By Jim Schesvold
Copyright © 2002 Best Customer Solutions, Inc.

• Are you running OS/390 V2.9 or lower? Do you know IBM no longer supports these releases?
• Are you running OS/390 V2.10? Do you know it’s unsupported as of 10/1/2004?
• Do you know z/OS V1.4 will be supported until 3/31/2007, 18 months longer than normal?
• Do you know z/OS V1.4 is the last release to provide fallback/coexistence with OS/390 V2.10?
• Do you know that IBM z/OS V1.4 cannot be ordered after 9/9/2004?
• Are you running a G4, G3, or earlier level of processor? Do you know it cannot run z/OS?
• Are you running a non-zSeries processor? Do you know it cannot run z/Architecture (64-bit)?
• Isn’t it time to plan your path to z/OS V1.4?

The First Steps.

Once you've decided to migrate to z/OS V1.4, several tasks should get started immediately:

• If you’re running a G4 or lower processor, determine and order a replacement processor.
• Order z/OS V1.4, and do it before 9/9/2004; after this date z/OS V1.4 cannot be ordered.
• Construct a project plan.
• Establish the project management infrastructure.
• Perform a survey of all Third Party products you run under OS/390 or z/OS.

Release Considerations.

• z/OS V1.1 is unsupported, z/OS V1.2 is supported until 10/31/2004, z/OS V1.3 is supported until 3/31/2005, and all have been withdrawn from marketing (meaning they cannot be ordered). For the most current marketing and support dates, see http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/support/zos_eos_dates.html.
• z/OS V1.4 is the last release to provide fallback/coexistence with OS/390 V2.10. V1.4 is an important staging release – much as OS/390 V2.10 was – as well as a base for exploiting future hardware enhancements.
• IBM is changing to annual releases of z/OS. z/OS V1.5 is planned to be available in 3/2004, and in the interim, new function will be released in z/OS V1.4 via Small Programming Enhancements. z/OS V1.6 is planned for 9/2004, and releases from that point forward will be annual.
• Until z/OS V1.4 was announced, OS/390 V2.10 was the only OS release that provided either 31-bit or 64-bit (z/Architecture) processing. The z/OS V1.4 announcement included the z/OS Bimodal Migration Accommodation Offering that provides either 31-bit or 64-bit capability for z/OS V1.2, V1.3, and V1.4 for a 6 month time period. This offering can be found at http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/downloads.
• If you’re still running OS/390, software costs may increase when you upgrade to z/OS V1.4, both for the operating system and for Third Party products. This is dependent on your vendor licensing arrangements.
• Certain functions are removed in z/OS V1.4, including BTAM-ES, LANRES, LAN Server, SOMobjects ADE and RTL, Tivoli Management Framework, Communications Server Security Levels 1 and 2, and the Spanish Infoprint Server. For more details, see http://publibfp.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/e0z2m102/2.1.5.
• Application development support will be withdrawn from the C++ Open Class Library in z/OS V1.5. DCE Application Support, the Encina Toolkit Executive, Text Search, the C++ ISPF panels, the Dynamic Link Library (DLL) Rename Utility, and other features will be removed in z/OS V1.6. For more details, see IBM announcement 203-266, at http://www-306.ibm.com/common/ssi/rep_ca/6/897/ENUS203-266/ENUS203-266.PDF.

Start the Project Plan.

While it's too early in the process to develop a detailed project plan, creating a comprehensive, high-level plan that can be expanded is possible, and critical. The project plan must be dynamic; it grows and evolves at least into the testing phase of the migration. Start by identifying whatever high-level tasks you can, assign responsible individuals to each primary migration component, and you'll be amazed at how quickly the detail blossoms!

A project management tool, with good reporting facilities, is a must for good project planning. This tool will be at the center of project management, keeping track of project progress, producing reports upon which the migration can be managed, and serving as a communication vehicle between all project members. Task characteristics that need to go into the plan are:

• Task description.
• Responsible individual.
• Identification of pre-requisite, post-requisite tasks.
• Determination of cornerstone tasks and mandatory completion dates.
• Task duration/person hours. These hours often can only be crudely estimated, and should include time for the unexpected, with a clear communication that they're only approximations.
• Footnotes or other additional task information (such as references to supporting documentation).

Here are some additional items to incorporate into the initial migration plan so they don't get forgotten:

• Third Party product installations should begin ASAP; they should be moved to production before the operating system since they're often pre-requisites, and can comprise half or more of the total upgrade effort.
• The migration should be as "vanilla" as possible. Unnecessary changes should be avoided during the upgrade.
• Make sure the plan includes both procedures to migrate to the new operating system release, and to fall back to the old release if there are problems with the new release.
• Assume some things will go wrong and allow time for that.
• If multiple LPARs will be migrated, create a high level task for each system.
• Stage upgrades by system, starting with test and low impact systems.
• Allow time for project management.
• Allow time for troubleshooting.

You can save time and research in creating your migration plan by using a z/OS Migration Starter Kit, an MS Project "template" plan that contains most upgrade tasks. These tasks – identified by release – include hyperlinks to relevant IBM and Third Party documentation, SHARE and IBM presentations, vendor contact information, etc. For more on the z/OS Migration Starter Kit, go to http://www.mainframehelp.com/upgrade_plan_templates.htm.

Establish Project Management.

• Identify a project manager who will run status meetings/conference calls and have responsibility for the migration plan. The project manager must have at least a limited technical background, so he or she can understand technical issues; project managers without technical skills are invariably a detriment, not a catalyst, to a migration.
• Identify a project secretary, who will keep minutes of status meetings/calls.
• Identify one or 2 IT or user managers who will participate in the meeting, communicate progress to the rest of the business, and communicate application or user requirements to the project team. Set up formal communications to the rest of your organization through these individuals, and use it!
• Set up weekly status meetings/calls, with the expectation that all project team members will participate unless excused. During this meeting (1) the project plan should be reviewed, discussed, and updated from the prior week, (2) review prior meeting minutes and follow-ups, and (3) new business.

Survey Third Party Product Vendors.

Each Third Party product vendor should be contacted to identify what product release/maintenance level is required to run with z/OS V1.4; necessary upgrades become tasks in the migration plan. Build a spreadsheet with columns such as: (1) product name, (2) vendor name, (3) Site ID, (4) vendor phone, (5) current product level, (6) required product level, (7) latest product level, and (8) comments. Columns 1 through 5 can be filled out before contacting vendors. In addition, IBM maintains a Vendor Compatibility page at http://www.ibm.com/s390/s390da/osnp.html. Not all vendors participate in this program, however.

Order the Software Products.

z/OS V1.4 should be ordered close to when it will be installed, but before 9/9/2004 (when it will be withdrawn from marketing); Third Party products should be ordered ASAP (if needed), since most of them should be installed and in production prior to z/OS. z/OS can be ordered with ShopzSeries, at https://www14.software.ibm.com/webapp/ShopzSeries/ShopzSeries.jsp.

Researching the Migration.

IBM Product Information.

One area where research must be performed is that of z/OS elements and related products. Product changes, removal of function, enhancements, migration tasks, installation tasks, application and operations impact, and a variety of other aspects must be researched and understood prior to undertaking the upgrade. This information should then be folded into the migration plan as tasks.

Listed below is a variety of z/OS sites/manuals where you can obtain useful migration planning information.

Internal Information.

Information such as prior z/OS or OS/390 migration plans, files from past migrations, installation diaries, old "control" data sets (containing customized installation jobs, etc.), comments in JCL, source, etc., and the input of past upgrade participants all provide invaluable information that should be used in building your project plan.

Also, research your systems. Browse user exit source, scan through key members of PARMLIB, review Startup Procs and related JCL, verify data set naming and placement, SMP/E setup, etc.; fold anything relevant into the plan. The better you know your system, the better the migration will go.

Migration Tasks.

Here's a quick list of the most common migration tasks to add to your migration plan:

• Apply coexistence maintenance identified in z/OS V1.4 Planning for Installation – Chapter 5: Ensuring Coexistence and Fallback, which can be found at http://publibfp.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/books/e0z2b131/5.0.
• Upgrade Workload Manager to Goal Mode if not already there.
• Verify or convert expanded storage to central storage.
• Run SOFTCAP to analyze the impact a z/OS V1.4 migration might have on processor cycles and real storage. SOFTCAP can be downloaded from http://www.ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/WebIndex/PRS268.
• Review the z/OS V1.4 Migration Guide, which contains all known migration tasks for a migration of OS/390 V2R10 to z/OS V1.4. Migration tasks are identified by release, and whether they are pre-order, pre-IPL, and post-IPL. The Migration Guide can be found at http://publibfp.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/e0z2m102/contents,

• Visit http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/zseries/zos/wizards/ipw/ipwv1r4/ and use the z/OS Installation Planning Assistant to identify migration tasks based on your environment and release level,

  or…..

• Use the z/OS V1.4 Migration Starter Kit, which has the majority of migration tasks built into an MS Project plan with hyperlinks to the Migration Guide and other technical sources. Visit http://www.mainframehelp.com/upgrade_plan_templates.htm for more information.
• Identify and add migration tasks which are unique to your installation, and which are usually required for every OS upgrade you perform.

Assuming the prior steps have been thoroughly performed, you now have a comprehensive project plan for upgrading to z/OS V1.4. While a few problems will still arise, completion of the upgrade at this point becomes a matter of executing your plan. Good luck!

The opinions in this article are solely those of the author, and the information herein is to be taken "as-is".