General recommendations and considerations for a z13 or z13s server

As you plan your migration to a z13™ or z13s^TM server, consider the following:

Relatively few migration actions are new when coming from an IBM® zEnterprise® EC12 or zEnterprise BC12 server. Migration to an IBM z13™ or IBM z13s server has, as its base, a migration to the IBM zEnterprise EC12 or zEnterprise BC12 servers. This means that if you are migrating to a z13 or z13s server from a zEC12 or zBC12 server, and have performed the migration actions associated with the zEC12 or zBC12, you have fewer migration actions than if you were migrating from an earlier generation server and have not yet performed the migration actions associated with these servers. It is important to note that you can migrate directly to a z13 or z13s server without installing the intermediate servers, but you still need to ensure that any migration considerations are satisfied for the servers that you “skipped.” To read about z196, z114, zEC12, and zBC12 server migration actions, see Migrate to an IBM zEnterprise z196 or z114 server and Migrate to an IBM zEnterprise EC12 or IBM zEnterprise BC12 server.
Support is delivered by service, z/OS® features, and web deliverables. The base support for the z13 and z13s is delivered by service (PTFs).
- The PSP bucket that contains the required list of PTFs for the z13 server is: Upgrade 2964DEVICE, Subset 2964/ZOS and is identified by the following SMP/E Fix Category IBM.Device.Server.z13-2964.RequiredService
- The PSP bucket that contains the required list of PTFs for the z13s server is: Upgrade 2965DEVICE, Subset 2965/ZOS and is identified by the following SMP/E Fix Category IBM.Device.Server.z13S-2965.RequiredService.
Exploitation of some functions requires a web deliverable. Specifically:
- If you are running z/OS V2R1 and require Crypto Express4S functionality for CCA 4.4 and other EP11 cryptographic enhancement support which includes: RKX Key Export Wrap, UDX Reduction/simplification, additional EP11 algorithms, expanded EMV support, AP Configuration simplification, CTRACE Enhancements, and KDS Key Utilization Stats, then you must download and install the Cryptographic Support for z/OS V1R13-z/OS V2R1 web deliverable (FMID HCR77A1) or the Cryptographic Support for z/OS V1R13 - z/OS V2R2 web deliverable (HCR77B1).
  If you are using either of these web deliverables (HCR77A1 or HCR77B1) and sharing keys with other z/OS systems that have a lower-level of ICSF, you require the coexistence PTFs identified by the appropriate Fix Category: IBM.Coexistence.ICSF.z/OS_V1R13-z/OS_V2R1-HCR77A1 or IBM.Coexistence.ICSF.z/OS_V1R13-z/OS_V2R1-HCR77B1.
- If you are running z/OS V2R1 and require Crypto Express5S exploitation support for the next Generation Coprocessor support or VISA Format Preserving Encryption (FPE), you must download and install the Enhanced Cryptographic Support for z/OS V1R13-z/OS V2R1 web deliverable (FMID HCR77B0) or the Cryptographic Support for z/OS V1R13 - z/OS V2R2 web deliverable (HCR77B1).
  If you are using either of these web deliverables (HCR77B0 or HCR77B1) and sharing keys with other z/OS systems that have a lower-level of ICSF, you require the coexistence PTFs identified by the appropriate Fix Category: IBM.Coexistence.ICSF.z/OS_V1R13-z/OS_V2R1-HCR77B0 or IBM.Coexistence.ICSF.z/OS_V1R13-z/OS_V2R1-HCR77B1.
- If you are running z/OS V2R1 and require exploitation of new hardware instructions using XL C/C++ ARCH(11) and TUNE(11) including SIMD, vector programming, MASS and ATLAS libraries, you must download and install the XL C/C++ V2R1M1 web deliverable with z13 support for z/OS 2.1.
- If you are running z/OS V1R13 and want to exploit Flash Express® (including pageable 1 MB Large Page Support, optional paging of PLPA and Common (CSA, ECSA) pages to Flash Express, and Dynamic reconfiguration support for Flash Express); or 2 GB Large Page support, you must download and install the z/OS V1.13 RSM Enablement Offering Web deliverable and install the required PTFs identified by the Fix Category.
- If you are running z/OS V1R13, you might need to install a Cryptographic Support web deliverable, depending on which ICSF functions you require.
Larger coupling facility structure sizes might be necessary. When you change coupling facility control code (CFCC) levels, your coupling facility structure sizes might change. If, as part of your migration to a z13 server, you change CFCC levels, you might have larger structure sizes than you did previously. If your CFCC levels are identical, structure sizes are not expected to change when you migrate from a previous server to a newer generation server. In addition, similar to CF Level 17 and later, ensure that the CF LPAR has at least 512MB of storage. CFCC Levels 20 and 21, introduced on the z13 and 13s, support the Coupling Facility use of Large Memory to improve availability for larger CF cache structures and data sharing performance with larger DB2® Group Buffer Pools (GBP). This support removes inhibitors to using large CF cache structures, enabling use of Large Memory to appropriately scale to larger DB2 Local Buffer Pools (LBP) and Group Buffer Pools (GBP) in data sharing environments.
Use the same software level throughout a sysplex. Having members of a sysplex at the same software level (other than during brief migration periods) is good software management policy.
Migrate hardware and software at different times. To minimize the amount of change (and therefore risk) that you experience at one time, do not migrate your software release level at the same time that you migrate your hardware.
Update SCRT to latest version. If you use SCRT, make sure it is at the latest level. This is a requirement for sub-capacity pricing, as well as when you upgrade servers. The latest level of SCRT can be downloaded from the SCRT web site at http://www.ibm.com/eserver/zseries/swprice/scrt/.