How to use SMC?

You have heard about SMC but wonder how to set up shared memory communications? Read more on Stefan Raspl's article about SMC for Linux on IBM Z.

s390-tools 2.6.0 released

The s390-tools 2.6.0 version has been released today. You can obtain it on GitHub.

Besides some fixes, it introduces a new utility called zkey-cryptsetup.

So what can you do with it? zkey-cryptsetup helps you with updating your secure keys used for disk encryption.  Use it when a master key change for IBM Crypto Express adapters requires an update of your secure keys.

Sounds cryptic? Watch this space, I plan for an article about it.

SHARE St. Louis 2018

The SHARE 2018 starts next week in St. Louis, Missouri. As usual, people from the German Linux on Z team will be around and talk about various topics. For program details, see the Linux and VM.

If you are also there, don't miss these sessions:

Discover technologies:

• What's New in Linux on IBM Z? (Session #23233) - Overview of features in development by IBM and the open source community.
• SMC for Linux on IBM Z  (Session #23166) - Overview of Shared Memory Communication (SMC) technology for Linux on Z.
• Optimizing your Linux and z/OS Solutions with Shared Memory Communications (Session #22807) - What happens when you connect z/OS and Linux together using a highly optimized network interconnect?
• Docker and IBM Z (Session #22973) - Overview of Docker, its concepts, and its usage in light of Linux on IBM Z.
• KVM on IBM Z (Session #23164) - Latest news on KVM development work with the open source community.

Tune performance:

• Linux on IBM z14 - Performance Update (Session #23236) - Overview of Linux exploitation and performance of hardware features.
• Linux on IBM Z - Disk I/O Performance (Session #23159) - Introduction to features in Linux and IBM Z or storage server hardware to increase disk I/O and throughput.
• KVM on Z Performance Analysis with Open Source Tooling (Session #23167) - Introduction to tools and techniques to investigate KVM performance on IBM Z.