John mentioned the Customized Offerings Driver (COD), which is the
preferred method to start from DVD in order to install and start z/OS.

For the record, there are a couple other technically viable ways to get the
job done, assuming you have an IPLable z/OS volume (or the Customized
Offerings Driver itself) on hand:

1. You could IPL licensed z/VM from its DVD, use z/VM DDR to restore the
ECKD z/OS volume(s) (after installing z/VM perhaps), then IPL z/OS. Backup
and Restore Manager for z/VM can also restore ECKD volumes.

2. You could IPL Linux from DVD, use Linux to restore the ECKD z/OS volume
(s), then IPL z/OS. The Linux kernel added "raw-track access mode" circa
2013 that provides the necessary ECKD volume support for these purposes.
(Maybe this was the feature Mark Post was referring to?)

Of course, you could physically (re)attach your storage device containing
your IPLable z/OS volume. Ordinarily your storage device is physically
large and not designed to move from place to place every day, but I notice
that Visara markets FICON-attached ECKD storage in a 2U rack mount size:
their Vi-8810L model. A 2U sized storage unit is fairly practical to wheel
around your data center -- or even between data centers if you ship it in a
well padded case. True, it's still physically larger and heavier than a
DVD. According to the specification sheet, the Visara Vi-8810L supports
FICON 4, 8, and 16 Gb/s.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy Sipples
IT Architect Executive, Industry Solutions, IBM Z & LinuxONE,
Multi-Geography
E-Mail: [email protected]

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