z13

In January 2015 IBM announced the new version of the mainframe called z13.  As of March 9th 2015 the successor of the zEC12 is officially available.

z13 glas model – photo Michael Storzer

This machine has many new features that I will cover in separate blog posts. The full advantages from all of them will become available with more and more exploitation and adaptions during the next year.

From a Linux perspective the IBM tested platforms has been updated to include z13.
Please check the minimum and recommended kernel levels to ensure a smooth upgrade to z13!

Also Red Hat and SUSE updated their web sites to include the certifications:

• Red Hat certifications: RHEL 5.11, RHEL 6.6, RHEL 7
• SUSE certifications: SLES 11.3, SLES 12

From a z/VM perspective only z/VM 6.2 and z/VM 6.3 is being supported. But you need to install the required service before updating the hardware! Exploitation will only come with z/VM 6.3, so please plan for upgrades! And there is no z/VM 5.4 support any more. 

Warning: Unsupported Linux releases and/or missing
z/VM service may lead to virtual server failures.

Other useful links:

• IBM z13 Technical Introduction
• IBM z13 Technical Guide
• IBM z13 Configuration Setup
• z13 specifications
• Exception Letters on resource link (IBM login required)
• Updated z/Architecture Principles of Operations 
• SHARE Seattle conference presentations: 
• The New IBM z13 part 1 
• The New IBM z13 part 2
• technical article on hardware differentiation from Craig Walters and David Hutton  
• Common Criteria Certification at EAL5+ level for LPAR(GA1 version)
• Common Criteria Certification at EAL5+ level for LPAR(GA2 version)

For the z13s and z13 GA2 announcements, please refer to this link.  

(updated 02/17/2016)