Newsletter

November 28, 2000

Compiled by Tony Ioia - tony@txmq.com

In This Issue: 

This Newsletter


     * IMS Version 7 Availability
     * IMS Version 7 ibm.com Promotion
     * IMS Version 5 Withdrawal of Service
     * IBM's Strengthened Focus on Database Tools
     * New TxMQ IMS page
     * Up-coming Events and Education 
     * Recent Publications
     * Closing



      IMS Version Availabilty

      

After a successful QPP program, IMS Version 7 was made generally available 
as of October 27, 2000.  Orders can now be placed through to IBM or you can 
call TxMQ at 1-888-519-7791 for assistance.  ***See next section for special migration promotion***

The availability announcement is contained in IBM announcement letter 200-290, 
originally issued Septermber 5, 2000 and revised on November 21, 2000.  In Canada, 
the announcement letter number is A00-1284.

Please note that along with this announcement, IMS Version 5 will be withdrawn 
from marketing effective December 5, 2000. 



      IMS Version 7 ibm.com Promotion
       

On October 24, 2000, IBM announced a special promotion for IMS customers.  If you have 
a qualifying IBM IMS™ Version 4, 5, or 6 software product installed and you upgrade to 
an eligible IMS Version 7 software product, you can receive a Migration Assistance Package, 
worth $7,500 USD ($11,500 CDN), at no additional charge. 

Complete details of this offer are available in the US announcement letter 300-137 or 
Canadian announcement letter A00-1686.

For further assistance regarding this offer, please send me an email or contact me 
at 1-888-519-7791.



       IMS Version 5 Withdrawal of service 
             ****Important Note****

IBM has also announced the withdrawal of service for IMS Version 5 effective 
September 30, 2001.  If you are currently running IMS Version 5, you should plan on 
a migration to IMS Version 6 or IMS Version 7 to be completed by September 30, 2001. 

TxMQ has been hi-lighting various IMS Version 7 features in a our seminars and most 
recently, in a seminar dedicated entirely to IMS Version 7.  If you missed the TxMQ 
IMS Version 7 Technical Update seminar held this past month, you can download a copy 
of the presentation material with speaker notes at:
 http://www.ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/PubAllNum/PRS160

If you would like more information on IMS Version 7, or would like to price the 
upgrade for your environment, please contact myself or email me at tony@txmq.com



   IBM's Strengthened Focus on Database Tools

                    
In response to customer's growing concern for the cost of non-IBM third party products, 
IBM has made a major investment to enhance the existing database tools portfolio and 
develop new tools.  The first announcement was made on September 12 with a major restructuring 
and repositioning of many existing tools and the introduction of some new IMS tools.  
Together with a new aggressive pricing methodology, IMS customers now have a viable 
alternative to non-IBM products.

In all the September 12 announcements, there is reference to both IMS and DB2 tools.  
This article summarizes only the relevant IMS content.  To read the complete IBM 
announcements, you can refer to the following announcement letters available on the 
Internet using the links listed in the Reference section of this document or access 
them at TxMQ's IMS page in the download section.

In the US, the following announcement letters contain the content of the September 12 
announcements:

A00-1339 IBM Tools for Database Performance Management
A00-1338 IBM Tools for Database Recovery
A00-1340 IBM Tools for Database Application Environments
A00-1335 IBM Tools for Database Administration

The following describes the four categories and lists the IMS products that fall within each category along with the name of the previous product. Many IMS tools are re-announced with enhancements such as support for IMS Version 7.

Tools for Performance Management

IMS Performance Analyzer V3

This is the follow-on product to IMS Performance Analyzer V2 with enhancements to existing functions and support for IMS Fastpath databases. Also includes support for IMS Version 7.

IMS Connect IMS Connect is a new product based on the previously free-downloadable code called IMS TOC or ITOC (IMS TCP/IP OTMA Connection). It allows a TCP/IP client (be it a browser, application or web server program) to send messages to IMS through the IMS OTMA interface. It supports multiple clients accessing multiple IMS systems. The product version adds: SMP installability Dump and trace formatting User exits, command improvement, and asynchronous output support Persistent sockets and bottleneck relief IMS Connect requires the IMS TM feature, and much of the above function (other than asynchronous output support) can be used with terminals, applications, and data running under IMS V5 or V6. Future enhancements to IMS TCP/IP support will only be provided through IMS Connect when used with IMS V7. IMS Connect can also be used to provide access to IMS from the S/390 LINUX operating system. An application running on Linux/390 can use IMS Connect to access IMS in the enterprise. IMS Connect also provides Unicode support for IMS V7 through the service process. This provides the ability to send Unicode application data to an IMS host application capable of dealing with Unicode, such as a Java application running in IMS. Product Name:   IMS Connect Product ID:   5655-E51 Annual Support Option ID:   5655-E34 Availability:   11/17/00 Old Name:   N/A - new product Old Product ID:   N/A - new product IMS Program Restart Facility IBM's new IMS Program Restart Facility automatically assigns the most recent checkpoint ID to jobs that are being restarted because of an earlier abnormal termination. This ensures that no amended job is started with a valid but incorrect checkpoint ID or worse, without any checkpoint ID being allocated. This program is designed to prevent costly and time-consuming database recoveries that can arise from manual restart errors. Product Name:   IMS Program Restart Facility Product ID:   5655-E14 Annual Support Option ID:   5655-E17 Availability:   9/22/00 Old Name:   IMS Program Restart Facility Old Product ID:   5697-F18

IMS Tools Pricing

Another most important aspect of the September 12 announcement is the pricing strategy for database tools.

Currently, all database tools products are priced on a Monthly License Charge (MLC) based on the size of the S/390 processor they are running on. This is a monthly cost incurred continuously until notice is given to IBM that you wish to discontinue the use of the product.

The September 12 announcements introduce a One-Time-Charge (OTC) pricing model that is based on the size of the processor it is running on. Once the OTC fee has been paid, the customer is free to use the product indefinitely.

There is an optional Annual License Charge(ALC) for Subscription and Support. This annual charge entitles the user unlimited voice technical support via telephone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and most importantly, future versions and releases of the product at no additional charge.

The Annual License Charge for Subscription and Support is also based on the size of the S/390 processor it is running on. Note that once the subscription and support option is ordered, it will automatically renew unless cancelled by the customer.

For additional pricing information on any of the tools discussed here, please contact tony@txmq.com or call TxMQ at 1-888-591-7791.


IMS Tools Summary Chart

I have created a chart in pdf format listing the IMS tools affected by the September 12th announcements along with their availability date and product ids. You can view the chart on the web by clicking on IMS downloads or request it by sending an email to ruth@txmq.com.


New TxMQ IMS Page

A new TxMQ IMS web page containing links to a web-based version of this document, past newsletters, seminar schedules, downloads for various IMS related documents and links to other IMS sites can be reached by clicking on IMS Main page


References

TxMQ IMS Page
http://www.txmq.com/ims.php

IBM IMS Home Page
http://www.software.ibm.com/data/ims

To search for announcement letters in Canada use http://www.can.ibm.com/oi/index.html

To search for announcement letters in the US, start at this URL and click through to US in country selection and then through to “Announcements” http://www.ibmlink.ibm.com

To search the APAR database use: http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/390/psd-adv.html

            Upcoming Events and Education

        
IBM Education

The following are upcoming IMS related classroom courses available through 
IBM Learning Services in the areas covered by TxMQ.   Please contact IBM 
Learning Services at 1-800-426-8322 for more information and enrollment.


Canadian Locations

All courses are at IBM Canada Ltd., 3600 Steeles Ave. East, Markham, 
Ontario


IMS Database Performance and Tuning (CM30C)

This course enables you to acquire the skills needed to tune IMS databases 
for use in IMS/Batch, IMS/DC, CICS-Local-DLI and DBCTL environments. It describes 
the features of the IMS database system that affect performance including data set 
considerations, buffers for VSAM and OSAM, and a method of estimating performance 
before implementing. 

Date: 3-05-2000
Duration: 5 days


IMS Database Application Programming (CM17C)

This course is designed to teach you the basic skills to write application 
programs that use DL/I to process IMS databases. 


IMS Fundamentals (CM10C)

This course is designed to present an introduction to the basic facilities of IMS, how
these facilities work together, and how application programs interact with them. The course
presents the IMS Database System, the IMS Transaction Manager, and their use in today's 
modern Enterprise Systems. 

Date: 2-19-2001
Duration: 3 days



     Recent Publications 
            
Redbooks:

IMS Version 7 High Availability Large Database Guide, SG24-5751-00

This Redbook describes the new High Availability Large Database (HALDB) function provided 
with IMS Version 7. HALDB is designed to increase the amount of data that can be stored 
in an IMS database, as well as increasing the availability of the data to users of IMS. 

It documents hands-on experience with the new HALDB database structures, including the 
migration path to convert a non-HALDB full function database. 


IMS Version 7 Release Guide, SG24-5753-00 (updated 10-02-2000)

This book contains descriptions of all the new features and enhancements provided 
in IMS Version 7.  The book addresses the needs of many different users of IMS. 
It contains information of interest to systems and application programmers, database 
administrators and IMS operational staff.

You can order these books through IBM or view them on-line at 
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com.

With reference to IMS Version 7, I've seen a tremendous interest in this release. Our last seminar series, IMS Version 7 Technical Update, was a great success and one of our best attended IMS seminars. Your feedback was very positive. If you could not attend or if you need any further information on IMS Version 7, or you require assistance on how to get started with a migration, pricing, or you just need reasons why you may want to migrate to IMS Version 7, then please contact me.

The IMS database tools announcement from IBM is also a very positive sign of IBM's committment to IMS and to the OS/390 platform. There is continued interest from many customers in reducing the cost of computing and your database tools inventory is an excellent place to start to analyzing your software costs and comparing what is available from IBM versus other vendors. Please call me if you require any assistance with mapping your existing non-IBM tools inventory with IBM alternatives and their prices.

Finally, I'm pleased to announce the availability of our new TxMQ IMS page at http://www.txmq.com/ims.php. My plan is to be able to link and provide relevant IMS information such as this newsletter, upcoming seminars and various IMS documents of interest through this page. Bookmark this site and visit often.

This newsletter is distributed as a free service via email to our IMS contact list. Please feel free to re-distribute this to anyone in your organization working with IMS or interested in IMS related news, technical information, and events. You can forward any comments or suggestions directly to tony@txmq.com.

If you received this indirectly, please register for a subscription on our web site at http://www.txmq.com or call our toll free number at 1-888-519-7791. You may also view past issues of the TxMQ IMS Newsletter or subscribe to other newsletters related to OS/390, CICS, MQSeries and IMS.

COMMENTS, SUGGESTIONS

TxMQ welcomes your comments, pro or con, about these newsletters, and any suggestions for improvement. To be added or removed from the newsletter distribution, please call 1-888-519-7791 or send an email to admin@txmq.com with your instructions.
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