SPARTA News

September 2023

SPARTA President’s Corner

contributed by Randy Springs

Greetings, SPARTA followers. Fall is almost upon us, but record-setting high temperatures in the Triangle area make us wish for winter chills. Football is back, and if Duke’s win over Clemson and the Lions win over the Chiefs is any indication, the season should have lots of good games.

This month, we will again be holding our SPARTA meetings via Zoom format. We'd like to consider going back to our in-person meetings if we can find an appropriate venue. Let us know if you have any suggestions for a meeting location.

For our September meeting, join us for a presentation from Jerry Spencer of DTS Software. Jerry tells us about going From Baffled to Amazed on his z/OSMF Journey, a SHARE Best Session Presentation (Atlanta 2022). Invite your fellow systems programmers to join us for this informative and interesting virtual meeting.

Please join your colleagues online at a special time, 3 p.m. on Tuesday, September 12, on Zoom. Watch for speaker details and meeting connection information coming your way soon.

Randy Springs
Retired (Truist)

Future Speakers (subject to change)

September 12, 2023 (Special Date) - From Baffled to Amazed - My z/OSMF Journey by Jerry Spencer of DTS Software

October 3, 2023 - SHARE New Orleans 2023 Report by Ed Webb of SPARTA

We need ideas and volunteers for future speakers. Presentations don’t have to be fancy, just informative and interesting. Even a 5 or 10 minute talk can start an interesting interaction. Contact Ron Pimblett by phone as noted below.

2023-2024 SPARTA

Board of Directors

Randy Springs - President

Retired (Truist)                  (919) nnn-nnnn

street

Raleigh, NC 27604

Ron Pimblett - Vice President

MDI Data Systems

Land line 613 599 6970

Mobile 613 981 6919

190 Guelph Private

Kanata, ON K2T 0J7

Chris Blackshire - Secretary

Retired (Dell, Perot Systems, Nortel)  (919) nnn-nnnn

street

Durham, NC 27713

Randy Springs - (Acting) Treasurer

Retired (Truist)                  (919) nnn-nnnn

see Randy

Springs earlier

Ed Webb -  Communications Director

Retired (SAS Institute Inc.)  (919) nnn-nnnn

street

Apex, NC 27523

Mike Lockey -  Web Master

Guilford Co. Information Services  336-641-6235

201 N. Eugene St.

Greensboro, NC 27401

Meetings

Coronavirus Change: All meetings for the foreseeable future will be held online at 7 p.m. via the Zoom App. The link to meeting is sent to SPARTA Mailing list within 24 hours of the meeting time for security reasons. Stay safe.

Meetings are scheduled for the first Tuesday evening of each month (except no meeting in January), with optional dinner at 6:15 p.m. and the meeting beginning at 7:00 p.m.

These monthly meetings usually are held at LabCorp’s Center for Molecular Biology and Pathology (CMBP) near the Research Triangle Park (see last page). Take I-40 to Miami Boulevard and go north. Turn right onto T.W. Alexander Drive. Go about a mile or so. Then turn right into LabCorp complex and turn Left to the CMBP Building (1912 T.W. Alexander Drive). In the lobby, sign in as a visitor to see Bill Johnson. Bill will escort you to the conference room.

Call for Articles

If you have any ideas for speakers, presentations, newsletter articles, or are interested in taking part in a presentation, PLEASE contact one of the Board of Directors with your suggestions.

Newsletter e-Mailings

The SPARTA policy is to e-mail a monthly notice to our SPARTA-RTP Group. The newsletter is posted to the website about five (5) days before each meeting so you can prepare. The SPARTA distribution List is maintained by Chris Blackshire; if you have corrections or problems receiving your meeting notice, contact Chris at chrisbl@nc.rr.com.

April 2023 “CBT Tape” Shareware Online

The directory and files from the latest CBT tape V505 (dated April 24, 2023) are available from www.cbttape.org.

If you need help obtaining one or more files, contact Ed Webb (see Board of Director’s list for contact info).

Minutes of the August 1, 2023 Meeting

• The August 1, 2023 meeting was called to order at 3:00 PM by Randy Springs, the SPARTA President.

• This Thirty-sixth (April 2020 to August 2023) virtual SPARTA meeting was held via the Zoom Software.

• Fifteen (15) people were present at the virtual meeting.

• The business portion of the meeting followed the presentation.

• The meeting started at the 3 PM special time to accommodate the speaker's availability.

• An abbreviated name and work-only round table was conducted so the speaker would know his audience.

OLD BUSINESS

• The minutes of the July 11, 2023 meeting as published in the August 2023 Newsletter were approved.

• The July 31, 2023 Treasurer's report (there was No Expense Activity to-date in 2023) as published in the August 2023 Newsletter was approved. As of July 31, 2023, the current balance is $994.51.

• Call For Articles: Articles are needed for this newsletter. If you would like to write an article for this newsletter, please contact Ed Webb. Keep in mind that you don't really need to write the article, it can be an article that you read that you would like to share with the membership.

• The SPARTA Web page is available at this site: http://www.spartanc.org. Please send any comments or suggestions about the Web page to Mike Lockey. Be sure to check the Web page every once in a while to see any new or changed information.

• 2023 meeting dates, Future Speakers and Topics (subject to change based on internal politics, budget, the weather):

If you have suggestions about speakers and topics, contact Ron Pimblett.

• The next SPARTA monthly meeting will be held virtually on Tuesday, September 12, 2023 (holiday schedule).

• The annual dues have been suspended (motion passed in the March 2021 monthly meeting).

• Thanks to Randy Springs for online hosting the August 1 meeting via Zoom.

• There are currently about 100 people on the SPARTA e-mail distribution list.

• Send any e-mail address changes to Chris Blackshire so he can update the SPARTA distribution List. The SPARTA meeting notices are being sent via a simple distribution list maintained by Chris.

• Randy Springs is looking for a new Treasurer volunteer. He projects about 2 hours per month is needed.
- Contact Randy Springs if you are interested.

• Randy Springs has setup a SPARTA group on LinkedIn. Please join.

• There was discussion about a possible 2023 in-person meeting, depending on vaccinations and room availability. Stay tuned.
- Randy will contact Bill Johnson to determine the LabCorp meeting place status.
- Jay Hall will look into using a NCSU Centennial Campus room.

NEW BUSINESS

• We will continue meeting virtually for now with a future in-person meeting date TBD. Stay tuned.
• The Business portion and the meeting ended about 4:10 P.M.

• The Presentation started at 3:02 PM.

• Presentation Topic: IBM z16 Family Technical Overview

By Matt Hodak, IBM Z Hardware Technical Specialist, at Washington Systems Center

• Agenda
• IBM z16™ is built to build
• IBM z16 product portfolio
• Enterprise-grade AI on IBM z16
• IBM z16 industry-first quantum-safe system
• IBM Flexible Capacity for Cyber Resiliency
• IBM System Recovery Boost
• IBM Z Security and Compliance Center
• IBM z16 sustainability
• IBM z16 Multi-Frame
• IBM z16 Memory Machine type: 3931, Model A01
• IBM z16 Single Frame & Rack Mount
• IBM z16 4.6 GHz, Machine Type 3932, Single Frame offering A02 & Rack Mount offering AGZ
• IBM Telum processor design
• IBM z16
• IBM z16 and LinuxONE Rockhopper 4 operating system support
• IBM z16 Multi Frame physical planning overview
• IBM z16 Single Frame footprint overview
• IBM z16 Rack Mount footprint overview

• Presentation Access - See Below for a full outline of the presentation.

See the SPARTA webpage for all recent presentations including this one.

• Contact Info:
Speaker: Matt Hodak
IBM Z Hardware Technical Specialist
Washington Systems Center
Email: matthew.g.hodak@ibm.com

• The August 1, 2023 monthly meeting ended about 4:10 P.M.

Treasurer’s Report for August 2023

contributed by Randy Springs

The balance in the account is $805.46 as of August 31, 2023.

SPARTA Financial Report
08/01/2023 through 08/31/2023

Items of Interest

SPARTA Schedule and Menu for 2023

contributed by Chris Blackshire

Sept 12, 2023 - Pizza (Labor Day holiday is Monday Sept 4)
Oct 3, 2023 - Chicken
Nov 7, 2023 - Subs
Dec 5, 2023 - BarBQ

SHARE Call Presentations for March 2024

contributed By Ed Webb

"Don't miss your opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and showcase your innovative approaches to the industry during SHARE Orlando, taking place Sunday, March 3 – Thursday, March 7 in Orlando, FL.

Why Present? SHARE events are your opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and showcase your innovative approaches to the industry. By presenting on any number of key enterprise IT topics, you will broaden your reach to hundreds of industry professionals and support your peers by sharing your expert knowledge. 


All speakers selected to present will receive a discounted speaker rate for the full week or a discounted one-day rate for the day they present."

Learn more about this opportunity to SHARE your knowledge in this announcement from SHARE.

Why MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) is Essential

contributed By Ed Webb

"In today's interconnected digital langscape, protecting sensitive data has become a critical concern for organizations across all industries.

The consequences of a data breach can be devastating, with an average cost of $4.24 million per incident. But the financial impact is just the tip of the iceberg. The reputational damage, legal repercussions, and erosion of customer trust can also have long-lasting effects. ....

One solution that has gained significant traction in recent years is multi-factor authentication (MFA). MFA is an important piece of the cyber resiliency puzzle because it provides extra identification of a user. This prevents someone who has stolen credentials to gain access to your system.

Read the rest of Sandy Campbell's article Fortifying Your Digital Defenses: Why MFA Is Essential in Issue 4 of the Enterprise Executive.

IBM Java 17 SDK for z/OS is available

Contributed by Ed Webb

A word to the wise: include Java 17 as well as Java 11 (required) and Java 8 (just in case) in your order for z/OS 3.1. Java 11 is required for z/OS 3.1 and Java 17 will be before the end of life for z/OS 3.1.

"IBM Semeru Runtime Certified Edition for z/OS, Version 17, is the latest release of Java SDK on z/OS. It is certified to be compliant with Java Standard Edition specification, providing z/OS developers the ability to leverage new Java language features and stay current with the Java community. The maturity of Java APIs, libraries, and frameworks increases developer velocity and provides a consistent hybrid cloud development and deployment experience. This new release signifies IBM Semeru Runtime continues to be an integral part of the solution for the most difficult client problems, using the latest in Java and IBM Z technology.

This release contains a full-featured Java SDK with OpenJDK implementation and latest Eclipse OpenJ9 virtual machine. It delivers performance enhancements that enable companies to leverage the benefits of IBM Z scalability, reliability, availability, and serviceability, including exploitation of latest IBM Z hardware features. It contains key IBM security providers that exploit hardware cryptography such as the IBM Java Cryptography Extension Common Cryptographic Architecture (IBMJCECCA). It includes IBMZSecurity provider providing keystore support, and IBM Java Cryptography Extension Hybrid (IBMJCEHYBRID) providing security provider failover support. It also contains SunPKCS11 security provider that implements the Public Key Cryptography Standards #11 (PKCS#11) with IBM modifications for the z/OS operating system."

Details about Java 17 are available online in this blog entry at the IBM Z and LinuxONE Community.

Humor

Wit and Wisdom continued

contributed by Ed Webb

The amount of sleep required by most people is about five minutes more.
The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.
Character is what you are; reputation is what other people think you are.

Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.
One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.

It's A Pun-y World!

contributed by Ed Webb

A friend of mine got kidnapped by mimes...they did unspeakable things to him

Did you hear...they're not making 12 inch rulers any longer? 

My dog accidentally ate a whole bag of scrabble tiles so I took him to the vet.....
No word yet

Ban pre-shredded cheese. Make America grate again.

I bought a sweater but had to return it because it just had so much static electricity.....they gave me another one free of charge 

My wife asked if I've seen the dog bowl...I said..I never knew he did 

I visited the Air and Space Museum. There was nothing there. 

Membership Information

Don’t Forget the Next SPARTA Meeting

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Special Time: 3 p.m.

Location: Online

Information about access to our online meeting will be sent to our e-mail list by Tuesday, September 12.

Free Food before meeting: Your Food at Your Home

Program:

From Baffled to Amazed - My z/OSMF Journey
SHARE Best Session in Atlanta 2022

Speaker:

Jerry Spencer of DTS Software

SPARTA Corporate Sponsors:

August 2023 Presentation outline

• Presentation Topic: IBM z16 Family Technical Overview

by Matt Hodak, IBM Z Hardware Technical Specialist Washington Systems Center

• Agenda
• IBM z16™ is built to build
• IBM z16 product portfolio
• Enterprise-grade AI on IBM z16
• IBM z16 industry-first quantum-safe system
• IBM Flexible Capacity for Cyber Resiliency
• IBM System Recovery Boost
• IBM Z Security and Compliance Center
• IBM z16 sustainability
• IBM z16 Multi-Frame
• IBM z16 Memory Machine type: 3931, Model A01
• IBM z16 Single Frame & Rack Mount
• IBM z16 4.6 GHz, Machine Type 3932, Single Frame offering A02 & Rack Mount offering AGZ
• IBM Telum processor design
• IBM z16
• IBM z16 and LinuxONE Rockhopper 4 operating system support
• IBM z16 Multi Frame physical planning overview
• IBM z16 Single Frame footprint overview
• IBM z16 Rack Mount footprint overview

• IBM z16™ is built to build
- We built a powerful and secure platform for business.
- Let’s build the future of yours.
- - Predict and Automate for Increased Decision Velocity
- - Secure with a Cyber Resilient System
- - Modernize with Hybrid Cloud

• IBM z16 product portfolio
- IBM z16 Multi-Frame
- - Designed to support the growth in IT requirements for multi-frame clients, with superior scalability & efficiency with up to 200 cores
- IBM z16 Single Frame
- - Designed for roll-in, roll-out single-frame clients, providing enriched capabilities and improved performance per core
- IBM z16 Rack Mount
- - New entry point Rack Mount option
- - Components designed for colocation
- - Parallel scalability to Single Frame
- - SSR-installed for high reliability & serviceability

• Enterprise-grade AI on IBM z16
- Infusing AI into business-critical applications
- - Intersection of transaction and data
- - Minimize latency for real-time insights
- - Avoid risks and cost of data copies
- - Embed AI while meeting stringent SLAs
- - Leverage existing AI models and skills
- Applying AI for operational excellence
- - Accurately identify emerging problems across the Hybrid Cloud
- - Diagnose & fix problems fast in dynamic and complex environments
- - Resolve swiftly with intelligent automation

• IBM z16 industry-first quantum-safe system
- Quantum-safe cryptography to protect your business against quantum attacks now and into the future
- Industry first quantum-safe system
- - Protected by quantum-safe technologies through multiple layers of firmware
- Protect sensitive data
- - Quantum-safe APIs to modernize existing and build new applications leveraging quantum-safe cryptography
- Create crypto inventory
- - Discover where and what crypto is used in applications to aid in migration planning

• IBM Flexible Capacity for Cyber Resiliency
- Designed to enable a proactive approach to address business continuity requirements
- Greater Complete flexibility client control
- - Dynamically shift production Remotely transfer capacity capacity between IBM z16 up to 12 times per year systems at different sites and remain at the alternate within seconds site for up to one year.
- Simplified compliance
- - Improve audit readiness by using the same procedures for DR testing and real unplanned disasters.

• IBM System Recovery Boost
- Over 95% of IBM z15 customers with System Recovery Boost (SRB) eligible systems, are using System Recovery Boost to unleash additional processing capacity.
- IBM z16 delivers more System Recovery Boost capabilities middleware environments
- Middleware restart
- - Accelerate the restart and recycle of client-specified middleware environments
- - up to 35% faster
- SVC dump processing
- - Accelerate the SVC dump diagnostic capture process
- - up to 30% faster
- HyperSwap config load
- - Accelerate the process of loading HyperSwap configuration

• IBM Z Security and Compliance Center
- Assess enterprise-level compliance posture
- Control to the level you need
- Present your reports in a readable way
- Identify & track compliance drift

• IBM z16 sustainability
- Built for the modern data center to optimize flexibility and sustainability
- Product Lifecycle
- - Product Attribute to Impact Algorithm (PAIA) carbon footprint reports for understanding lifecycle carbon emissions and sustainability
- Energy Efficiency
- - Flexibility of UX energy trend dashboards or API management
- - Partition partition-level power statistics providing operational insights into workloads on the platform
- - Integration with commercial DCIM tools
- Circular Economy
- - Increase renewable / reusable / recyclable material content
- - Recycle or reuse at least 97% of end-of-life product waste
- - Goal to eliminate nonessential plastics from product packaging by 2024
- - Reduce shipping size and weight

• IBM z16 Multi-Frame
- Flexible compute design
- - Available in one to four 19” frames based on capacity needs
- - Two power options – iPDU for electrical efficiency and Bulk Power Assembly, no Internal Battery Feature
- - Industry’s first quantum-safe system with new Crypto Express8S card
- IBM Telum Processor
- - 7nm technology, 5.2 GHz, 4 Dual Chip Modules (DCM) per CPC drawer
- - 8 Cores/Chip, 2 Chips/DCM
- - Up to 200 client configurable cores
- - New integrated AI Accelerator capability of processing up to 300B deep learning inference request per day with 1ms latency
- - 11% single-thread performance improvement and 17% maximum system capacity growth over IBM z15™
- - 25% more processor capacity per drawer over IBM z15
- Memory
- - Up to 40 TB RAIM memory
- - 25% more memory capacity per drawer over IBM z15
- - Transparent memory encryption
- - 32 TB memory per LPAR, 2x more per LPAR than IBM z15
- To the Data
- - 54% increase in throughput with new FICON Express32S compared to IBM z15 FICON Express 16S
- - 25% improvement in Coupling Facility write requests over IBM z15 for short-reach coupling express links
- - Execute up to 14 million encrypted FCP read IOPS using the IBM Fibre Channel Endpoint Security solution
- - Up to 25 billion encrypted z/OS OLTP transactions per day

• IBM z16 Memory Machine type: 3931, Model A01

- Drawer Sizing

• IBM z16 Single Frame & Rack Mount
- IBM Telum Processor
- - New Integrated AI Accelerator for high-speed inferencing, in addition to accelerators for encryption and compression
- - 7nm technology @ 4.6 GHz, up to 4 Dual Chip Modules (DCMs) per CPC drawer
- - 8 cores/chip, 2 chips/DCM
- - 13% single-thread performance improvement over z15 T02
- - Quantum-Safe system, leveraging new Crypto Express8S HSMs
- Flexible compute design
- - Up to 68 client-configurable cores
- - - Up to 6 standard CPs, up to 67 zIIPs, up to 68 IFLs or ICFs
- - Up to 14% max system capacity growth over z15 T02 with z/OS
- - Up to 21% max system capacity growth over z15 T02 with Linux on Z
- - IBM-provided Single Frame for roll-in, roll-out ease, or Rack Mount configuration for client-supplied rack infrastructure
- - Up to 3 I/O PCIe+ drawers available for I/O expansion up to 48 adapters
- - FICON Express32S for enhanced speed and consolidation opportunities
- Memory
- - Up to 16 TB RAIM memory with physical memory encryption
- - 2 TB Virtual Flash Memory

• IBM z16 4.6 GHz, Machine Type 3932, Single Frame offering A02 & Rack Mount offering AGZ

- Drawer Sizing

- Feature-Based Sizing

• IBM Telum processor design
- Performance and Scale
- - Optimized core
- - New, flexible virtual cache hierarchy
- Embedded accelerators
- - Integrated accelerator for AI
- - Sort, compression, cryptography
- Industry-leading security
- - Transparent memory encryption
- - Improved Trusted Execution Environment
- Unmatched reliability and availability
- - Error correction and sparing
- - Redundant Array of Independent Memory

• IBM z16
- I/O considerations
- New build I/O features
- OSA Express updates and Strategy
- RoCE Express updates and strategy
- IBM z16 Coupling Links
- Crypto Express8S
- Hardware Management Appliance (HMA)

• IBM z16 and LinuxONE Rockhopper 4 operating system support
- z/OS
- - z/OS 2.5 with PTFs
- - z/OS 2.4 with PTFs
- - z/OS 2.3 (compatibility only)
- - - IBM Software Support Services purchase required
- - z/OS 2.2 (compatibility only)
- - - IBM Software Support Services purchase required
- z/VM
- - z/VM 7.3 with PTFs
- - z/VM 7.2 (compatibility only)
- z/VSE
- - VSEn V6.3 – 21st Century Software
- z/TPF
- - z/TPF 1.1 with PTFs
- Linux on IBM Z
- - Minimum Distributions:
- - - SUSE SLES 15 SP3
- - - SUSE SLES 12 SP5
- - - Red Hat RHEL 9.0
- - - Red Hat RHEL 8.4
- - - Red Hat RHEL 7.9
- - - Canonical Ubuntu 22.04.0x LTS
- - - Canonical Ubuntu 20.04.0x LTS

• IBM z16 Multi Frame physical planning overview
- Continues the modular, 19-inch frame footprint innovations introduced with z14 ZR1, IBM z15
- Designed to meet the requirements of a broad range of data center designs, including hot/cold aisle containment setups
- IBM z16 will be the last generation to support Bulk Power Assembly (BPA) power
- External Water Cooling (WCU) and Internal Battery Feature (IBF) are not supported
- Clients upgrading from IBM z14 or older will experience footprint, cabling, and power changes

• IBM z16 Single Frame footprint overview
- 19” rack design factory-installed into standard 42U IBM frame (same as z15 T02)
- Powered with 2 or 4 IBM iPDUs
- - IBM recommendation: power via redundant sources
- - Single-CPC drawer systems: single-phase or 3-phase power; dual-CPC drawer systems: 3-phase power required
- 8 configuration options; each component has a fixed location within frame
- - 1-2 CPC drawers, 0-3 I/O drawers
- No 16U Reserve feature or plan-ahead features available

• IBM z16 Rack Mount footprint overview
- Modular 19” design SSR-installed into client frame
- Powered with client’s PDUs
- - Client’s PDUs must account for service clearances
- - IBM recommendation: power via redundant sources
- 8 configuration options; height ranges from 10U-39U
- - 1 or 2 CPC drawers; 0-3 I/O drawers
- - Component stack order is pre-defined
- One or more system (z16 Rack Mount, storage, networking, etc.) may be installed within one rack
- - IBM z16 Rack Mount components must be contiguous

* Note: Rack Mounting Requires additional pre-planning for a successful install!

The presentation and demo ended about 3:55 and the meeting ended at 4:10 PM after the business meeting.