About z/VSE

z/VSE is built on a heritage of ongoing refinement and innovation that spans more than four decades. It is designed to protect and leverage customer investments in z/VSE information assets. It brings the value of innovative IBM z Systems and IBM Storage technology to z/VSE clients.

Latest release: z/VSE Version 5.2 - Overview

z/VSE V5.2 is the newest release of z/VSE and is intended to be the base for future z/VSE enhancements.

This ongoing evolution of z/VSE, together with z/VSE's support of the newest IBM z Systems and IBM Storage technology, is designed to help clients protect their investments in z/VSE, grow their workloads, or consolidate their systems. It demonstrates again IBM's commitment to z/VSE clients.

With the exploitation of z/VSE's 64-bit virtual support, z/VSE V5.2 builds upon the capabilities that were introduced with z/VSE V4 (z/Architecture mode, 64-bit real addressing, more tasks, virtual storage constraint relief) and continued with z/VSE V5.1 (64-bit virtual addressing).

z/VSE V5.2 continues the focus on ease of use, scalability, networking, security, and connectivity between z/VSE and Linux on z Systems.

Enhancements for z/VSE V5.2 include:

Support for innovative IBM zEnterprise EC12 and IBM zEnterprise BC12 technology
- Configurable Crypto Express4S feature
- OSA-Express5S features
Support for enhanced IBM System Storage options
- Systems Managed Encryption with IBM System Storage TS1140
- IBM System Storage TS7700 Virtualization Engine Release 3.1
- IBM System Storage DS8870 Release 7.2 (ECKD and FCP-attached SCSI disks)
- Upgrade of the z/VSE support for the Parallel Access Volume (PAV) feature
- Ability to use FCP-attached SCSI disks with:
  - IBM Storwize V5000 Midrange Disk
  - IBM Storwize V3700 Entry Disk
- Virtual disk in 64-bit virtual storage:
  z/VSE V5.2 is designed to transparently create a virtual disk (VDISK) in 64-bit virtual storage. This overcomes the 2 GB limitation when creating a VDISK in a data space. It may help clients who want to keep more data in memory to benefit from the increased processor storage and processor speed available with the latest IBM zEnterprise servers.
Networking, security, and connector enhancements
- IPv6 support added to selected z/VSE components
- "Enhanced" CICS Listener support
- Further Basic Security Manager (BSM) and Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) functions
- Integration of OpenSSL release 1.0.le
- Literal encoding style for z/VSE web services
Ease of use functionality
- Tapeless initial installation:
  Clients who use a tape for initial installation only, may no longer be forced to include a physical tape device into the z/VSE configuration. z/VSE V5.2 is designed to create an installation disk from a z/VSE DVD image or Internet delivery and then perform initial installation using this installation disk. z/VSE V5.2 fulfills the statement of direction in Software Announcement 213-090, dated April 02, 2013.
- Stacking tape support:
  Stacking tape support may ease the migration of "older" tapes. It exploits the capacity of tape volumes such as TS1140 and thus may reduce costs.

z/VSE V5 supports IBM z Systems:

IBM z13
IBM zEnterprise EC12 (zEC12)
IBM zEnterprise BC12 (zBC12)
IBM zEnterprise 196 (z196)
IBM zEnterprise 114 (z114)
IBM System z10 Enterprise Class (z10 EC) and IBM System z10 Business Class (z10 BC)
IBM System z9 Enterprise Class (z9 EC) and IBM System z9 Business Class (z9 BC)

z/VSE Version 5 executes in z/Architecture mode only. z/VSE Version 5 can run in logical partition (LPAR) mode, or as a guest in any supported z/VM release. z/VSE V5.2 is the preferred follow-on VSE product for clients with z/VSE V5.1, z/VSE V4, z/VSE V3, or VSE/ESA installed. Clients may choose to use the Fast Service Upgrade (FSU) process when migrating from z/VSE V4.3 or z/VSE V5.1.

z/VSE V5.2 offers Midrange Workload License Charge (MWLC) pricing metrics, including a subcapacity option, for zEnterprise EC12, zEnterprise 196, System z10, and System z9 servers. IBM offers Advanced Entry Workload License Charge (AEWLC) pricing metrics, including a subcapacity option, for the zBC12 and z114 servers. The entry models (capacity setting A01) of the zBC12, z114, z10 BC, and z9 BC will be priced using zSeries Entry Charge (zELC) for their IBM monthly license charge software.

z/VSE V5.2 is generally available since April 25, 2014.

z/VSE Components

The z/VSE base package consist of the following components and products:

z/VSE Products

There are several products available for z/VSE:

Complete list of z/VSE optional products

Contact IBM

Email z/VSE
Find a Business Partner
Call IBM: 1-866-261-30231-866-261-3023
Priority code: z Systems

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May 11-15, 2014, Las Vegas, NV, USA

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