New for the z/OS platform

Increased number of buffer pools

IBM MQ Version 8.0 for z/OS now supports up to 100 buffer pools; the previous release supported 16. Having more buffer pools provides administrative flexibility, and the potential for application/queue isolation, because there can now be a one to one mapping from page sets to buffer pools. For more information about defining buffer pools, see Defining your buffer pools and the DEFINE BUFFPOOL command.

Buffer pools can be located above the bar

IBM MQ Version 8.0 for z/OS allows buffer pools to be located above the bar, as well as below the bar. A buffer pool that is located above the bar can have a larger number of buffers with the potential for improved performance for certain classes of applications.

If a buffer pool is located above the bar it can optionally be backed by fixed 4 KB pages, instead of pageable 4 KB pages. For certain uses of buffer pools this can increase performance.

See Address space storage to understand the impact of large buffer pools on the z/OS system.

Buffer pools can be located above the bar by specifying LOCATION(ABOVE) on the DEFINE BUFFPOOL and ALTER BUFFPOOL commands.

Support for message suppression on z/OS

IBM MQ Version 8.0 for z/OS introduces a ZPARM attribute, EXCLMSG, to list console messages to be excluded from being issued. The attribute is dynamic and can also be configured by using the SET SYSTEM command. For more information see, Using CSQ6SYSP. Additionally, there are two new messages, CSQX511I and CSQX512I for channel start/stop events that are only for SVRCONNs, enabling you to list those messages without affecting the messages that are issued by queue manager channels. For more information, see CSQX511I: csect-name SRVCONN Channel channel-name started, connection conn-id and CSQX512I: csect-name SRVCONN Channel channel-name no longer active, connection conn-id .

Support for multiple cluster transmission queues

IBM MQ 8.0 for z/OS supports multiple cluster transmission queues as introduced in Version 7.5 for distributed platforms.

You can specify a transmission queue to be used for a cluster sender channel, which provides higher availability, because messages for one cluster sender channel can be isolated from other cluster sender channels. For more information, see Clustering: Planning how to configure cluster transmission queues.

Messages to be forwarded by each cluster-sender channel are placed on separate cluster transmission queues. For more information, see Working with cluster transmission queues and cluster-sender channels.

You can also configure cluster transmission queues manually by setting the new queue attribute CLCHNAME.

You can decide which cluster-sender channels share which transmission queues, which have separate transmission queues, and, which use the cluster transmission queue, or queues. For more information, see Planning how you use multiple cluster transmission queues.

Changes to client connectivity

Previously users wanting to connect IBM MQ clients from non z/OS platforms directly to the IBM MQ server on z/OS needed to license this function with the separately chargeable Client Attachment Feature (CAF).

The Client Attachment Feature is removed in IBM MQ for z/OS Version 8.0, which means that there is no additional license charge, or installation step necessary, to support IBM MQ client connections.

In previous releases, a maximum of five server connection channel instances were permitted for administering your queue manager from IBM MQ Explorer. Review the MAXINST settings on SYSTEM.ADMIN.SVRCONN and SYSTEM.BKR.CONFIG channel definitions, as these settings can now be increased if required.

If your site has not previously enabled client attachment, consider implementing CHLAUTH rules to control client access through other server connection channel definitions, especially SYSTEM.DEF.SVRCONN.

IBM IBM WebSphere MQ for z/OS Value Unit Edition (VUE)

IBM IBM MQ for z/OS Value Unit Edition (VUE) (VUE) provides all the function and capability of the base IBM MQ for z/OS, in a format that offers a one-time-charge (OTC) price metric for eligible workloads that are deployed in qualified IBM Z Systems New Application License Charge (zNALC) logical partitions (LPARs).

The term, Eligible Workload, is defined as new workload that executes using the IBM MQ for z/OS VUE server environment, on condition that the workload is qualified and approved through the zNALC qualification process.

For further information on zNALC, see IBM Z Systems Software Pricing

The OTC price metric provides an alternative pricing model for new IBM MQ for z/OS-connected applications and new IBM MQ for z/OS VUE service enablement workloads.

Support for the zNALC metric offers a reduced price for the z/OS operating system on LPARs that run a qualified application.

IBM MQ for z/OS VUE can connect to other supported versions of IBM MQ for z/OS (whether in zNALC or non-zNALC environments) for workload federation and systems management.

IBM MQ for z/OS VUE allows connections from IBM MQ clients, that run on other platforms.

Exploitation of zEnterprise Data Compression (zEDC) Express facility

For systems where the zEDC Express facility is installed and enabled, IBM MQ uses the zEDC to perform channel message compression when COMPMSG(ZLIBFAST) is specified and uncompressed messages are greater than 4 KB in size.

Channel message compression can help to reduce link bandwidth requirements between IBM MQ systems. Further, when SSL CipherSpecs are configured for a channel, compressing data before encrypting can reduce the central processing unit cost of encryption, and increase the message throughput on the channels.

For more information, see Preparing IBM MQ for z/OS to use the zEnterprise Data Compression Express facility.

Integration of IBM MQ Advanced Message Security

Advanced Message Security (AMS) is now more integrated with IBM MQ for z/OS. AMS is enabled by installation of a separately priced enablement product. Further information on installing and enabling AMS can be found at IBM MQ Advanced Message Security for z/OS .

Support for 64-bit applications

Applications that use the IBM MQ API written in the C language, which is built with the LP64 compile option, and bound with appropriate 64-bit sidedecks are supported. For more information, see Building 64 bit C applications.

Increased maximum addressable log range

Recovery data is written to log data sets so persistent message are available when the queue manager is restarted. The term log Relative Byte Address (log RBA) is used to identify the location of data within the log data sets.

For earlier releases of IBM MQ, the log RBA could address up to 256 terabytes of data. Before your queue manager reached the maximum data, you had to stop the queue manager, and run some jobs to allow the log to start again at a low value. For a high use queue manager this operation might be done once a year.

In IBM MQ 8.0 the queue manager can now address over 64,000 times as much data (16 exabytes). Before you can use this capability in a queue-sharing group (QSG), all queue managers need to be running IBM MQ 8.0. The impact of using this capability is that the size of the log data that is written is slightly larger.

For more information, see Making the log Relative Byte Address larger.

Channel initiator SMF data

z/OS now supports the generation of channel initiator SMF statistics records, with statistics information about the tasks (dispatcher, adapter, DNS and SSL), and accounting data for channels. You can use this information to determine the performance of the channel initiator and associated channels. For more information see SMF records for the channel initiator.

Managed File Transfer: new for z/OS

IBM MQ Managed File Transfer on z/OS includes the following new features:

• The IBM MQ Managed File Transfer on z/OS product is installed separately from both IBM MQ and the IBM MQ Managed File Transfer on distributed component.
• You can configure your z/OS environment using PDSE data sets. Using PDSE data sets removes the requirement to access the MFT configuration properties files, which are maintained by UNIX System Services files.

  Use the new JCL command template PDSE library to specify substitution values, JCL variables, and configuration properties in a single data set. Configuration properties files in the USS file system are synchronized with the configuration defined in the data sets. For more information, see Configuration options on z/OS .

  Configuration of your z/OS environment using the fte commands is still supported.

• You can configure agents and loggers for automatic restart using the z/OS Automatic Restart Manager. For more information, see Configuring MFT for ARM.

• You can truncate destination records when transferring in text mode to a data set using the -dtr parameter. For more information, see the fteCreateTransfer command.

Increased number of active logs

IBM MQ for z/OS now supports up to 310 active logs in each log copy ring of active log data sets. Having more active logs allows a queue manager to tolerate problems with archiving which, otherwise, could cause active log space to fill, and IBM MQ messaging to stall, pending resolution of the archiving issue.

With each active log having a maximum size of 4 GB, 310 active logs can provide a log space of 1.2 TB.

You must apply APAR PI46853 to enable this feature.

For more information, see Log data set definitions.

Use of storage class memory (SCM)

The z13, zEC12, and zBC12 machines allow the installation of Flash Express cards. These cards contain flash solid-state drives (SSD). After installation, flash storage from the cards can be allocated to one or more LPARs where it is typically known as SCM.

The use of storage class memory (SCM) can be advantageous when used with IBM MQ for z/OS shared queues.

For more information, see Use of storage class memory with shared queues