Serena StarTool FDM became Generally Available on April 30, 2013, just in time to announce at the recent Mainframe Virtual User Group (VUG). Mark Henderson from the StarTool Development Team presented the StarTool products roadmap and the roster of feature updates in StarTool FDM 7.7.2.
Improved DASD support:
- Volume map (VMAP) command shows all areas of EAV
- Dataset statistics (USAGE) command shows EAV-specific DSCBs
- Allocate large PDSEs (>64k tracks)
Improved usability/serviceability:
- Improved panel navigation
- ZAP command improved to support larger CSECTs
- PEDIT processes VSAM LDS more efficiently
- HISTORY & DISASM commands use BINDER instead of module load, also perform better against PDSEs
- Long name support in load module displays
- MAP & HISTORY support new COBOL and PL/I compiler options
Additionally, Mark presented the roadmap for ChangeMan SSM and an overview of ChangeMan SSM 8.3.4.02, which became Generally Available on March 7, 2013 and is a release with fixes in the areas of:
- Email notification processing
- Master file data consistency
- STC continuity
- HFS tracking performance
We closed the VUG meeting with an overview of ChangeMan SSM 8.4. In this forthcoming release, ChangeMan SSM will expand its reach beyond App Dev with facilities geared towards systems management and ZMF-awareness, with the theme of operational integrity:
- Automatic definition and tracking of strategic datasets and resources
- z/OS group – PARMLIBs, PROCLIBs, NUCLEUS, IPLPARM, LNKLSTxx, PROGxx/IEAAPFxx, LPALSTxx
- ZMF group – as defined by user
ChangeMan SSM 8.4 is planned for general availability in Q4 of this year. Stay tuned for more at this year’s xChange, Serena’s Global User Conference from September 16-18 in Miami, FL.
