As 2009 is in full swing, we are excited about everything happening in the VSE Marketplace.  As always, send us an email with ideas or tips you would like to see in a future iTips newsletter!

Enjoy this week's iTip and enjoy your week!

iManage™: We Manage. You Relax.

Budget dollars have never been more precious, but you still need to ensure your VM and VSE environments are up-to-date, problem-free and performing well.

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This Week's iTip!

IPL ASI Procedure Updates for z/VSE Version 4 Upgrade

There are two important changes required to your VSE IPL ASI procedures when performing a fast service upgrade (FSU) to z/VSE version 4 and later. These changes are described in the z/VSE version 4 program directories and in the z/VSE System Upgrade and Service manual, however if these changes are missed, then you will have problems IPLing the z/VSE version 4 system during the FSU process.

z/VSE version 4 only distributes one supervisor phase, $$A$SUPI. With z/VSE version 4 the label area must be defined on a virtual disk since the label area is no longer supported on a real disk. Both of these changes can be implemented on your current VSE/ESA Version 2.7 (if migrating to z/VSE Version 4.1) or z/VSE Version 3 system prior to migrating to z/VSE Version 4.

If your IPL procedure is currently using the $$A$SUPX supervisor, then you can change the IPL procedure to use the $$A$SUPI supervisor which was also shipped with VSE/ESA Version 2.7 and z/VSE Version 3. The $0JCL procedure can also be updated on these releases to define the label area on a virtual disk if you haven’t already done so and to remove the // OPTION STDLABEL statement that loads the label area on the real disk device defined with the DLA command in the IPL procedure.

The following statements are typically at the beginning of the $0JCL procedure to load standard labels into the label area on a real and virtual disk:

// EXEC PROC=STDLABEL         LOAD LABEL AREA DISK (remove for z/VSE 4)  

// VDISK UNIT=FDF,BLKS=2880,VOLID=VDIDLA,USAGE=DLA               

// EXEC PROC=STDLABEL        LOAD LABEL AREA VDISK  

The VSE IPL procedure would also need a definition for the virtual disk used in the above VDISK command if you do not already have the label area implemented on a virtual disk. The following IPL command would be used for this:

ADD FDF,FBAV

The DLA statement in the IPL procedure will be ignored by z/VSE version 4 when it is IPLed and can be removed after the migration to version 4 is completed.

z/XML-Host™: Easy SOA and Web Services

Never mind what your mother told. It's OK to talk to strangers - in fact, it's essential!

z/XML-Host makes it Easy for your mainframe 3270 applications to talk with any other platform using XML and SOAP-based Web services.  This includes .NET and Java applications-even Microsoft Excel can access your mainframe data Easily.

And since z/XML-Host runs directly on your mainframe, you can meet strangers on the same day you complete the Easy installation.

YES! I want to talk to strangers!

View more information on z/XML-Host

Finally...internet-enabling your mainframe can be Easy.

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