Ron Steele, LB Software Consultants, November 2004
Ron-Steele@nc.rr.com, 919-523-0305
You may want to take advantage of some of the enhancements in V9,
which will be covered below.
You may want to take advantage of the “Migration Planning Offer” just announced by IBM:
• IMS
V9 Introductory Offer
–
For a
limited time only, if you have a qualifying IBM IMS Version 6, 7, or 8 software license
installed and you upgrade to a qualifying new IMS Version 9 software license, you can
receive an eligible one-day on-site Migration Assistance Package (approximate value: $6,000) at no additional charge.
–
Start
and/or end dates
•
Orders
for the qualifying IMS Version 9 software must be placed on or after September 21, 2004,
but no later than January 31, 2005.
•
The
one-day on-site Migration Assistance Package must be completed no later than April 30,
2005.
–
An
IBM consultant will contact the customer, via telephone, no later than five business days
after the order for the qualifying IMS Version 9 software is placed in order to review any
unique requirements of the customer's installation, and schedule the class.
You may want to take advantage of LB Software’s IMS V9 Migration Support Kit (MSK) providing a comprehensive, customized IMS V9 migration plan for current IMS V7 or V8 users. Approximately two dozen of the top third-party software tools and products used by IMS clients have been researched for migration actions. The corresponding 3rd party migration tasks are included in this MSK. LB Software is offering this no-charge MSK as a quick start tool for clients ordering IMS within the next 120 days.
IMS Version 6 support ended September 30, 2003.
IMS Version 5 support ended September 30, 2001.
PLEASE NOTE: It was announced on 10/04 that IMS
Connect would be included in IMS V9 at no additional cost. This was new news. Previously
IMS Connect was an OTC (One-Time-Charge) Tool. It has been included in IMS V9 at the IMS
Connect V2.2 Level of function. If you have IMS Connect V2.2 now, you can still use it
with IMS V9 or switch to the IMS Connect included in V9. IMS Connect is an excellent IMS
feature to be used in Web-enabling IMS, and in supporting the new SPOC (Single Point Of
Control) feature that was delivered in IMS V8.
Reorganization of a database stored using the HALDB (High Availability Large Data Base) feature of IMS can be by partition of the data with concurrent online update and availability. No outage is needed for reorganizations. Applications can access all of the data during reorganizations without restrictions. This allows for totally non-disruptive reorganizations. The pace of the data access can be controlled to minimize impact on I/O to the data and other resources during reorganization. Partitions can be reorganized in parallel and the coordination can be provided through DBRC. OLR supports Data Sharing so that other IMS subsystems may read and update the data in the partitions while they are being reorganized. Reorganizations may be done in any Data Sharing IMS subsystem; this adds flexibility.
New samples have been added to the IVP (Installation Verification Program) for CQS (Common Queue Server) and the new command environment. IVP variables are imported from previous releases of IMS. The Syntax Checker, which was added in V8, has additional capabilities such as providing support for the definition and maintenance of additional IMS Proclib members.
IMS RESLIB contains the IMS Nucleus, some exits, and is built by sysgen and SMP/E (System Maintenance Program/Extended). During System Definition, the Transaction Manager (TM), DB/DC, Data Base Control (DBCTL), and Fast Path (FP) may use the same RESLIB (SDFSRESL).
XML (Extensible Markup Language) documents can be stored in IMS
databases. XML documents can be composed from non-XML data in IMS databases, and XML
documents can be stored as segments and fields. Existing IMS applications written in
COBOL, PL/I, etc. can access the XML data.
An Assembler macro interface is provided that enables vendor and
customer-written tools to use DBRC services and
to help reduce migration impact in using these tools.
The Common Service Layer (CSL) was introduced in IMS V8 that included
the new Operations Manager (OM), Resource Manager (RM), and Structured Call Interface
(SCI). The Single Point Of Control (SPOC), a TSO based application was also added. In V9,
the Common Service Layer can now use the SPOC and the Operations Manager without the
Resource Manager addresspace being present.
This enhancement expands the SPOC to handle database commands. This
helps provide a single-system image in the IMSplex. IMSplex QUERY and UPDATE commands for
databases and areas can be executed. This would be equivalent to commands such as /DIS,
/START, /DBR, /DBD, etc. for databases and areas.
There are new options for opening and closing areas. They can be
opened and closed in parallel. Multiple TCBs (Task Control Blocks) are used to accomplish
this. Emergency Restart will open all areas that were open when IMS failed.
The FP Shared Virtual Storage
Option (SVSO) Multi-area Structure Support provides for housing multiple DEDB areas
in a single Coupling Facility (CF) structure. Instead of having one CF structure per area,
multiple areas can reside in a single CF structure. This reduces the total number of CF
structures that need to be defined in a system.
IMS V9 has other enhancements
that can be seen in the Announcement Letter 203-216; here is a link to it: http://www-306.ibm.com/fcgi-bin/common/ssi/ssialias?infotype=an&subtype=ca&appname=Demonstration&htmlfid=897/ENUS203-216
· All IMS V9 Manuals have been made available online at: http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/ims/v9/v9index.html
· The IMS Technical
Conference was held about 5 weeks later due to Hurricane Jeanne closing Orlando. At the
conference there were about 150 presentations and the handouts have been made available
at: http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/ims/shelf/presentations/
· The IMS V9 Technical
Seminars are in progress now in 16 cities across the US and they have been held so far in
Atlanta, Charlotte, Richmond, Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. To enroll in a remaining
city, please go to: http://www-306.ibm.com/software/os/zseries/imseminar/
The handouts for this seminar can be seen at:
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/os/zseries/imseminar/handouts/
and
http://www.mardon-y2k.com/IMS%20V9%20Technical%20Seminar%20Intro%20V10%2020041108.ppt
· The IMS V9
Implementation Redbook (Draft) can now be used from website: http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpieces/pdfs/sg246398.pdf
.
This is an excellent document to study the enhancements to IMS V9.
For comments and questions about this article, or services requests pertaining to IMS, please contact the author of this article at ron-steele@nc.rr.com or 919-523-0305.
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