General recommendations and considerations for a zEC12 or zBC12 server

As you plan your migration to a zEnterprise® server, consider the following:

  1. Relatively few migration actions are new when coming from a z196 or z114 server. Migration to an IBM zEnterprise EC12 or zEnterprise BC12 server has, as its base, a migration to the z196 or z114 servers. This means that if you are migrating to a zEnterprise server from a z196 or z114 server, and have performed the migration actions associated with the z196 or z114, 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 zEC12 or zBC12 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 and z114 server migration actions, see Migrate to an IBM zEnterprise z196 or z114 server.
  2. Support is delivered by service, z/OS features, and web deliverables. The base support for an zEC12 or zBC12 server is delivered by service (PTFs).
    • The PSP bucket that contains the required list of PTFs for zBC12 is: Upgrade 2828DEVICE, Subset 2828/ZOS and is identified by the following SMP/E Fix Category IBM.Device.Server.zBC12-2828.
    • The PSP bucket that contains the required list of PTFs for zEC12 is: Upgrade 2827DEVICE, Subset 2827/ZOS
    and is identified by the following SMP/E Fix Category IBM.Device.Server.zEC12-2827.

    For Flash Express® support (including dynamic reconfiguration support and optional PLPA/COMMON page data set support), pageable 1 MB Large Page support, and 2 GB Large Page Support, a separate web deliverable for z/OS V1R13 (the z/OS V1R13 RSM Enablement Offering web deliverable) is required. (See "Decide on the steps you will take for your migration to a zEC12 or zBC12 server" in Actions you can take before you order a zEC12 or zBC12 server for further information.)

  3. Larger coupling facility structure sizes might be necessary. When you change coupling facility control code (CFCC) levels, your coupling facility structure sizes might change. zEC12 servers that are ordered before September 2013 initially ship with CFCC level 18, zEC12 or zBC12 models ordered after September 2013 initially ship with CFCC level 19. If, as part of your migration to a zEC12 or zBC12 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. CFLEVEL 19 introduces support for storage-class (flash) memory in the CF and Coupling thin interrupt support. CF structures that exploit SCM may require significantly more CF real storage than they did before storage class memory exploitation.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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/.
Parent topic: Migrate to an IBM zEnterprise EC12 or IBM zEnterprise BC12 server