Hardware requirements

IMS 15.3 has base hardware requirements. Some individual functions have additional hardware requirements.

Processor requirements
IMS 15.3 runs only in z/Architecture® mode on an IBM® System z10® processor or later. IMS 15.3 is the last IMS release that supports running on an IBM System z10 EC or BC (machine type 2097 or 2098) or an IBM System z196 or z114 (machine type 2817 or 2818).
System console requirements
The console requirements of z/OS® Version 2 Release 3 or later apply.
Tape unit requirements
IMS supports IBM 3590 and later tape units (or equivalent products) for installation and maintenance. IMS supports tape block sizes greater than 32760 bytes for the output of the Database Image Copy utility (DFSUDMP0) and the Online Database Image Copy utility (DFSUICP0).
Coupling facility requirements
IMS 15.3 has the following coupling facility requirements.
DASD requirements
IMS 15.3 hardware requirements include several requirements for DASD.
Large sequential data set support hardware requirements
To take advantage of this support, hardware that has more than 65,535 tracks must be used.
Multiple Systems Coupling hardware requirements
When the physical link is channel-to-channel (CTC) and is dedicated to IMS, Multiple Systems Coupling (MSC) requires the System/370 CTC adapter or a logical channel on the IBM 3088, ESCON, or Fiber Channel connection (FICON®). MSC FICON CTC support requires that at least one IMS system be installed on an IBM zSeries machine with the FICON channel and FICON CTC microcode. The other side (IMS) can be any processor with a FICON channel.
Parallel RECON access hardware requirements
The parallel RECON access function requires a Parallel Sysplex® environment and DFSMS Transactional VSAM Services (DFSMStvs). Therefore, parallel RECON access requires Coupling Facility (CF) hardware in the System z® sysplex.
Terminals and equipment supported by IMS 15.3
IMS 15.3 supports SLU, LU, NTO, 3270, and Finance (3600) terminals, as well as other equipment such as printers and DASD devices.
zIIP utilization hardware requirements
One or more IBM System z Integrated Information Processors (zIIPs) must be online on the machine at the time an IMS Connect, IMS ODBM, or IMS CQS address space is started in order to have any threads zIIP eligible and executed on a zIIP for that execution instance.

Parent topic: General planning information for IMS 15.3