Gen 8.6 Certification plans for 2024

[Kim Peelman]

This is a forward-looking statement. This is subject to change at any time without notice.  The development, release, and timing remain at Broadcom's sole discretion.

I'm pleased to share our certification plans for 2024. I will update this thread if changes occur. 

1. Certify WebSphere Liberty - Phase 1

   1. This will be certified in phases, first for distributed systems and then for z/OS.

   2. Includes Open Liberty. (see comment February 21, 2024)
   3. Excludes EJB RMI Coop flow with remote interfaces. (see comment June 17, 2024)

2. Certify relevant application servers on Open JDK 17, Java 17, and Java 21. 

   1. This will also be done in phases, starting with Liberty.

3. Certify Tuxedo 22c, server and client platforms. - DONE

4. Certify JakartaEE 10. (see comment June 17, 2024)

 

• We will continue our practice of certifying additional IBM software as it becomes available. 

Your feedback helps determine our priorities, so let us know how this news affects you. If you have any questions, feel free to reply to this discussion thread or email me at [e-mail]. 

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Kim Peelman
[e-mail]
Product Owner, Gen
Broadcom
Plano, TX
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[Mike Conway]

Will open liberty be supported?

[Kim Peelman]

@Mike Conway, yes we intend to support Open Liberty. That could change if we find an unreasonable hurdle during certification. 

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Kim Peelman
[e-mail]
Product Owner, Gen
Broadcom
Plano, TX
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[Kim Peelman]

I have an update regarding the certification of Liberty. This is a forward-looking statement. This is subject to change at any time without notice.  The development, release, and timing remain at Broadcom's sole discretion. 

Certification has taken longer than expected because Liberty is structured differently than traditional WebSphere. In fact, all application servers are evolving, with breaking changes that require thoughtful decisions in what we can support long term. Foundational to this is Jakarta EE.  

Thus, we are adding JakartaEE 10 to our certification plans for 2024.

Additionally, Liberty certification will be addressed in phases.

Liberty certification - Phase 1, will support the following use cases:

• ü   All clients using the Web Services Coop flow
• ü        Web generation and Web View using the EJB RMI Coop flow with local interface(only)

Out of scope for Phase 1 is EJB RMI Coop flow with remote interfaces.

• Java no longer includes the RMI compiler (RMIc.exe).
• IBM will no longer support RMI past Java 8.

We will continue to assess alternative options.

Note: Gen support for JBOSS EAP excluded Converter Services(CFB Server, C to java RMI Coop Flow), and this will remain unsupported with Liberty.

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Kim Peelman
[e-mail]
Product Owner, Gen
Broadcom
Plano, TX
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[Kim Peelman]

In an effort to be transparent, I want to update you regarding the certification of Tuxedo 22c. 

Testing revealed that Tuxedo 22c on Linux works seamlessly with no code changes needed. However, Tuxedo 22c on AIX has a dependency on IBM OpenXL compiler that we will need to upgrade and test first. I will update this thread when we complete the remaining Tuxedo 22c certification test cases. 

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Kim Peelman
[e-mail]
Product Owner, Gen
Broadcom
Plano, TX
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[Kim Peelman]

I am proud to share that Gen offers Day 1 support for IBM's CICS® Transaction Server for z/OS®, Version 6 Release 2. The compatibility matrix is available here: https://ftpdocs.broadcom.com/WebInterface/phpdocs/0/MSPSaccount/COMPAT/cics_compat.HTML 

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Kim Peelman
[e-mail]
Product Owner, Gen
Broadcom
Plano, TX
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[Kim Peelman]

I'm pleased to share that we have certified IBM Open XL C/C++ for AIX, V17.1. This was a dependency for completing the certification of Tuxedo 22c.

• Since this certification results in Gen 8.6 supporting a second compiler on AIX, we updated the User Exits build scripts. All platforms have updated User Exit build scripts. Learn more in this knowledge article (372300): https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article?articleId=372300
• See PTFs for "OpenXLC Support" and "User Exit Script Rewrite": Gen 8.6 Solutions & Patches (distributed)
  • BTN86309/LU14077
  • RTR86313/LU13732
  • RTI86310/LU13978
  • RTX86315/LU13977
  • RTL86313/LU13979
• Here is the current list of supported 3rd party software: https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/ca-mainframe-software/devops/ca-gen/8-6/technical-requirements/third-party-software-version.html

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Kim Peelman
[e-mail]
Product Owner, Gen
Broadcom
Plano, TX
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[Kim Peelman]

I am pleased to share that we have certified Tuxedo 22. 

• We have updated our list of supported third-party software for Gen 8.6. 
• Support for Tuxedo 22 on AIX relies on the OpenXLC compiler and therefore requires the following PTFs: BTN86309 and RTR86314.
• You may find these knowledge articles helpful:
  • Gen Solaris/Tuxedo using tmloadrepose gives keyword warnings (377386)
  • Gen Solaris/Tuxedo relocation error for symbol kstat_open not found (377392)

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Kim Peelman
[e-mail]
Product Owner, Gen
Broadcom
Plano, TX
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[Zach Conine]

I am pleased to announce that we have certified MS SQL Server 2022.

Updates to our list of supported third-party software for Gen 8.6 can be found here.

No PTF is required for MS SQL Server 2022 compatibility.

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Zach Conine
[e-mail]
Product Owner, Gen
Broadcom
Plano, TX
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[Douglas Seaver]

Good morning!
I assume you will be covering 2025 Certification Plans at next week's Roadmap.  However, I may not be able to attend due to another meeting conflict.  I am especially interested in (right now) since we are also attempting to follow along with the Alpha testing with VS Code.  Also, I would like to try and align our Java/JDK support for Gen with our own internal software standards/levels (as much as possible).  Since we [currently] only use the JDK for delivering Java proxies to our web development team, we sometimes are "forgotten about" and left behind when other groups are receiving updated versions (internally).

1. Certify relevant application servers on Open JDK 17, Java 17, and Java 21. 

   1. This will also be done in phases, starting with Liberty.

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Doug Seaver
Systems Development Services Specialist
Gen Tool Support
WisDOT
Madison, WI, USA
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[Kim Peelman]

Doug, good question! Here is how things are unfolding... We are testing Gen applications with Liberty, also running on Open JDK 17, Java 17, and Java 21. To simplify, in a separate effort will certify building with Open JDK 17, Java 17, and Java 21. 

This sprint we are assessing the backlog of certification work. We hope to publish that update this month, here in the community. Thanks for letting us know this is important to you; you influence our priorities. 

Note: we drop support for older versions of 3rd party software in alignment with the vendor's service dates. This SUPPORT POLICY explains it best. 

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Kim Peelman
[e-mail]
Product Owner, Gen
Broadcom
Plano, TX
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[Zach Conine]

I'm happy to announce we have completed our phase 1 effort for certification with Liberty.

For more information please see the main announcement thread here: https://community.broadcom.com/discussion/now-available-support-for-liberty-phase-1

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Zach Conine
[e-mail]
Product Owner, Gen
Broadcom
Plano, TX
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