IBM offered extended support for z/OS 1.12 through September 30, 2017, for a fee. That end date was "close enough" to miss the first shipments of the first IBM z14 machines. To my knowledge IBM never did the work to make z/OS 1.12 tolerate the IBM z14 machines, so if that particular combination works it's only accidental and unsupported. You're welcome to try as long as you're licensed, but I don't think it'll work. Sometimes you can get a little farther in accidental working terms when you run z/OS under z/VM.
You've got a couple realistic and viable options to upgrade: 1. With coexistence/fallback with z/OS 1.12, you could run z/OS 2.1 on your IBM z10BC machine and on your IBM z14 machine. z/OS 2.1 has reached End of Service, but fee-based extended support is still available from IBM. The basic path would be as follows: (a) Migrate from z/OS 1.12 to z/OS 2.1 (with extended support) on your z10BC machine, with coexistence/fallback support. (b) Migrate from your z10BC to your z14. (c) Migrate from z/OS 2.1 to z/OS 2.3, also with coexistence/fallback support. This path is the most conventional and lowest risk, although it might require more budget and/or time than the other paths I'm about to describe. 2. Without coexistence/fallback with z/OS 1.12, you could run z/OS 2.2 on your IBM z10BC machine and on your IBM z14 machine. z/OS 2.2 is currently (as I write this) within its standard support period. You just need to be careful not to share datasets between z/OS 1.12 and z/OS 2.2, or at least if you do so to do it very carefully and very selectively, preferably with the advice and support of a z/OS migration specialist who knows what he/she is doing. The path would be as follows: (a) Migrate from z/OS 1.12 to z/OS 2.2 on your z10BC (without coexistence/fallback support). (b) Migrate from your z10BC to your z14. (c) In due course, migrate from z/OS 2.2 to either z/OS 2.3 or (assuming past coexistence/fallback support predicts the future) the following z/OS release. 3. Without coexistence/fallback, a "diagonal" jump from z/OS 1.12 on your z10BC directly to z/OS 2.3 on your z14. Exactly which of these three options is "best" depends on your particular circumstances, such as the complexity and mission criticality of your particular environment. Sometimes the "best" approach is to attempt one of these paths (such as #3) and see how it goes but then fall back to a more "conservative" path if necessary. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Timothy Sipples IT Architect Executive, Industry Solutions, IBM Z & LinuxONE -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: [email protected] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
