
tlll into the PRODUCTION environment eventually. In concreto:
if development is done in z/OS R13 with the highest PL/1 compiler version,
this load module finally executes in z/OS R12. This too MAY generate problems.
The problem can be avoided by NOT upgrading the development environment
before the production environment, but rather at the end of chain.
</snip>
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