z/OSMF Software Update Lets You Skip SMP/E Drudgery
The new z/OSMF Software Update task provides a GUI that z/OS system administrators and system programmers can use to manage updates for installed SMP/E managed software.
We all love updating our IBM z/OS® software. We get to research and build long, convoluted JCL APPLY commands, sift through cryptic, never-ending SMP/E output to investigate and resolve HOLDs, and spend hours solving errors only to discover that they weren’t errors that needed solving! It’s all a hoot. Oh, not for you? Yeah, not for us either.
Thankfully, the new z/OSMF Software Update task, introduced in z/OS Version 2 Release 4 with the PTF for APAR PH28412, has come to your rescue. It provides a GUI that z/OS system administrators and system programmers can use to easily manage updates for installed SMP/E managed software. In other words, you can now apply updates to existing software instances and manage update processes without having to suffer through running SMP/E JCL or manually combing through the output and messages!
Key Features and Benefits
z/OSMF Software Update features include:
You can identify and install updates on your software instances all from within user-friendly z/OSMF. You can then easily manage in-progress update processes and view details about completed update processes. There are three main actions in Software Update:
Install corrective software updates to fix a problem
Install recommended software updates when they are supplied by a software vendor
Install functional software updates by fix category to support new hardware, software, or function
Because you manage all of the update processes from within the z/OSMF GUI, you don’t need to touch SMP/E as you know it. (So, for you newbies to the system, you can now safely admit that you have no idea how to build an SMP/E APPLY command without fear of retribution.)
Users can collaborate on a single software update process. So, you can kick it off and then pass it along to others to, for example, resolve different HOLDs.
Before and After z/OSMF Software Update: 2 Scenarios
1. Resolving HOLDs
Up until now, resolving HOLDs hasn’t been your favorite activity, right? You had to open the never-ending SMP/E output, find the relevant HOLD information, interpret it, track down HOLD information that might exist in the SMP/E output for other related PTFs and somehow keep your sanity.
Let’s take a look at what that process entailed before and then show you how simple it is now with z/OSMF Software Update.
Resolving HOLDs Before z/OSMF Software Update
When you install an update, you first need to build and run your APPLY command:
+----------------------------------------+ | APPLY SOURCEID(RSU* HIPER SECINT PRP) | | | | BYPASS(HOLDSYS) | | | | GROUP | | | | CHECK. | +----------------------------------------+
During the update processing, SMP/E spits out an enormous flat text file that you then need to manually review to be able to resolve the HOLDs. Figure 1 shows a tiny snippet of the SMP/E output, showing what the HOLD information might look like.
Scary, huh? It takes a lot of training to know what to look for and where to find it in the SMP/E output. You need to find the relevant HOLD information and then interpret it, be able to tell whether you then need to track down HOLD information that might exist in the SMP/E output for other related PTFs, and so on. It’s quite a painstaking, laborious job.
Then, after you finally identify and handle all the HOLDs, you might have a list of PTFs that you’ll choose to save for later because you don’t want to resolve their HOLDs right away. For example, suppose some PTFs make behavior changes to the installed software that you just can’t accommodate right now. In this case, you need to run the APPLY command AGAIN to exclude those PTFs. That nice APPLY command that you ran at first could then get complicated pretty quickly:
+---------------------------------------------------------+ | SET BDY(TGTZ). | | | | APPLY SOURCEID(RSU* HIPER SECINT PRP) | | | | BYPASS(HOLDSYS) | | | | EXCLUDE( | | | | UI59009 UI64019 UI64225 UI65596 UI68417 UI62015 UI64732 | | | | ) | | | | GROUP | | | | CHECK. | +---------------------------------------------------------+
Not fun. Thankfully, this process is no longer your only option.
Resolving HOLDs After z/OSMF Software Update
Now, with z/OSMF Software Update, you don’t need to run APPLY commands, and there’s no need to search through or even open the SMP/E output. The task keeps track of and organizes all the HOLD data (even that for other related PTFs) for you.
After Software Update prepares the updates, it presents you with a list of all HOLDs right there in the GUI. Figure 2 shows an example of the Resolve HOLDs page showing those same HOLDs and what you can do with them.
All you need to do is click on a HOLD to review its contents, then click a button to tell Software Update what to do with it. There are three options:
To resolve the HOLD immediately, you need to only review its contents in the GUI, complete any necessary actions, and then click Resolve HOLD. The HOLD moves to the Resolved list.
To commit to resolve the HOLD after installation of the update, you need to only click Resolve HOLD after installation. The HOLD moves to the Resolve after installation list and the Software Update task reminds you of the HOLD after the update is installed.
If the HOLD contains actions that you choose to not complete during the update installation process and you choose to exclude the update, you need to only click Exclude Update from installation. The HOLD moves to the Excluded list.
But wait, there’s more! Another perk of the Resolve HOLDs function in Software Update is that different users can collaborate on a single software update process to resolve different HOLDs. Time to break out the virtual canapes!
2. Dealing With PTFs in Error
Have you ever installed recommended service and been told that you have a “PTF in error” (PE)? Has it then nagged at you and you can’t relax until you figure out what the error is and what you need to do about it? Us too! Well, here comes Software Update to calm all our nerves.
Dealing With PTFs in Error Before z/OSMF Software Update
Before Software Update, SMP/E simply threw errors to announce that any number of your recommended updates were PE. Figure 3 shows a tiny snippet of the SMP/E output, showing information about the failure of some recommended updates.
Because you’re fastidious and don’t like the idea of errors anywhere, you then spent precious time investigating the errors. The problem there, though, is that there was really no need to resolve those errors---you should actually just ignore PEs! But that’s not obvious when you’re just looking at a pile of SMP/E output.
Dealing With PTFs in Error After z/OSMF Software Update
Now, with Software Update, if any of the recommended updates are PEs, it simply ignores them like you should do anyway.
After Software Update looks for available recommended updates for the selected software instance and zone, it displays the Finding Updates page (see Figure 4). If valid updates are found, it simply notifies you of that, and any PEs that are found aren’t even mentioned:
Out of sight, out of mind!
So, you don’t need to spend time “resolving” PEs or even thinking about them.
Interesting tidbit: When you get to the step in the process where the valid recommended updates are actually installed, Software Update issues an APPLY command in the background that excludes all found PEs. Such a command might look something like this beast:
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | SET BDY(TGTZ). | | | | APPLY | | | | SOURCEID(RSU SECINT HIPER CAR RSL* PRP) | | | | GROUP | | | | BYPASS(HOLDSYSTEM HOLDUSER HOLDFIXCAT) | | | | EXCLUDE(UI63155 UI63156 UI65113 UI65114 UI65863 UI66910 UI66911 | | | | UI66912 UI67010 UI67011 UI67012 UI67013 UI67023 UI67024 UI67025 | | | | UI67091 UI67366 UI67367 UI67493 UI67494 UI67508 UI67659 UI67700 | | | | UI68368 UI68467 UI68508 UI68509 UI68510 UI68669 UI68675 UI69119 | | | | UI69120 UI69218 UI69225 UI69407 UI69408 UI69409 UI69441 UI69610 | | | | UI69611 UI69692 UI69693 UI69694 UI70122 UI70123 UI70124 UI70185 | | | | UI70285 UI70306 UI70397 UI70572 UI70639 UI70658 UI70659 UI70797 | | | | UI70918 UI71257) | | | | CHECK | | | | . | +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
Aren’t you glad you don’t need to figure out that command for yourself?!?
And don’t worry about missing the updates altogether. If the PEs are fixed by the time you next use Software Update to install recommended updates, the PE fixes are installed for you then. Simplicity at its finest!
Check Out the New Software Update Task
Hopefully we’ve inspired you to fire up z/OSMF and check out the new Software Update task! To learn more about it and get helpful instructions for how to get started, see the Content Solution and the product documentation help content.
About the author
Susan Shumway is a content developer for IBM Z, currently focused on z/OSMF.
Kurt Quackenbush is a software developer for IBM Z, focusing on SMP/E, z/OSMF Software Update, and z/OSMF Software Management.