Skip to main content

IBM Systems  >   System z  >   z/VM  >  

VM Service Tips

Updated: 03 September 2009

  • Preventive Service Planning (PSP) Buckets Search allows you to display PSP bucket Upgrade and Subsets. Under 'Other search criteria' enter in the upgrade name in Upgrade Name field. And if you know the subset you want to look at enter that in the Subset Name field.

    Of interest:

    • In order to see if there are any z/VM installation problems you can display the contents of the ZVMvrm, where vrm is the version, release and modification level of the z/VM you are installing, Upgrade, the CP subset and then look in the Installation Information section.
    • You can view service recommendations in the yynnRSU subsets.

  • When ordering service (PTFs) for multiple components in one order you need to specify the lowest RSU level from those components. Or you can create separate orders for each component and specify its RSU level on the order.

    You can use the following command to find out the RSU level of a component. compname can be ALL and that will display the RSU level of all components defined in the VM SYSSUF inventory table.

    SERVICE compname STATUS

    You can also specify an APAR or PTF number after STATUS to find out if it is applied or not. Note that due to the nature of RSU builds if an APAR/PTF is on an RSU that you installed then its possible that its APPLIED date will be before its RECEIVED date.

  • How to handle a missing PTF requisite during SERVICE processing.

    If SERVICE fails due to a missing PTF requisite you need to do the following to recover and restart SERVICE. The commands that follow are an example if you are applying service that you received electronically as a servlink envelope file. If using tape you would not use ENV on the VMFREC command and you would have to enter in the SERVICE RESTART command that appeared on the VMF2310W message from the original SERVICE failure.

    • Order the missing requisites
    • Issue the following commands from MAINT to receive the missing requisite PTFs you ordered. You will have to supply the compname for those PTFs. If you have more than one component in your missing requisite order you will have to repeat the following commands for each component.
      • VMFSETUP SERVP2P compname (LINK
      • VMFREC PPF SERVP2P compname ( ENV reqenvfilename
    • Now you should be able to restart the original SERVICE that failed.
      • SERVICE RESTART orgenvfilename

  • PUT2PROD TCP/IP LOADBFS processing errors

    If you are seeing errors during PUT2PROD TCP/IP LOADBFS processing refer to the TCP/IP for z/VM Service and Hints LOADBFS page.

  • How to recover the default segment spool files (NSS and DCSS)

    You can rebuild all the default segment spool files by doing the following:

    1. Do the 'Rebuild the Saved Segments' steps in 'Step 12.Place the Components into Production' in the Service Guide. You can use the VMFBLD LIST SEGBLD ESASEGS ZVMSEGS BLDDATA (ALL command to rebuild all of the CMS and LE segments, instead of typing in all of the individual VMFBLD commands for each segment. If you want to type in all of the individual VMFBLD commands you need to specify ALL instead of SERVICED.
    2. Run SERVICE CMS BLDNUC to create a new CMS NSS
    3. Run SERVICE GCS BLDNUC to create a new GCS NSS
    4. Run PUT2PROD to get CMS and GCS NSS saved
    5. That should leave MONDCSS, PERFOUT and ZCMS segments left to build. To build those do the following. Following example uses prodid of 5VMCMS30 and 5VMPTK30, if you are at a different z/VM release then you need to use the appropriate prodids.
      1. For MONDCSS and PERFOUT you are going to have to use VMFSGMAP.

        For MONDCSS: from VMFSGMAP panel use F10 Add obj. From Add Segment definition panel type in MONDCSS for OBJNAME and 5VMCMS30 CMS for PRODID and hit F10 for Seginfo (this should pull in the segment definition from the 5VMCMS30 PRODPART file). If you get message it is already defined just ignore it. Then use F5 Map to get back to main VMFSGMAP panel and then use F5 File.

        For PERFOUT: Repeat VMFSGMAP panels but use PERFOUT for OBJNAME and 5VMPTK30 PERFTK for PRODID.

        You need to issue VMFBLD PPF SEGBLD ESASEGS SEGBLIST (SERVICED to get those segments defined (they are just data type segments so they just get defined).

      2. If you care about ZCMS, it is a sample 64 bit CMS that we ship, then you need to follow the instructions at VM web page url http://www.vm.ibm.com/related/zcms/zcmsinfo.pdf

  • All VM customers applying APARs that have a memo file that is part of the APAR, can find the memo information at the bottom of the prodid MEMO that comes on the COR service tape. If the order was electronic, then the prodid MEMO can be found in the VLSTnnnn file of the electronic order. An example of such an APAR is VM62480 (click to go to memo).