It's really up to you and your management's direction. If you only have one system to maintain, once you get the hang of it it's not really all that hard to: 1) apply all maintenance to the 2nd level test system, 2) IPL the 2nd level test system, 3) perform some cursory (or more stringent, depending on your tolerance levels) tests, 4) only then re-apply the maintenance (or copy minidisks if you really know what you're doing, which VMSES/E makes more difficult) to the 1st level system and schedule its IPL.
Applying the same maintenance twice can be viewed as tedious, but it does breed a bit more familiarity with the VMSES/E command set. But it also give you a chance to see what will be changed when you run PUT2PROD on 2nd level. Some components are not especially good to run PUT2PROD on in a production environment (can you spell: TCPIP?) when users (and your management) might notice that component being bounced. BTW, after applying maintenance I consider it a good idea for each of the component which were serviced, to use VMFSETUP so that their disks are linked and accessed, then issue: FILELIST * * * (TODAY ISO then browse around to see what was changed. That breeds even *more* familiarity with VMSES/E and what it has done for you. That familiarity can be handy when something goes bump in the dark. :-) Mike Walter Hewitt Associates The opinions expressed herein are mine alone, not my employer's. "George Henke/NYLIC" <[email protected]> Sent by: "The IBM z/VM Operating System" <[email protected]> 09/23/2010 12:58 PM Please respond to "The IBM z/VM Operating System" <[email protected]> To [email protected] cc Subject Re: Applying Maintenance - Best Practice I suppose RSU maintenance gets burned-in at Level 2, whereas COR maintenance goes right in to Level 1. But , what bout PSP COR? Level 1 or Level 2. Scott Rohling <[email protected]> Sent by: The IBM z/VM Operating System <[email protected]> 09/23/2010 10:58 AM Please respond to The IBM z/VM Operating System <[email protected]> To [email protected] cc Subject Re: Applying Maintenance - Best Practice I'd say it depends on the purpose of your 2nd level system. Do what you would normally do when applying maintenance... do you put it on 1st or 2nd level first? If your 2nd level system is meant to be a z/VM 'test' system, then it seems like you're already committed to that level of effort. Scott Rohling On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 8:30 AM, George Henke/NYLIC < [email protected]> wrote: Would you recommend putting this 5.4 zEnterprise compatibility maintenance on at Level 1 or Level 2. We currently have both environments for 5.4. I suppose the quickest and easiest (maybe dirtiest too?) way is just to put it on at Level 1 and fall back to CPOLD if there is a problem. "Best practice" may call for putting it on at Level 2 first, but the nature of the change may not warrant that level of effort. There are, however, 45 or more prereq fixes also going on with these 2 APARs, VM64879 VM64881. Just interested in what everyone thinks. Marcy Cortes <[email protected]> Sent by: The IBM z/VM Operating System <[email protected]> 09/22/2010 11:01 AM Please respond to The IBM z/VM Operating System <[email protected]> To [email protected] cc Subject Re: What is the z/VM 5.4 Compatibility PTF for z196? Also you want to check PSP on IBMLink and look for 2817DEVICE and see what recent stuff is needed for that system type (or whatever one you are installing). ________________________________ From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bruce Hayden Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2010 7:27 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [IBMVM] What is the z/VM 5.4 Compatibility PTF for z196? Look at the page http://www.vm.ibm.com/service/vmreqze.html for the complete list of z/VM APARS for the zEnterprise. On Wed, Sep 22, 2010 at 10:07 AM, George Henke/NYLIC <[email protected]> wrote: Marcy, Thank you for this information. Do you happen to know what PTF is needed to run z/VM 5.4 on the z196. We will probably take your advice. We will probably bring up the z196 with 5.4 first and then move 6.1 up to Level 1 afterwards. -- Bruce Hayden z/VM and Linux on System z ATS IBM, Endicott, NY The information contained in this e-mail and any accompanying documents may contain information that is confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient of this message, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, please immediately alert the sender by reply e-mail and then delete this message, including any attachments. Any dissemination, distribution or other use of the contents of this message by anyone other than the intended recipient is strictly prohibited. All messages sent to and from this e-mail address may be monitored as permitted by applicable law and regulations to ensure compliance with our internal policies and to protect our business. E-mails are not secure and cannot be guaranteed to be error free as they can be intercepted, amended, lost or destroyed, or contain viruses. You are deemed to have accepted these risks if you communicate with us by e-mail.
