We do maintenance twice per year. The process to migrate from TECH->DEV->PROD takes us approx. 8-12 weeks allowing time for the maintenance to age in TECH for at least a month while testing, then moving to DEV for at least a month before moving to PROD. PROD is done over a period of 4 weeks.
So, when we start maintenance process, we usually select maintenance a little bit greener than IBM suggests, knowing that it will age before going to prod, so I usually select current PUT-1, and current RSU to apply+select FIXCAT groups, followed by monitoring ERRORSYSMOD report, and applying HIPER, XSYSTEM, SECINT iteratively, until we are a couple weeks from going to PROD at which time things get locked down. I also tend to go look on ShopZ to see if any of the ancillary IBM products have upgrades, and order/install/maintenance those, which makes the next z/OS upgrade much easier, as it usually ends up being just the OS itself getting the upgrade, and not all the APP DEV tools, etc. _________________________________________________________________ Dave Jousma Manager Mainframe Engineering, Assistant Vice President [email protected] 1830 East Paris, Grand Rapids, MI 49546 MD RSCB2H p 616.653.8429 f 616.653.2717 -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of ANIL KUMAR Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2017 11:56 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RSU maintenance strategy - Need expert suggestions **CAUTION EXTERNAL EMAIL** **DO NOT open attachments or click on links from unknown senders or unexpected emails** Hi All, I needed expert suggestions on following the RSU maintenance strategy for z/OS , associated ISV products , DB2 etc. Could you please let me know 1) How many times in a year do we need to apply the maintenance to z/os , ISV products , DB2 etc. 2) How to decide which ones to be applied. (latest RSU) 3) Whether the HIPERs included also be applied , even though we have not encountered the specific issues in out shop. So far in the account I was working for , it was not a strict rule to apply maintenance be it z/OS or DB2 or associated ISV product. Infact I do not remember any maintenance being applied to DB2 unless it was a major upgrade for which the pre-req was needed. Even for ISV's if they are running fine, then no action was taken. However for a different shop , we have been asked to come up with the best approach on whats needs to be done. If we keep updating the maintenance then 1 FTE job will be consumed for the work for a year. Hence needed some advise on what strategy is being used by different shops and what is the best practice. Please advise. If any documents etc are available please point me to them and I shall read. Sincerely hoping to get some advise. Thanks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN **CAUTION EXTERNAL EMAIL** **DO NOT open attachments or click on links from unknown senders or unexpected emails** This e-mail transmission contains information that is confidential and may be privileged. It is intended only for the addressee(s) named above. If you receive this e-mail in error, please do not read, copy or disseminate it in any manner. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this information is prohibited. Please reply to the message immediately by informing the sender that the message was misdirected. After replying, please erase it from your computer system. Your assistance in correcting this error is appreciated. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
