Product Memos

PHOENIX/PREFERENCE Software Compatibility with z/OS on IBM zSeries Processors

October 13, 2008

Dear Customer,

SumTotal’s PHOENIX and PREFERENCE are hardware independent.  Thus, the zSeries processor itself does not involve compatibility issues.  There are, however, software dependencies as discussed below.

It is important to note that PHOENIX and PREFERENCE run in the 24-bit addressing mode (AMODE 24) and 31-bit addressing mode (AMODE 31) of the MVS environment of the 64-bit z/OS operating system.  PHOENIX and PREFERENCE do not currently exploit the 64-bit addressing mode.

Please click here to obtain information on the "fully supported" versions of PHOENIX/PREFERENCE from our Product Release Support Policy page.  If you are running a "fully supported" release of PHOENIX/PREFERENCE, there are no known problems in running on any z/OS release prior to 1.8. 

Starting with z/OS 1.8, support for one-byte console IDs was dropped.  In order to address this situation a minimum of PHOENIX/PREFERENCE Release 7.9.1 with Service Pack 1 is required.  With this Service Pack, PHOENIX and PREFERENCE were enhanced to use the 4-byte console ID or the console name.

As of z/OS 1.9 the PCCA control block can optionally be moved above the 16 Meg line.  If you have the PCCA control block moved above the 16 Meg line, then zaps S791007, S791008 and S791010 must be applied for PHOENIX/PREFERENCE Release 7.9.1 with Service Pack 1 to be compatible with this change. In addition if you disable the allocation of User Key Storage in CSA via "ALLOWUSERKEYCSA(NO)", then zap S791006 must be applied.

The requirements for z/OS 1.10 are the same as described above.  Specifically, a minimum of PHOENIX/PREFERENCE Release 7.9.1 with Service Pack 1 is required.  We also recommend that you apply ZAPs S791006, S791007, S791008 and S791010 for the reasons provided above.

If you are running a more current release of PHOENIX/PREFERENCE, then there are no known problems with running on any current z/OS release.

Thanking you,

Sincerely,

The PHOENIX and PREFERENCE Development Team