Retrieving product information from product information files

To retrieve product information such as the end of service date and the general availability date from product information files, use the Retrieve action provided on the Select Product Information File page.

Before you begin

Retrieve the product, feature, and FMID information for each software instance. For more information, see help topic Retrieving product information from SMP/E global and target zones.

About this task

When you invoke the Retrieve action, z/OSMF searches the product information retrieved from SMP/E global and target zones to find products that have the same product ID, version, release, and modification level as the products described in the product information file. For products where a match is found, z/OSMF extracts the following information from the product information file:
  • Date the product was announced.
  • Date the product was generally available to all users.
  • URL that links to additional information about the product.
  • End of service date for the product.
  • Date the file was created or last updated.
Note: For products where no match is found, z/OSMF ignores the information that is provided in the product information file. If you create a software instance that contains those products, you must re-retrieve the product information file to extract the corresponding information.

If you retrieve multiple product information files, the information extracted from each file is combined with the information that was extracted from the files z/OSMF previously retrieved. If multiple files contain information about a single product, the most recent information is saved.

To ensure that z/OSMF has access to the latest information for each product, check with your provider to determine when their files will be updated and retrieve the files accordingly. For example, IBM® provides weekly updates for the product information file it supplies for IBM z Systems software; therefore, you should plan weekly retrievals of this file. Otherwise, you could open a view or create a report that is incorrect, incomplete, or outdated.

For more information about product information files, see help topic About product information files.

To retrieve information from a product information file, complete the steps that follow.

Procedure

  1. To display the Product Information Files table, complete the following steps:
    1. Display a table where you can access the Retrieve End of Service Information action. To do so, complete one of the following steps:
      • Click Products on the Software Management page.
      • Select Products from the Switch To menu provided on the Deployments page and the Software Instances page.
      • In the Products view, invoke the View > Software Instances action.
      • In the Software Instances view, invoke the View > Products, Features, and FMIDs action.
      • Create or re-display the End of Service report.
    2. Select Retrieve End of Service Information from the Actions menu, or click the Retrieve End of Service Information button (if provided).

    The Select Product Information File page is displayed.

  2. If the product information files can be accessed using a URL or are stored in z/OS® data sets or UNIX files that can be accessed by the primary z/OSMF host system, complete the following steps:
    1. Select the Select one or more files that reside on or can be accessed by the primary system option.
    2. In the Product Information Files table, select the product information files to be retrieved. You can select multiple files. To add product information files, complete the steps provided in help topic Adding product information files.
    3. Click Retrieve to load the contents of the files into z/OSMF.
  3. If the product information files can be accessed by your local workstation, complete the following steps:
    1. Select the Select a file that resides on your local workstation option.
    2. In the File name field, click Browse to select the file to be retrieved. You can select only one file to be retrieved.
    3. Click Retrieve to load the contents of the file into z/OSMF.
    4. Repeat these steps for each product information file you want to retrieve from your local workstation.

Results

A progress indicator is displayed that informs you that z/OSMF is processing the request and might take several minutes to complete. For more details about the indicator, see help topic About progress indicators.

If the request completes without errors, an information message is displayed. If the file is listed in the Product Information Files table, the Last Retrieved column for the corresponding file is updated and displays the current date and time. Files retrieved from your local workstation are not included in the table.

Parent topic: Retrieving product information

Related reference

About the End of Service report
View Products, Features, and FMIDs page
Products page
View Software Instances by Product page
Select Product Information File page