IBM z/OS Communications Server

Starting from z/OS V2R3, Communications Server provides encryption-readiness technology for z/OS administrators to determine which TCP and Enterprise Extender traffic patterns to and from their z/OS systems meet approved encryption criteria and which do not. In December 2018, IBM zERT Network Analyzer, a new web-based interface, is made available to help you determine which z/OS TCP and Enterprise Extender traffic is or isn’t protected according to specific query criteria.

z/OS V2R4 Communications Server adds support for TLS Version 1.3 for Application Transparent Transport Layer Security (AT-TLS).

z/OS V2R4 Communications Server has added network support for z/OS Container Extensions which provides native z/OS support for Linux Docker based application workloads.

IBM z/OS V2R3 offers new support for fast low-latency TCP/IP traffic between LPARs within a CPC using the Shared Memory Communications – Direct Memory Access (SMC-D) software protocol over firmware-provided Internal Shared Memory (ISM) devices. SMC-D is expected to offer substantial performance, throughput, response time and CPU consumption benefits versus standard TCP/IP communications over HiperSockets™. This support is available on z/OS V2R2 via APARs OA48411 and PI45028.

z/OS V2R4 Communications Server, with TCP/IP APAR PH22695 and SNA APAR OA59152, is enhanced to support SMC-Dv2. Unlike the original Shared Memory Communication - Direct Memory Access (SMC-D) protocol, SMC-Dv2 does not require that the communication peers reside within the same IP subnet.

z/OS V2R4 Communications Server is enhanced to support OSA-Express7S features with 25 GbE bandwidth and IBM 25 GbE RoCE Express2 features.

IBM Configuration Assistant for z/OS Communications Server plays a key role for the network administrator as part of the IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS solution.