CBPDO Versus ServerPac

By

Don Fowler

 

People have asked why we base the Migration Support Kits (MSK) on ServerPac and not on CBPDO. Other users of our MSKs want to know what they need to change in the MSK if they decide to use CBPDO instead of ServerPac.

 

Here are our views of each installation vehicle and why MSK uses ServerPac only.  

 

CBPDO (Custom-Built Product Delivery Option) is an entitled software delivery package consisting of uninstalled products and unintegrated service. There is no dialog program to help you install, as there is with ServerPac. Following the instructions in the publication z/OS Program Directory, you must use SMP/E to install the individual z/OS elements and features, and their service, before you can IPL. This is extremely installation specific and requires building of many job streams.

ServerPac is an entitled software delivery package consisting of products and service for which IBM has performed the SMP/E installation steps and some of the post-SMP/E installation steps. To install the package on your system and complete the installation of the software it includes, you use the CustomPac Installation Dialog. The CustomPac Installation Dialog generates tailored installation jobs and saves detailed definitions of volume, catalog, and data set configurations, which can be tailored, saved, and merged to install subsequent ServerPacs.

I would suggest that you read the paper printed in the z/Journal on keeping the ServerPac environment healthy. If you don't follow these suggestions in the article, you might as well continue with CBPDO since you basically rebuild the system each time you upgrade.

The MSK base of ServerPac is selected because it requires us to have less knowledge of the client's environment. We don’t have to attempt to figure out the SMP/E actions, wade through the maintenance levels, or many of the product required datasets. That has already been done in the ServerPac.

Now what to do with the MSK if the client wants to go CBPDO?

No sweat, the portion of the MSK directly tied to the Serverpac install is about 3% to 12% of total MSK tasks depending on the product being upgraded.
Example: The serverpac portion of the DB2 MSK is only 4% of the total tasks defined in the MSK. For IMS it is somewhat a higher ratio because there are less total tasks while the Serverpac number remains almost the same regardless of which product is being installed.

All the MSK user would need to do is stop using the MSK at the task "ServerPac Planning and Preparation", insert their own identified CBPDO tasks at this point, and pick up on the task list starting at "Perform IVP" after they complete the CBPDO installation. Everything else in the way of tasks is the same regardless of which install vehicle is used.

Our take is if you are smart enough to use the CBPDO then you are smart enough to determine your way through the minefield. There are just too many permutations with SMP/E to make a viable MSK build process for the CBPDO shops without a lot of direct client information gathering and playing around with job streams.

 

For Websphere MQ MSK due out in July 2005, we will use SystemPac installation tasks since that is built using the same CustomPac install dialog that is used by ServerPac.

 

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