CARS2308 is now available

[Dawn Damore]

Broadcom Mainframe Division is pleased to announce the availability of the CARS2308 level for z/OS. CARS2308 contains all fixes that have been published through July 31, 2023.   

[Diego Bordon]

Hi Dawn

Is this CARS2308 a list of fixes described on a CSV file?, or it is an element to be retrieve by the SMPE product?  Sorry if my question is too basic.  Diego.

[Dawn Damore]

Hi Diego
I like your question.  It tells me that we need to make customers aware of our best practices when it comes to maintenance.  

Broadcom recommends that customers install our Recommended Service for z/OS (aka CARS) on a regular cadence.  Using this strategy, will help reduce risks of encountering critical problems which result in a more stable system.      

On a monthly basis, we provide a file that contains SMP/E ASSIGN statements for PTFs that are recommended by Broadcom.  It is a TXT file that can be downloaded and received in your CSI.   Then SMP/E can apply maintenance using the SOURCEIDs.   To find a quick list of PTFs that have been recommended, I would suggest you take a look at this page and search on CARSID.  

To find out more details about Recommended Service, please review this link.  Also, I would be happy to meet if you want to discuss tools and best practices to help you manage your broadcom software.  

thanks

Dawn Damore

[ERIC Foecking]

Dawn,

    I very much appreciate the effort Broadcom is taking to make it clearer when maintenance is available and how it can be processed.  That said, I am working from a slightly different angle I hope you can help address.  I am a product admin for several Broadcom products but our mainframe maintenance and installation has been outsourced.  As such, I do not have access to the SMP/e environments to check, review or run reports on the FMIDs of products I support.  While I review CARS data from the posted site, it means I have to wade through over 100 products in our portfolio to review the 5 or 6 I support.  I would like to know, or have developed/enabled, a process that would allow me to run some kind of batch/scripted process to pull only the FMIDs I currently support.  This would include any HOLD or ACTION requirements for the included maintenance.  

     I DO subscribe to critical update notifications but regular maintenance is never considered critical.

Thanks,

------------------------------
Eric
[Company]
------------------------------

[Dawn Damore]

HI Eric

I am glad to hear that customers have a need for the CARS reports especially if you are a Product Admin that has no access to a SMP/E CSI.   I would agree that the reports are tedious and time consuming to review.    Therefore, I would be very interested in having a meeting with you so we can discuss your automation requirements.    Please send me an email so I set up a call. 

Also, one option would might be useful today is the Solution List page which is a single page that you can search by product and CARS level.    There is also an option to extract the data to a CSV file.

We have a new HOLDDATA utility which will extract the HOLDDATA and remove duplicates before the APPLY.   This requires READ access to the SMP/E CSI so this is not a good option for you.  

Thanks

Dawn  Damore 

[Steve Blackett]

Dawn,

I have a similar issue of understanding the PTF's. I do appreciate there is a fixes vs features column now. The original documentation points at PTF's for the features but often these have been then fixed or had an upgraded feature release, so keeping track is complex.

The solution list does not let me save a product name/release and brings up the entire Broadcom product list each time so it's a time intensive task. I need a better way.

CARS level to me does not mean stability, it means a simpler pack to download (a task I'm not allowed to perform). So I am picking PTF's on a best guess scenario which is not good.

If the meeting hasn't happened yet, can you add me, otherwise can you share the answers (either here or privately)?

   

Steve

------------------------------
Mainframe DevOps
HSBC
United Kingdom
------------------------------