What's New?
The finalization process that is performed after each resource processed by a Model9 policy run, is now enhanced to be a more scalable process. This new enhancement reduces the total elapsed time of all backup policy run types.
The Model9 command line interface now allows the removal of full-volume backups directly from z/OS using the DELVOL command. This new feature expands the native z/OS interface provided as part of the Model9 agent installation. See DELVOL section for more information.
The Model9 now verifies the minimal Java version is in place during its initial loading. This new verification would reduce the risk of hitting known Java issues when using outdated versions.
The Model9 data set backup policy and CLI BACKDSN command now allow the backup of z/OS checkpoint data sets. The new enhancement adds two new agent parameters to control the
FORCECP parameter value. See Step 10: Update the Model9 agent configuration for more information.The Model9 GUI new resources page will now allow deleting a resource version from the drop-down menu.
The Model9 Cloud data set feature now enables by default two new programs, IEBCOPY and IDCAMS. Both the target and the source of these utilities can utilize cloud object storage. This new enhancement enables users to leverage cloud data sets more broadly.
The Model9 archive policy backup existence verification option has been enhanced to follow the z/OS Storage Management Subsystem (SMS) storage and management class settings when requested. This new feature will allow archiving data sets with storage group and management class auto backup set to no. See Creating a new policy for more information about archive options.
- Fixed an issue where the Model9 server Java settings weren't applied during the server start time when running on s390x (Linux on Z or zCX). For Linux on Z see Step 5: Create/Verify the Model9 environmental variables file and for zCX see Step 6: Start the Model9 management server
- Fixed an issue with the CDS debug message formatting. This caused excessive CPU consumption, especially for data sets with large amounts of blocks.
- Fixed an issue where the restore activity was not being created on the new resources page when refreshing the screen at the same time. This caused the restore activity not to run.
- Fixed the Model9 CLI archive command data set active backup verification issue. This fix verifies the current backup existence in the object storage and that the data set change bit is off.
- Fixed a wrong data set indexing issue when performing a full dump containing VSAM AIX. This blocked the ability to recover the AIX from a full dump copy.
- Fixed missing simulate run log messages issue that caused the run log to not contain the report information of the simulated run.
- Fixed an occasional hibernate
convertHibernateAccessExceptionwhen running data set restore and recall. This causes the operation to fail thus not recovering the data set. - Fixed a wrong resource type issue in the restore message when restoring a data set from the new resources page.
- Fixed
ZM9NK033E RSN=000080Eerror when deploying Model9 cloud data sets on z/OS V2R2.
- Starting from this release, the backup verification for data set archive performance is not dependent on the number of backups a data set has.
- The policy expiration process now validates backup existence in the object storage before removing the previous expired generations.
- Starting from this release, by default resource specific discovery failures will not fail a policy run. See agent.yml parameter
discovery.missing_property.message.levelfor more information. - Sync with storage action on the Agents page now doesn't refresh the entire web page.
- With this release, the 3rd party packages used by the different Model9 components were upgraded to the latest. This new enhancement helps to keep the container's infrastructure up to date to avoid security exposures.
The Model9 data set backup and full dump policy types now allow setting the concurrent copy option. This new feature will allow the storage administrator to enable or disable the concurrent copy option at the policy level. For more information and known limitations see the creating a new policy page.
The Model9 server API (M9SAPI) edit command now accepts requests for dataset archive and full volume dump policy types. This new capability provides more automated control over the Model9 policies using standard JCL and JSON.
The Model9 management server agent load-balancing capabilities were enhanced to ensure improved distribution of work between the different agents within the same agent group. This improvement is expected to improve policies' total elapsed times and would also improve load balancing where one or more agents running on a weaker logical partition.
The Model9 web UI resources page was enhanced to support larger amounts of managed resources. This improvement will reduce the amount of time the resources search results page loading time dramatically to allow users a better experience and usability.
The Model9 server can now be deployed on the podman container platform. This improvement provides the administrators with the flexibility of choosing the container platform they are required to use.
The Model9 VDEV address space now accepts a new MODIFY parameter that allows disabling its functionality which will allow the shutdown of Model9 VDEV. This new feature will allow the storage administrator to disable the Model9 VDEV functionality in cases normal shutdown is rejected.
The Model9 Cloud Data Manager will now present the original label creation date for cloud data sets resource types.
The Model9 command line interface (CLI) DELBACK now allows the deletion of policy-originated backup versions. This new capability allows CLI users with proper permission to remove expired backup versions directly from z/OS.
- Fixed a data set backup issue when running the policy by volume or storage group where the selected data set was cataloged using system symbols. This caused the backup to end with an error thus not creating a backup version.
- Fixed the wrong volume name presented when backing up data sets by pattern which were cataloged with system symbols. This caused both the UI and CLI to present the system symbol instead of the actual volume name the data set resides on.
- Fixed a policy finalization issue where the policy takes an extensive amount of time to remove expired versions of VSAM data sets. This was caused by a missing index within the Model9 database.
- Improved restore and recall operation zIIP consumption, where the backup and archive versions were created using gzip or lz4 compression methods.
The Model9 agent's parameter
volumeBackup_dfdss_warn_to_ok_msg_codes default value no longer contains ADR735W message. This may cause full volume dump backup run to end in a warning status in case concurrent copy is not available.The Model9 VDEV component now verifies the device type and their state prior to taking ownership of the devices, in order to prevent scenarios where the wrong device range was used.
Starting with version 2.6.0, z/OS Java version 8 64-bit SR6 FP25 or above is required to run the Model9 agent.
Several security fixes were introduced for this release to address known Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs). It is strongly advised to all customers to upgrade to the latest release of Model9.
The Model9 server API (M9SAPI) now accepts a new edit command designed to edit policy information. This new capability provides more automated control over the Model9 policies using standard JCL and JSON.
This new feature also entails a change to the API keys which now have the "permissions" section which allows the admin to choose which API key can edit policies (Preexisting keys are not permitted to edit by default).
The Model9 server database version was upgraded to a newer version of PostgreSQL (version 14.5). See step-5-upgrade-the-postgres-db-version for more information.
The Model9 policy now holds the user name and the time stamp of when the policy was last updated. This new information allows tracking changes to policy updates and who performed them.
- Important: Fixed a potential abend
S0C4of the Model9 VDEV started task when running in a memory constraint environment. This may lead to an IPL and all customers using CDS are required to upgrade to the latest version. - Fixed an
IllegalArgumentException: Active Connection is requiredissue when running a Model9 full dump policy. This may cause the policy run to end in warning status as the server was unable to index all the data sets that reside on the volume. - Added missing LPA permissions to the
M9USERSTJCL that are required for the CDS installation process. This may cause the CDS installation JCLs to fail due to missing permission. - Fixed a
Data set organizationfilter status changing when editing an existing policy. This may cause unneeded changes to the policy settings. - Fixed a wrong
ZM91001Wmessage during the agent's startup when the XCF listener is turned off. This causes a wrong startup sequence of the agent which results in the agent not accepting CLI commands.
- Removed the dependency of the
JVMPRC86procedure for all the Model9 procedures. Starting from v2.6.0 all the Model9 procedures do not nest into the Java procedure, users are required to update all the Model9 procedures accordingly. - The Model9 server settings that control the finalization parallelism level were updated to reduce the total elapsed time of a policy run. These parameters control the full volume dump data set indexing and the expiration of older generations for generation-based policies.
The Model9 agent's parameter
autorecall.functionality.enabled was changed to xcf.functionality.enabled
See Step 5: Update the Model9 agent configuration for more information.The Life cycle process now accepts a new Storage-Optimizer action designed to perform storage optimization of the target object storage. This new capability frees up object storage space caused by incomplete or failed Model9 processes that are not freed during normal processing.
- Fixed a
NullPointerExceptionissue when opening the “More Details” pop-up of a data set backup that was already deleted from the object storage. - Fixed a
NullPointerExceptionissue while running a backup or archive for a data set created by BMC IAM. - Fixed an unexpected error during discovery when a backup of an uncataloged data set by volume was performed, while another data set by the same name was cataloged on another volume.
- Fixed an ABEND
S613-20that can occur while writing Cloud Data Sets in an environment in which some Cloud Data Set jobs useVOL=REF(tape stacking) - Cloud Data Sets now blocks unsupported
EXCPcalls to prevent unexpected behavior when using unsupported applications.
- Improved the dashboard page loading time after initial log-in to the web UI by implementing lazy loading techniques for each presented element.
- Fixed Cloud Data Set (CDS) VDEV component issue where
S0C4-38abends occur and lead to common storage leaks in the CSA/ECSA. - Fixed a letter case issue when restoring a data set from backup, where the new name contained mixed case letters which results in a failed restore run.
- Fixed management class values not shown in the UI for CLI-originated data set backups.
- Fixed the Mode9 server s390x installation artifact which was missing the PostgreSQL container.
The Model9 management server was enhanced with two API calls to allow retrieving all the run ids of a specified policy and to retrieve the activity log of a specific activity. These new APIs enhance the ability of automation systems to integrate with the Model9 platform.
Automatic retry capability for object storage actions was enhanced to tolerate some more network-related issues which are intermediate. This new enhancement reduces the failure ratio as all Model9 components retry each action before it notifies of a failure to tolerate intermediate issues.
Cloud Data Sets support is enhanced to support generational data set (GDS) expiration where the generation data group is defined with PURGE and SCRATCH. This allows automatic handling of the expiration process of a given generation in case it is no longer needed.
Reporting capability which allows creating scheduled reports that present the storage utilization. This new capability allows creating storage usage reports grouped by either the policy name, the originating CLI command or by high-level qualifier and type.
- Improved login failure messages in cases where the user that performs the login action doesn’t have an OMVS segment defined. The new behavior will now explicitly notify the user of exactly why the login failed.
- Fixed an issue with the server API (SAPI) that in some rare cases caused a
OptimisticLockingFailureExceptionwhen using the same API key for all SAPI jobs. This fix now allows using the same key for all SAPI jobs. - Fixed a memory leak that prevented the “Data set cleanup” policy to run when using large storage groups or volumes. This fix enables the full use of the new policy type.
The life cycle process is changed such that projection index objects are created in a date folders-like structure, reducing the large number of objects in a single folder. This new behavior improves the scalability of the life cycle process and reduces the risk of list timeouts when communicating with on-premises object storage systems.
Cloud Data Sets support is enhanced to tolerate JCL jobs stacking multiple data sets on a single tape volume. The stacking tolerance support allows the creation of several data sets using the same VOLSER. Cloud Data Sets created in stacking tolerance mode receive the same VOLSER but are cataloged with the same file sequence 1. A known limitation in this release is that JCL jobs referring to a Cloud Data Set using its specified file sequence number will fail as all Cloud Data Sets are cataloged with FSEQN=1. To override this limitation, either specify a sequence number of 1 to read the data set or use the catalog entry to refer to the data set.
- To avoid incorrect deletion of archived GDS generation data set in cases when a recall operation is running in parallel to a Life Cycle process handling the same GDS, the Life cycle process now uses an additional locking mechanism while deleting expired generational data set. This change only applies to archived generational data sets with catalog-controlled expiration dates (i.e. EXPDT=99000).
- Added the ability to run the “Data set cleanup” policy type (introduced in the previous release) via the Management Server API (SAPI).
- Fixed an issue where Cloud Data Sets virtual tape drives with a sub-channel number of 0000 will not vary online after restarting the VDEV started task.
- Fixed the Restore panel on the Resources page in the UI to explicitly specify “Null storage class” and “Null management class” when selecting a null SMS storage class or null SMS management class.
- Fixed an issue on the Resources page in the UI where the toggle bar may overlay the resources table when a resource menu is open. The toggle bar is now fixed to the top section of the page.
Data set organization is commonly used to filter in or out resources when performing certain actions in z/OS like archive and backup. Model9 Manager only supported the following filters for archive and backup: Data Set Name Volume Name Storage Group Name If the data set is ZFS
Starting with version 2.4.0, the storage administrator will now have the ability to filter out based on the following additional data set organization types: Sequential (All sequential type data sets) Partitioned (PDS & PDSE) VSAM (All types)
Create new policy “Filters” section:
Known limitations: The data set organization types are grouped into three groups and not allowed to exclude, for example, only data sets with organization PDSE, and not PDS
Data sets that have passed their expiration date, are to be deleted by the data management product. Model9 Cloud data manager platform only provided an external JCL to handle the deletion of expired data sets.
Starting with version 2.4.0, a new policy by the name of “Data Set Cleanup” is introduced. This policy type will handle the deletion of expired data sets from a specified storage group or volume name
Create a new “Data Set Cleanup” policy:
Known limitations: Only cataloged SMS data sets will be handled by the new policy type in this release. Uncatalogued and non-SMS managed data sets will not be deleted by this policy
Audit trail is an essential capability for every product to have a clear picture which actions were performed and by whom.
Starting with version 2.4.0, new audit trail capabilities are introduced to collect information about CLI-initiated actions.
The Audit log file output example:
Known limitations: UI-initiated actions are not yet logged
The new user interface that was introduced in version 2.3.0 only provided a preview version of the resources page, without allowing to perform any actions. In version 2.3.5 the ability to restore a single data set was introduced.
Starting with version 2.4.0, the resources page will now allow restoring a single full volume and will allow recalling a single archive
Restore volume action:
Known limitations: Only single resource actions are supported. Performing export for an imported cloud data set is not yet available.
QSAM is one of the most commonly used access methods for tape data sets. There are a large number of z/OS utilities and applications which utilize it to read & write data.
This support will allow more applications to read & write directly to cloud object storage without the need for interim storage like tape or DASD.
Known limitations: Even though both read and write are supported, not all access method calls were implemented. Thus only limited applications will be officially supported by Model9.
QSAM write/read for RECFM=U is not supported
QSAM LBI is not supported
Until this version, the CDS read buffers weren’t utilized properly thus limiting the read throughput.
Starting with v2.4.0 the CDS read buffers will be used fully, meaning that the read-ahead buffer, which by default is set to 5MB, can now read several blocks into one buffer instead of one block per buffer.
Model9 Gravity (formerly known as the Model9 Transformation Service), makes mainframe data available for cloud-native AI/ML and analytics tools. As part of this release, mainframe Db2 Image Copies and archive logs, VSAM data sets, and sequential files are easily transformed to CSV and other open file formats stored directly in any cloud object storage of your choice. The current Transform Services are available for our current customers. This capability is currently available for selected customers only. Please contact Model9 Customer Success for more information.
- Model9’s discovery process generates “CONSTRUCT ACCSS-SMS CNS” entries in the LOGREC data set, even though there is no actual issue during the discovery process due to the SMS buffer size being too small. New: Beginning with version 2.4.0, there is a new parameter to control the buffer size used to query the SMS settings named:
sms.ssi.answer_area.size.bytesThe default value is set to 1, which is the same value as today - Model9’s discovery elapsed times in large policies could have taken a long time to complete, in some cases even hours. New: Beginning with version 2.4.0, the discovery mechanism introduced internal changes so it would perform the initial resources scan more efficiently. This change is expected to shorten the discovery times to a matter of minutes
- Model9’s credentials encryption tool was missing from the s390x server artifact. New: Starting from version 2.4.0, the credentials encryption tool will now be delivered with both the x86 and the s390x server artifacts
- Model9’s Dashboard page sometimes takes a long time to load after login. New: Starting from Version 2.4.0, the dashboard page will perform lazy loading for the screen components in order to improve the user experience.
- New Resources page - To continue the preview offered in the previous release, the new resources page now allows restoring data sets from backup originating from the server. Furthermore, the filtering mechanism now allows selecting custom dates & times for a more granular search.
New resources page
- API keys creation blocked for non-administrators - The creation of API keys that are used by the Server API (SAPI) to run policies from z/OS, will be blocked for non-admins. Only Model9 admin users will be able to generate new keys. All previously created keys will remain as is.
- The removal time of full dumps associated with a large number of indirect resources was improved by parallelizing the delete of the indirect resources.
- Archive policy which ended in status “ended warning” due to Model9 database being out of sync will now end with status “end ok”.
- CLI restore volume command (RESTVOL) now supports restoring z/VM CP volumes.
- The discovery network buffers are now configurable to improve performance.
Apache Log4j Vulnerabilities To address the recently disclosed Apache Log4j vulnerabilities
(CVE-2021-44228, CVE-2021-45046, and CVE-2021-45105), Model9 components do not make use of Apache Log4j thus there's no need for any additional actions.
- New Resources page - A sneak-peek of Model9’s upcoming new User Interface (UI) is now available! Head to the resources page of the current UI application and you can see new sort, search, and enhanced filtering capabilities. Your feedback counts! Help us improve our application by answering this short survey
New resources page
- Record Descriptor Word (RDW) support - The transformation service now includes the RDW field for raw output format supported for record format V and VB.
- RACF TRUSTED attribute support - The RACF TRUSTED attribute can now be used instead of the OPERATIONS attribute to run the Model9 agent and the life cycle procedures. This will allow logging all the actions the Model9 components are performing. For more details see the Installation and Upgrade Guide.
- Fixed an expiration issue for rolled off archive Generation Data Sets (GDS), when the base Generation Data Group (GDG) was defined with the PURGE attribute. Prior to this release the expiration date wasn’t set correctly and the life cycle was unable to delete the data set after it was rolled off.
- Fixed Command Line Interface (CLI) LISTDSN returning "no results found" when resource name contains special characters.
- Fixed CDS parallelization issue on slow systems, by using a locking mechanism.
- Fixed CDS jobs failures in slow systems, when jobs run one after another.
- Fixed automatic recall hook collision with 3rd party products invoking nested SVC 26 (LOCATE).
- Allow searching resources based on qualified names and with wildcards. This allows filtering more easily for a specific resource.
- Run log will now indicate if a full dump has a dump conditional name to allow identifying volumes with temporary names.
- Reduce the agent’s General purpose CP (GCP) by setting the default value of _EDC_PTHREAD_YIELD to 0.
Apache Log4j Vulnerabilities To address the recently disclosed Apache Log4j vulnerabilities
(CVE-2021-44228, CVE-2021-45046, and CVE-2021-45105), Model9 components do not make use of Apache Log4j thus there's no need for any additional actions.
- New Resources page - A sneak-peek of Model9’s upcoming new User Interface (UI) is now available! Head to the resources page of the current UI application and you can see new sort, search, and enhanced filtering capabilities. Your feedback counts! Help us improve our application by answering this short survey
New resources page
- Record Descriptor Word (RDW) support - The transformation service now includes the RDW field for raw output format supported for record format V and VB.
- RACF TRUSTED attribute support - The RACF TRUSTED attribute can now be used instead of the OPERATIONS attribute to run the Model9 agent and the life cycle procedures. This will allow logging all the actions the Model9 components are performing. For more details see the Installation and Upgrade Guide.
- Fixed an expiration issue for rolled off archive Generation Data Sets (GDS), when the base Generation Data Group (GDG) was defined with the PURGE attribute. Prior to this release the expiration date wasn’t set correctly and the life cycle was unable to delete the data set after it was rolled off.
- Fixed Command Line Interface (CLI) LISTDSN returning "no results found" when resource name contains special characters.
- Allow searching resources based on qualified names and with wildcards. This allows filtering more easily for a specific resource.
- Run log will now indicate if a full dump has a dump conditional name to allow identifying volumes with temporary names.
- Reduce the agent’s General purpose CP (GCP) by setting the default value of _EDC_PTHREAD_YIELD to 0.
- A new setting was added to control the DFDSS OPTIMIZED used during data set backup and archive.
- MinIO artifact upgraded to a release 2021-07-12.
- Introduced a fix where the life cycle fails with
ZM9L014Edue to internal data retrieval issue - Fixed an unclear message when a data set restore through the UI fails.
- Model9 UI fix to correct license expiration notice.
- Fixed UI restore being unresponsive when no active agents are available.
- UI Resources page table width is now customizable.
- UI Resources page can now filter based on date.