Guide Share Europe 2022 – my impressions part 2

This week, I want to continue with my impressions of the Guide Share Europe (#gseconf22 and #gseuk) conference, which took place at Whittlebury Manor on 1, 2, and 3 November. I’ll mainly focus on some more of the sessions that I attended. You can read my previous post here.

Wednesday started with breakfast, which was another opportunity to chat to other attendees. At one stage I was discussing banking with someone from a UK bank and the many ways I felt that banks could improve the service they offer to businesses. For example, because I often get paid in dollars and euros, I would like to have accounts linked to my business account that would simply accept and save those currencies. I could then choose when to convert the payments into sterling. As always, talking to real mainframe users was very illuminating. It also meant that I missed the start of the opening keynote.

I was on time for the “Db2 for z/OS Data Sharing: Configurations and Common Issues”, which was presented by Mark Rader, who is a Db2 for z/OS specialist in the IBM Z Washington Systems Center. Mark started off by explaining that Db2 data sharing and Parallel Sysplex constitute the infrastructure that provides enterprise applications using relational data the highest levels of availability, non-disruptive scalability, and dynamic workload balancing. He looked at the parallel sysplex components and the data sharing concepts. He then drilled down inside the coupling facility to look at lock structure, shared communications areas, and group buffer pools. He then looked at different ways of sharing before moving on to performance issues, availability, and workload balancing. It was a really interesting presentation.

For the next session, I was in the IMS stream watching Tracy Dean, who is an IBM Product Manager responsible for z/VM Tools and IMS Tools, and Ron Bisceglia, who is a Distinguished Engineer and Principal Architect for Rocket Software. Their presentation was called "Customer Experiences Managing the IMS Subsystem". They were both good presenters with a wealth of experience, and it was really interesting to hear about the problems that IMS-using sites have come across (I was going to say, 'got themselves into'!), and how those issues had been resolved using appropriate IMS tools.

After lunch, I was back in the security stream to a presentation about the “IBM Z Cyber Vault” given by Diego Bessone, Global IBM Z Sales Director. I know Dell and Hitachi have similar products, so I was very interested to find out more about IBM’s approach. Basically, what are called ‘safeguarded copies’ of your whole system can be taken every hour (or whatever interval you decide). These copies are stored on air-gapped hardware – an IBM DS8000. At intervals of your choosing, one of those backups is used to IPL a mainframe. This is used to validate the z/OS system, the subsystems and data structures, and the application data. If the backup fails the test, then users can restore from earlier versions. There was some criticism in the room of the approach. For example, the DS8000 isn’t air-gapped if it’s plugged into an infected mainframe. There seemed to be no thought given to onsite procedures like needing someone to be continually booting a mainframe from a backup, or the time it would take to get the right person at a site to give permission to stop all work on the mainframe and start a recovery. There also didn’t seem to be an easy way to find the ‘right’ immutable backup to restore from. I thought it was a great idea, but just needed a bit more work.

I followed up by attending the "What does IBM Z Cyber Vault Mean for an IMS environment?" This was presented by IBM's Tracey Dean. While discussing the Cyber Vault, this was much more practical, for example listing the tools needed to ensure that the IMS data structure was validated, and the tools that were needed for recovery. Tracey also looked at the IMS tools needed for forensic analysis – tools that run in the production environment and produce useful reports about what has happened. Tracey also looked at various recovery scenarios. My one suggestion would be that there is more to recovery than just data recovery. In the event of a breach, bad actors may well have installed back doors and time bombs before encrypting of corrupting data. So, even if all the data – including in-flight tasks – were restored, the hackers could still get in and do the same or worse the next day.

The final afternoon session I attended was "What if You had to Quickly Recover an IMS Database, Could You?", given by Rocket Software's Ron Bisceglia. His was a very practical session, asking questions like whether to recover index data sets or rebuild them. he looked at how to reduce recovery time, MSUs, and human error. He discussed what type of recovery to do, as well as developing a good backup policy. Importantly, he looked at ensuring recovery readiness. he said that recovery needs practice and recovery plans need testing.

I had a meeting, so missed the final keynote. I did go to the drinks session and to the gala dinner. Again, it provided an opportunity to talk to real users, and there were some students on our table, who seemed very enthusiastic about a career in mainframes.

All-in-all, a very interesting day.

The third part of this article will be published next week.

Guide Share Europe 2022 – my impressions part 1

 

The Guide Share Europe (#gseconf22 and #gseuk) conference took place in Whittlebury Manor between 1 and 3 November. And it was brilliant. It was the first in-person conference since 2019 due to Covid and lockdowns etc. And it was great to catch up with old friends and colleagues, and, of course, meet lots of new interesting people who have their own views and opinions on all things to do with mainframes. I also came away with some new T-shirts, pens, and other goodies given away by the various exhibitors there.

In many ways, the most important thing about the GSE conference is that you get to hear the latest thinking in mainframe environments. The number of sessions, including keynotes and lunch & learns must have been in the high hundreds – I estimated 180, but there could well have been more. These were usually divided into streams. Because I am starting the Virtual Db2 user group, I did spend some time in that stream. And because I was speaking in the security stream, I spent some time there. I also look after the Virtual IMS and Virtual CICS user groups, so that was two more streams I needed to visit. And there were some other sessions that caught my attention. I wonder whether the sessions should be recorded so you can catch the sessions you’re forced to miss because of timetable clashes?

The other noticeable thing about the GSE conference is just how friendly everyone is. There are plenty of older mainframers there, as you would expect, but also there were a decent number of younger people there – students, trainees, apprentices, and younger staff. The more experienced mainframers didn’t seem to be planning their retirements yet. However, it can only be a matter of time. Those youngsters will soon be taking on some quite serious responsibilities – and the salaries that go with that responsibility. It’s certainly a better career choice for them than trying to get promoted as a programmer at a games company!

Because of a road traffic accident in Oxford, I was delayed for a long time getting to Whittelbury Manor, so I missed the opening and first keynote. However, I was there in time to see Haakon Roberts talking about "Db2 Version 13 for z/OS: Technical Overview". It was an interesting presentation talking about the number of updates available as PTFs for Version 12 that were now included in V13, plus more. He also looked at what was needed to migrate to V13. A thorough and nicely presented session.

After that, I went to the security stream to see Mark Wilson discuss “Cyber Resiliency - What Does it Actually Mean and How Can I Obtain It?”. Mark has many years of experience working with security, and is GSE UK Region Manager. In an entertaining and interesting talk, Mark managed to engage with most of the audience, who he seemed to be on first name terms with. There were lots of things to think about after the session. Mark had stepped in to give a presentation because the speaker originally timetabled was ill.

After lunch, I was speaking to the security stream about “Ransomware, gaps in SMF records, and detection options”. There were around 30 people in the room, who additionally got to eat the food left by the lunch & learn group that had been using the room at lunch time! I highlighted that SMF wasn’t quite as good as most people imagined. I pointed out the importance of catching a breach in the early stages – long before databases became corrupted – saying that the first thing hackers do is change your infrastructure (parmlib members, system files, even application files). So, if you don’t stop them then (as they install backdoors and time bombs), your restore process has to go back to before the attack started, otherwise the bad actors can let you restore and just attack again! I stressed the need for the software to know which were good backups and to be able to create jobs to restore for you. And how integrity monitoring (IM) software can help.

After a short break, I attended “Finding your way around IMS”, which was presented by Anders Ohrnberg, a user from SEB in Sweden. This was intended as training for people new to IMS and looked at the importance of naming conventions and how it can be done.

After that, I went to see MainTegrity’s Al Saurette present to the Application Development group. His talk was called “DevSecOps – Preventing Supply Chain Attacks while securing your DevOps process”. He used the well-known Solar Winds hack as an example of what could happen, and focused on the best ways to ensure that what was tested and approved, actually got deployed correctly and that it remains in its trusted state.

I was in a meeting, so missed the evening keynotes. Dinner that followed was a buffet, but was again an opportunity to talk to new people and get a better insight into how IT was being used and what problems mainframers were putting at the top of their priority list.

The second part of this article will be published next week.

Welcome to the Virtual Db2 user group

Joining the popular Virtual IMS user group and the Virtual CICS user group, we now welcome the Virtual Db2 user group. Like the other two user groups, it will meet online only – so there’s no need to leave your desk (or kitchen table, depending on where you work) to attend a meeting. There will be six meetings a year, each with a mainframe Db2 professional presenting on a topic that will be of interest to other mainframe Db2 professionals. Best of all, the user group is free to its members, and you can join by going to https://itech-ed.com/virtualdb2/register.htm.

 

The Virtual IMS user group launched in 2007, and the Virtual CICS user group launched in 2011. Just to give you a flavour of the topics that have been presented in the past few months, for IMS there have been:

• Provision your databases in modern ways
• What's New with IMS Performance Solution Pack
•  Ansible and IMS: Part II – Getting started with the Ansible IMS collection
•  How to use IMS log records to investigate transaction response time
• IMS as a client in the new world
• Ansible and IMS: Automate IMS with Red Hat Ansible Certified Content for IBM Z.

Topics presented recently to the Virtual CICS user group have been:

• Using Analytics and AI to Find and Fix Inefficient Patterns in CICS Integration
• CICS DevOps with Ansible
• CICS Web services – bridging two worlds
• How Zowe makes the mainframe open, simple, and familiar
• Taking the pain out of CICS application debugging
• Debugging CICS Storage Violations using IPCS.

The first meeting of the Virtual Db2 user group is on 17 January 2023 at 10:30am Central Standard Time. The title of the presentation is “Understanding Your Rolling 4 Hour Average to Tune Db2 and Lower Mainframe Costs”, and the speaker is Craig S Mullins, President & Principal Consultant at Mullins Consulting Inc.

Craig focuses on data management strategy and Db2 consulting. He has been named by IBM as a Db2 Gold Consultant and an IBM Champion for Data and AI. He writes the monthly DBA Corner column for Database Trends & Applications magazine. Craig has over three decades of experience in all facets of database systems development and has worked with DB2 for z/OS since V1. You may know Craig from his popular books:

• DB2 Developer's Guide, 6th edition
• A Guide to Db2 Performance for Application Developers
• Database Administration: The Complete Guide to DBA Practices and Procedures, 2nd edition.

And we have great speakers lined up for the meetings on 21 March and 23 May.

In the months when there is no meeting, a group newsletter is sent out to members. This keeps members up to date with the latest product news, and there are also links to the latest relevant articles and blogs.

In addition to the website keeping you informed about meeting dates and presentations, it also has links to recent blogs and articles, plus there are links to recent product announcements. As well as the website at https://itech-ed.com/virtualdb2, there’s a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/virtualdb2/; a Twitter feed you can follow at https://twitter.com/VirtualDb2; and a LinkedIn group at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12717787/,

All meetings are on Zoom, which, since the start of the pandemic has become very familiar to most people, making it an obvious choice to use because not only does it work well, but speakers and attendees are very familiar with using it. The registration link for the first presentation is on the user group website. All meetings are recorded, and a link to each recording as it becomes available on YouTube will be placed on the user group website.

Of course, the only way that user groups like the Virtual IMS, CICS, and now Db2 can be free to their respective user communities is because they are sponsored by vendors who understand the importance supporting the user community and keeping them up to date with the latest information surrounding their area of expertise. We are very grateful to our sponsors and thank them for their support. If any other vendors would be interested in sponsorship, then please contact me (trevor@itech-ed.com).

So, if you work with Db2 for z/OS, and you would like access to free training six times a year, please join our new user group. The Virtual Db2 user group can be found at https://itech-ed.com/virtualdb2/, and the registration page to join the user group can be found at https://itech-ed.com/virtualdb2/register.htm. I look forward to ‘seeing’ you at our first user group meeting in January.

Guide Share Europe Annual Conference 2022

If you work on mainframes and you live in the UK or western Europe, you won’t want to miss out on the UK’s premier mainframe conference and exhibition. It is, of course, The Guide Share Europe (GSE) UK Annual Conference. And it is taking place on 1-3 November at its regular home in Whittlebury Hall, Whittlebury, Near Towcester, Northamptonshire NN12 8QH, UK. This conference is going back to face-to-face meetings (plus the opportunity to catch up – and argue – with other mainframers in the bar in the evening). And this year’s strapline is “Mainframes are MAD – Modern, Adaptable, Diverse”.

This year, the Platinum Sponsors are BMC, Broadcom, and Vanguard Integrity Professionals. The Gold Sponsors are Enterprise Performance Strategies, Rocket Software, and Vertali. The Silver Sponsors are Beta Systems, CCA Software, DataKinetics, Ensono, IBA Group, MainTegrity, Micro Focus, SMT Data, Trident Services, and Velocity Software. This year’s exhibitors are Action Software, ColeSoft, Fitz Software, Interskill, Macro4, Planet Mainframe, TSG, and </mooody cow>.

Following a “Conference Opening” speech from GSE’s Mark Wilson in the Bentleys room at 9am on the Tuesday, there’s a keynote session entitled “40 years on – Looking back and looking forwards” from John Siddall, Director of Shared Technology Platforms and Service Delivery at Nationwide Building Society.

For the rest of Tuesday, there are then 16 streams, most with five sessions. The day ends with two keynotes.  Steve Wallin, Director of the CICS Portfolio at IBM UK’s presentation is entitled, “The future is bright – the future is mainframe”. He’ll share where IBM is going with mainframe software and hardware, how security and AI are an inclusive part of your hybrid journey, and introduce new to Z employees to share their experiences. Following that, IBM’s Lewis James’ presentation is entitled “Why at 18 I chose a career on a supposedly legacy platform, and it was the best decision I ever made”.

Wednesday starts with a keynote presentation from Greg Lotko, SVP and General Manager for Broadcom’s Mainframe Software Division. His presentation is entitled, “Plug into the Future of Infrastructure”, and looks at how an open mainframe plugs into REST interfaces to speed development, AI, and machine learning for automated remediation and a Zero Trust environment for protection from threats.

That’s followed by 16 streams with five sessions in each. The day ends with a keynote presentation from Glenn Anderson of GlennAndersonSpeaks. His presentation is entitled, “Energize Your Team’s Performance – Think Like an Improv Actor”. And that’s followed by the conference dinner.

Thursday starts with two keynote sessions. The first is from Mark Nelson, Senior Software Engineer with IBM’s z/OS Security Server Design and Development Team. His presentation is called, “Birds of a Feather – Resiliency is not an Accident”, and examines a very well-known non-IT incident that demonstrates several key factors in ‘being resilient’ and discusses how these can be a part of our systems and our careers.

That’s followed by a keynote from John McKenny, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Intelligent Z Optimization and Transformation (IZOT) for BMC Software. His keynote talk is entitled, “When Change is the Only Constant, Make It Your Advantage”, and, he says that being nimble in the face of change is a business imperative, and so is having a transformation plan that’s modern, adaptable, and diverse.

This is followed by the usual 16 streams with four sessions in each. The day ends with prize draws and the best speaker awards.

If you want to know what the session streams are available across the three days, they are: 101, 102, Application Development, CICS, DB2, IMS, Large Systems Working Group (LSWG), Mainframe Skills & Learning, MQ, Network Management Working Group (NNWG), New Technologies, Security Working Group, Storage, System Management, Women in IT, zP&C, and zVM & Linux on Z. There are currently over 180 sessions.

There are also a variety of lunch and learn sessions across the three days.

You can find out more details about the conference at https://conferences.gse.org.uk/2022/. And, if you’re on social media, the hashtags are #gseconf22 and #gseuk.

And if you’re still debating whether to go, let me recommend it to you. The quality of presentations is always excellent. And the networking opportunities are brilliant. There’s usually 500 or more people there. It would be a shame for you to miss it.

As a final incentive, you may be interested in a session at 2pm on the Tuesday. It’s called “Ransomware, gaps in SMF records, and detection options”, and it will be presented by me in the Melbourne room.