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Hello! We, the members of the
System z Platform Evaluation Test Team for z/OS and Linux Virtual Servers, welcome you to our Web site!
Many of us have been members of this team since its inception in 1995,
when we were known simply as Platform Evaluation Test, or PET.
From the outset,
our primary focus has been to run a data sharing Parallel
Sysplex on the System z platform in as much of a customer-like fashion as
possible. We explain all about how we are "customer wanna-be's" on our
mission
page.
As the operating system platform has evolved over the years, from MVS/ESA to
OS/390 to z/OS, our mission has also expanded and, as a result, we have developed
somewhat of a dual personality.
We continue our focus on Parallel Sysplex functionality and data sharing, and we also
focus on many other elements and features of z/OS, some of which are not
necessarily sysplex-oriented. This, coupled with our attempts to
be both a customer and a test organization at the same time, provides us
with just that extra bit of challenge that we need! But we figure
that only helps us to understand how challenging it is for you, our
customers, to run multiple hardware and software products and make
them all work together--and that's an understatement.
Our team has grown tremendously over the years. We started out with
only 12 team members and now we have 30 and growing!
We also added Linux to the mix. As we began
testing the entire suite of operating system elements and features along
with our Parallel Sysplex responsibilities, we realized we had to divide
into subteams. Our overall team now consists of the following subteams:
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The base operating system
(OS) team is responsible for testing the z/OS system-related
elements, features, and functions, which include ARM, DFSMS, EREP,
HCD, JES2 and JES3, MVS (also known as the Base Control Program or BCP),
RMF, SDSF, TSO/E, and z/OS UNIX System Services and file systems (HFS and zFS).
The base OS team is also responsible for:
- System automation, using IBM Tivoli NetView for z/OS and IBM Tivoli System Automation for z/OS
- Performance monitoring and tuning
- Storage management
- Using Health Checker to tune our systems with IBM recommendations
- Executing recovery scenarios, which include CPC failures,
coupling facility failures, coupling facility structure failures,
coupling facility link failures, and subsystem failures, all while continuing to run
our workloads.
The base OS team also includes the testing of z/OS networking elements with other z/OS
elements. The z/OS elements and applications, such as MQSeries, WebSphere Application Server,
NFS, and z/OS Communications Server, are driven by workloads running on various platforms,
including AIX, Sun, HP, Linux, z/OS, and various flavors of Microsoft Windows. The hardware
from which the workloads run includes System z processors, Intel, Sun, and HP workstations, and
POWER workstations, through switches and routers from Cisco and Extreme Networking.
We currently run FastEthernet, Gigabit, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks, using the OSA-Express
feature. This combination of of hardware and software provides us with a robust environment in
which to exercise the z/OS platform.
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The Middleware team supports the following products that are not elements or features of z/OS
but that run on the z/OS platform: CICS, DB2, IMS, IRLM, MQ, RLS, and WebSphere Application Server.
These products drive our mission-critical online transaction processing (OLTP) workloads,
which are all Parallel Sysplex data sharing workloads.
The responsibilities of the Middleware team include:
- Migrating to new releases of each product
- Implementing new function, which is either dependent on a new z/OS function or which will
enhance the integration test environment
- Working with the base operating system team to verify the recoverability of the products
in the z/OS environment
- Regularly upgrading service with preventive maintenance
- Fixing problems and reporting problems to IBM Service for the affected product
- Providing product support for other integration test teams
- Filling the roles of support programmers and administrators
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The Security team focuses on the security-related elements and features of z/OS, which include:
- Cryptographic Services
- Integrated Cryptographic Service Facility (ICSF)
- PKI Services
- System SSL
- Security Server
- Enterprise Identity Mapping (EIM)
- Network Authentication Service (Kerberos)
- RACF
- Tivoli Directory Server for z/OS (LDAP)
The team also focuses on other security-related products on the System z platform, such as:
- Encryption Key Manager (EKM)
- Encryption Facility
- Tivoli Federated Identity Manager (TFIM)
- Tivoli Access Manager (TAM)
For interoperability testing, the Security team also focuses on security-related products on
non-System z platforms. These products include LDAP and Kerberos. The operating systems on which
these products run include AIX, Linux, and Microsoft Windows, although not all of the products run on
every operating system.
The responsibilities of the Security team include:
- System programming and product support for all of the security products
- Acting as security administrators for the zPET organization
- Building and maintaining expertise for the security products
- Exploiting the security products with other products, such as HTTP with System SSL
- Collaborating with the other test teams to exploit the security products, such as FTP with Kerberos
authentication
- Maintaining awareness of the latest security products and solutions
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The Testware team is responsible for the strategy, design, and development of applications that drive
our z/OS base and middleware software. This team consists of software architects, designers, developers,
and application programmers working together to create, deploy, and maintain our mission-critical OLTP and
exploit emerging technologies.
The mission of the Testware team is to:
- Focus on key customer, System z, and Integration Test business drivers using defined strategy
methodologies.
- Develop a resilient business application infrastructure which provides a security-rich, agile,
available, and recoverable environment that can handle planned and unplanned events.
- Continue to push higher volumes of transactions through our applications.
- Move our application suite from monolithic to composite applications using an SOA framework
and development model.
- Standardize and streamline the application portfolio by eleminating redundancy.
- Reduce the cost of ownership to the business through efficient maintenance and operation of
legacy applications.
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The primary responsibility
of the Linux team is to
emulate leading-edge customer environments, workloads, and activities.
This includes cloning Linux images on z/VM and
establishing security in a heterogeneous Linux server environment
In addition to the z/OS
elements, the Linux team uses the following software in their
day-to-day operations: z/VM, Linux on System z, WebSphere Application Server,
WebSphere Application Sever Network Deployment (including Edge Components), Tivoli Access Manager for e-business (TAM),
TAM WebSEAL, Tivoli Risk Manager, TrendMicro ScanMail, TrendMicro ServerProtect, iptables,
z/OS LDAP and z/OS RACF, DB2, Apache plus System z hardware cryptographic acceleration,
and various other open source security products.
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