On Wed, 16 Sep 2015 15:42:19 +0000, J O Skip Robinson
<[email protected]> wrote:
>I have pitched this idea before. In a process that predates me in this shop,
>it was recognized that quite apart from auditors' poking around, we sysprogs
>needed a way to track a 'system package' at it migrated from one system to the
>next throughout the enterprise. The choice was to attach an arbitrary label to
>identify a particular *bundle* of maintenance that we would migrate stepwise
>from sandbox to production. The label looks like this
>
> R##@
>
>R is a constant, ## represents the OS release, and @ is letter that starts
>with A and get incremented for each new maintenance bundle. Currently we have
>R13@ for z/OS 1.13 and R21@ for z/OS 2.1. This label shows us at a glance
>which OS release a system is running, while the suffix allows us to track the
>migration of a particular bundle. We can easily tell which systems are at the
>same level, or which are up or down level if they're not the same.
>
>Once a bundle is ready for migration, we ZAP the new level into the nucleus in
>the user area. This is supported by a program/command that displays the level.
>Furthermore, we create members in text files like ISPF and OMVS that are
>easily viewed. The level can also be embedded in dataset names used for
>migration. Before we IPL a system at a new level, we run a Rexx that checks
>consistency among various components to verify that all relevant pieces have
>been migrated properly.
My IPLINFO exec will display that information if present. I added it years
ago based on a user
that did what you do.
Here is what I do: For my IBM sysres (there is also an "ISV sysres" part of
the complete sysres set),
there is an uncataloged data set that we update. A change log:
BROWSE $$INFO.MAINT.HISTORY Line 00000000 Col 0
Command ===> Scroll ===
********************************* Top of Data ***************************
DATE WHO WHAT WAS CHANGED ON THE Z/OS 2.1 MAINTENANCE SYSRES
-------- --- ---------------------------------------------------------
08/04/15 MSZ Applied RSU maint up to RSU1506. About 245 PTFs went on.
07/07/15 MSZ Applied 32 additional z13 PTFs.
04/22/15 MSZ Applied RSU maint up to RSU1503. About 230 PTFs went on.
Someone can look at the current / live sysres on any system and browse the data
set to see
what is actually on that sysres. As others do, we clone the SMP/E target zone
along with
a sysres set, so if exact PTF details are needed one has to do an SMP/E query
to find
out what sets the PTF is actually running on.
My (maintenance) ISV sysres has something similar to the OS, but it is a PDS.
There is a change log member ($$HIST) for anything touched on the maintenance
ISV sysres and also a PDS member for every product whos name matches the
same identifier that is used in our data set naming convention:
---------------------------------
BROWSE $$INFO.PRODUCTS
Command ===>
Name Prompt
_________ MIM
_________ OMEGAMON
_________ PANSQL
_________ PSYNCH
_________ PWX
The individual product members are in addition to our other software doc we
keep
to simply identify what versionand maintenance level of a product is on a given
sysres
set (some times other relevant notes are added). This is desired because
during
roll out of maintenance or upgrades (done via rolling IPLs), some LPARs can be
running
on a different maintenance level or release level of any given product just
like operating
system maintenance. This gives the team an easy way to identify
what is actually being used in the live environment for any given LPAR.
BROWSE $$INFO.PRODUCTS(MIM) - 11.17
Command ===>
********************************* Top of Data ******
CA MIM: Release 12.1 SP0 + all PTFs a/o 07/07/2015
******************************** Bottom of Data ****
Regards,
Mark
--
Mark Zelden - Zelden Consulting Services - z/OS, OS/390 and MVS
ITIL v3 Foundation Certified
mailto:[email protected]
Mark's MVS Utilities: http://www.mzelden.com/mvsutil.html
Systems Programming expert at http://search390.techtarget.com/ateExperts/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
