Since IBM announced the demise of VSE/VSAM for VM I've been toying with the idea of writing a VSAM substitute (at least one good enough for our GCS-based products that rely on VSAM). I was thinking it would be based around the *BLOCKIO IUCV service.
Unfortunately, the 1 piece of infrastructure that CMS has that is missing in GCS is the SUBSYS operand on the FILEDEF command, to allow a VSAM emulator to get control. Given that IBM will never bring back VSE/VSAM for VM, what are the chances of this being provided (allowing exits to get control at OPEN time, etc) to at least allow vendors to do something else? Mark Gillis Senior Software Engineer Tel: +61 2 9429 2337 Fax: +61 2 9429 2394 [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Alan Altmark Sent: Friday, 4 May 2007 2:31 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: z/VM usability On Thursday, 05/03/2007 at 11:35 AST, "Edward M. Martin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > But the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." was caused by IBM not > supporting a product that is supported by the other IBM Operating > systems. > > IBM is basically breaking a working system. (IMHO) > > And I am working on away to get off the VM/VSAM part, and it looks like > it will be a NON-IBM solution. But I am still looking. By "business as usual", I mean that IBM continually withdraws products from the marketplace, even some that people are using. There are still people using VM/ESA V2. It was nearly two years ago (June 2005) that we announced that you would no longer be able to order VM/VSAM effective September 30, 2005. In August of the same year we announced that VM/VSAM would end service February 28, 2007. Standard meaning: "Don't deploy new applications that depend on VM/VSAM and begin working on a migration or risk mitigation plan for applications you already have." It's true that if there is no replacement product from IBM, and no 3rd-party substitute, then, yes, the application is eventually re-hosted or discontinued completely. And sometimes on a non-IBM, non-Linux platform. IBM makes the decisions it makes and has to live with the consequences. I'm also sensitive to the fact that those decisions can also affect someone's livlihood (inside IBM and out). I don't blame anyone for being upset, if that's the case. Don't get me wrong, I wish VM/VSAM was still around, but it isn't, so you're doing the right thing, triggering an application review. If you choose that the risk of being unsupported is greater than the benefit your company derives from the application, then it is time for a change. Finally, to the best of my knowledge, we have done nothing to "break" a working system. If you find a defect in CMS that causes VSAM to break, and you have a VM support contract, we will fix it. If you find a defect in VSAM itself, no such luck unless you have an extended VSAM support contract. Alan Altmark z/VM Development IBM Endicott
