Ubuntu 20.10 is out! See the release notes here. Highlights from an IBM Z perspective include:
For a more elaborate list of IBM Z-specific features, look here.
s390-tools v2.15 is out. This release is in support of Linux kernel 5.9.
The most notable change is the addition of a new tool called lsstp to display information about the current Server Time Protocol (STP) configuration, like co‐ordinated time network (CTN) ID, timing state and leap seconds.
Here is some sample output:
STP online: yes
CTN ID: STPM46
CTN type: STP-only
Stratum: 2
Timing mode: STP
Timing state: Synchronized
DST offset: 60
Timezone offset: 60
Time offset: 120
Active leap seconds: 27
Scheduled leap second: insertion at Thu, Dec 31 23:59:59 2020 UTC
Note: STP leap seconds scheduling support as indicated in the bottom line is a forthcoming feature of a future Linux kernel release, tentatively 5.10.
For further details, see the changelog.
z/OS announced SMC-Dv2 support here, see section "Shared Memory Communications Version 2 (SMCv2) multiple IP subnet support".
SMC-D v2 provides support for peers in different IP subnets, and eliminates the need to configure PNET IDs, simplifying the configuration significantly. Linux on Z support is being worked on.
When SMC-Dv2 is enabled in z/OS, a compatibility patch is required in Linux on Z, which is available in the following minimum Linux distribution levels:
smc-tools v1.3.1 is now available for download here (MD5: 85361dab8818a6d92433b489086a4655).
This is a bugfix release, see the included README for further details.
qclib v2.2.0 is now available for download here (MD5: 7ecf7a877750fa4c170922ac8e801065).
The main addition is two new commands:
Here is some sample output to illustrate the capabilities:
$/zname -h
Usage: zname [OPTIONS]
Print information about IBM Z hardware.
-a, --all Print all available information
-c, --capacity Print capacity information
-h, --help Print usage information and exit
-i, --cpuid Print the CPU identifier
-m, --model Print model information
-n, --name Print the model name (default)
-u, --manufacturer Print manufacturer information
$ zname
IBM z15
$ zhypinfo -h
Usage: zhypinfo [OPTION]
Print information about virtualization layers on IBM Z.
-h, --help Print usage information and exit
-j, --json Dump all available data in JSON format
-l, --layers Print number of layers
-L, --levels Print number of virtualization levels
$ zhypinfo
# Layer_Type Lvl Categ Name IFLs CPs Total
----------------------------------------------------------------
3 z/VM-guest 1 GUEST R3545038 3 0 3
2 z/VM-hypervisor 1 HOST BOER3545 2 1 3
1 LPAR 0 GUEST R35LP45 2 1 3
0 CEC 0 HOST P35 60 3 63
For more information, see the respective man pages and the included README.