We’re running z/OS 1.7 and have active in all environments Natural 4.2.7, Adabas 8.2.3 and EntireX 8.2.2 as well as a number of supporting products. I know this configuration is unsupported but it works (with z/OS 1.7).
Now I want to keep the SAG products current, but I don’t believe a z/OS upgrade is in our future at this time. Can anyone tell me if it’s true what was referenced in another forum discussion that Natural 8.2.3 won’t install on z/OS 1.7? Has anyone proven this wrong?
Please advise if there are brick-wall incompatibilities that would keep me from having success in this next upgrade attempt?
Hi Brian,
Well, I think this is rather unlikely in my humble opinion (I mean that Natural 8.2.3 won’t install on z/OS 1.7).
If it may help you, I`m sending you our “TECH snapshot”; as you may guess, we are quite happy with all of those SAG products :-); of course, it does NOT directly answer your question.
Best regards.
Natural Version … 8.2.2.3
Startup Transaction … MAINMENU
Natural Security … Yes
Operating System … z/OS
Oper. Sys. Version … 01.11.00
Machine Class … MAINFRAME
Hardware … 2818
TP Monitor … CICS
Device Type … COLOR
Terminal ID … 3117
Code Page…
Locale … EN_US
Hi Brian,
Certainly, your “Tech screen” is better than ours
Actually I was stating that “our” Natural 8.2.2.3 (not that far from Natural 8.2.3 which is your goal) works fine under z/OS 01.11.0 (that last one is not that far EITHER from “your” 01.07.00). By the way, can`t you ask Software AG about it? I think z/OS is very “user friendly” and did not undergo any “drastic changes” since recently.
This question is just out of curiosity. of course
Best of luck with your newly upgraded Natural 8.2.3 under z/OS 01.07.00.
Nikolay
Thanks for the response, and what you say makes sense. I plan on making the attempt to do the upgrade but will allow longer times for testing to mitigate any risk.
I can’t ask Software AG as no one who works for them would be allowed to state anything but the official support policy. Otherwise, if someone from SAG says Natural 8.2.3 runs ok on z/OS 1.7 and then something incompatible pops up after deployment, they may be liable to provide a fix even if the fix is in z/OS 1.7 (and hence the sticky part about it all). That’s why I suspect no one from SAG has responded to my question here (though they all saw it and now know that I am versed on support policy).
z/OS 1.11 is a different story since it’s in the documentation as being supported.
I will hope z/OS 1.7 and 1.11 are not so different and that Natural 8.2.3 doesn’t use it any differently than Natural 4.2.7 did.
All the above also applies to CICS TS 2.3 which we are running though minimum supported is CICS TS 3.1.
