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z/VM Virtual Networking CP Maintenance

Virtual Networking Maintenance Levels for CP

The Control Program (CP) reports "Maintenance Level" in two ways.

  1. The latest APAR number is reported in response to the CP QUERY VMLAN command.
  2. The latest Maintenance Level code is returned as part of the IDX response.

When a CP APAR affects the interaction between network device simulation (CP) and the device driver (running in a virtual machine), or the interaction between VSWITCH support (CP) and the OSA Express hardware, a unique maintenance level code is registered for that APAR. The following tables map specific Maintenance Level codes to the related APAR. An update that is assign a Maintenance Level has a dependency on the prior Maintenance Level update. When you find the current Maintenance Level of a system in the following tables, you can assume that all prior "Maintenance Level" updates in the table have been applied to that system.

If you are using virtual switches, you need to stay current on maintenance for the z/VM TCP/IP stack that is a controller for the virtual switch.

How to determine your current Maintenance Level

Invoke the 'CP QUERY VMLAN' command from any userid. The response will include an APAR number. Here is an example from a z/VM 5.1.0 system. 

cp query vmlan

VMLAN maintenance level:
  Latest Service: VM63470
VMLAN MAC address assignment:
  MACADDR Prefix: 020000
  MACIDRANGE SYSTEM: 000001-FFFFFF
             USER:   000000-000000
VMLAN default accounting status:
  SYSTEM Accounting: OFF       USER Accounting: OFF
VMLAN general activity:
  PERSISTENT Limit: INFINITE   Current: 1
  TRANSIENT  Limit: INFINITE   Current: 4
Example: Query VMLAN response.

In some cases it is not possible to check the VMLAN response. For example, you may have a console listing from a z/VM TCP/IP server or a Linux guest showing the initialization of a Guest LAN device. The guest receives an IDX Maintenance level (the MLVLID) during initialization. This value may be displayed on the console or recorded in a log file (depends on debug options). 

qeth: Trying to use card with devnos 0x5500/0x5501/0x5502
qeth: Device 0x5500/0x5501/0x5502 is an OSD Express card (level: V440)
with link type Gigabit Eth (no portname needed by interface)
Example: Output from a Linux console during network initialization (our maintenance level was "V440").

This document is maintained by: 

Mary Ellen Carollo
z/VM Development
maryelln@us.ibm.com