On July 23, 2013, z/OS announced V2R1, and by now many of you may have looked over the announcement letter: http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?subtype=ca&infotype=an&supplier=897&letternum=ENUS213-292
Since statements of direction (SoDs) are typically placed near the end of the announcement letter, it can be easy to miss them. So, I wanted to point out one SoD included in the announcement that is specific to z/OS CS:
IBM intends for z/OS V2.1 to be the last release to support the GATEWAY configuration statement in the TCP/IP profile. If you are using the GATEWAY statement to define static routes, you should use the BEGINROUTES/ENDROUTES configuration block instead.
Most of you have probably already migrated to BEGINROUTES/ENDROUTES, but for those that have not, this is something to keep in mind that will need to be done at some point in the future.
Also, while we are on the subject of SoDs, I would like to point out that two previously-issued SoDs come to fruition in z/OS V2R1 CS. On February 15, 2011, we issued the following SoD related to our Domain Name Server capability:
z/OS V1.13 is planned to be the last release in which the BIND 9.2.0 function will be available. Customers who currently use or plan to use the z/OS BIND 9.2.0 function as a caching-only name server should use the resolver function, which became generally available in z/OS V1.11, to cache Domain Name Server (DNS) responses. Customers who currently use or plan to use the z/OS BIND 9.2.0 function as a primary or secondary authoritative name server should investigate using BIND on Linux for System z or BIND on an IBM blade in an IBM zEnterprise BladeCenter® Extension (zBX).
As this SoD predicted, z/OS V2R1 no longer includes a DNS as part of z/OS CS.
On July 12, 2011, we issued the following SoD related to the IBM Configuration Assistant for z/OS Communications Server:
z/OS V1.13 is planned to be the final release for which the IBM Configuration Assistant for z/OS Communications Server tool that runs on Microsoft Windows will be provided by IBM. This tool is currently available as an as-is, nonwarranted web download. Customers who currently use Windows-based IBM Configuration Assistant for z/OS Communications Server tool should migrate to the z/OS Management Facility (z/OSMF) Configuration Assistant application. The IBM Configuration Assistant for z/OS Communications Server that runs within z/OSMF is part of a supported IBM product and contains all functions supported with the Windows tool.
z/OS V2R1 CS provides a completely-rewritten Configuration Assistant that runs within z/OSMF, providing better integration with z/OSMF and improved performance as compared to the previous version. As the SoD stated, the Windows-based Configuration Assistant is no longer being provided.
Please keep these points in mind as you look to migrate to z/OS V2R1 and beyond.
