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.
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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:
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:
- 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)