z9 Mainframe to Be Installed 01/28/2007

On Monday, January 8 2007, CNS accepted delivery of a new IBM z9 BC mainframe processor, which will replace our current IBM z800 processor.

This new processor will allow us to take advantage of ongoing improvements in both the operating system (z/OS) and major subsystems (such as CICS), and also provide an upgrade path enabling us to add additional capacity in order to keep pace with the ever-increasing needs of the University of Florida for information processing.

The z9 processor will be attached to a new IBM DS8100 storage subsystem which will be configured to include virtual 3390-3 (3GB) volumes. In addition, some volume groups will be configured as 3390-9 (9GB) virtual volumes, providing enhanced capacity for those applications which would benefit from it.

We expect the z9 processor installation to occur during our regular maintenence window the morning of Sunday, January 28. The disk data will be migrated to the DS8100 over the ensuing weeks.

This should be transparent to most users and applications. Customers with data on the BLKnnn volumes (known as the Bulk Pool) will see VOLSER name changes. This should not affect jobs. To prevent problems, the existing volumes will remain in place until the transition is complete and all data has been successfully migrated.

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