Note from Paul:

Stay tuned! An enhanced version of ANZOBJCVN will be available soon, followed by national language translations for the enhanced tool. The Redpaper will be updated to match the enhancements. The draft Redpaper REDP-4293 is named "i5/OS Program Conversion: Getting ready for i5/OS V6R1" and can be found at: www.redbooks.ibm.com

Note from iSociety:

For additional clarification, questions or information, check out this iSociety forum: http://isociety.common.org/forums/list/threads/?forumid=78

12:00 noon US Central Time September 19th, 2007

isociety says: Today's Fireside chat topic is Getting Ready for V6R1 and features Paul Godtlandt from IBM.

We would suggest your questions are aimed at Preparing for conversion to V6R1 - we will not be attempting to answer questions related to what features are included in V6R1. A subsequent Fireside chat will address the feature list of V6R1.

isociety says: Welcome to Paul. Thanks for being here.

Plg says: Thanks everyone, for joining today's chat

Question from Jim Sloan: How does one determine whether an *SQLPKG object needs to be redone.  There is no command to display anything about the object.

Plg says: The ANZOBJCVN tool listed in the Redpaper will let you know

Question from Jim Sloan: I cannot find the 'Minimum release to run on' info with this object type that exists with a *PGM object.  Am I missing something.

Plg says: sorry, I don't understand which object type you're wondering about

Question from Matt Qualls: Will V6R1 allow us to have a target release of V5R3 for creating program objects and save files?

Plg says: Yes, the usual N-2 support exists, however,note that target release does not affect the need to convert a V6R1 program taken to V5R3

Question from Richard Crowe: Are there any hardware issues? Is it a safe bet hardware/equipment on a system running V5R3 will work with V6R1?

We have a 9406 model 825 with type 4326 disk drives.

Plg says: not all hardware models supported by V5R3 can run V6R1... the best source of information is the planning web site: http://www-304.ibm.com/jct01004c/systems/support/i/planning/upgrade/index.html.

Question from Richard Crowe: The main software we run is JDEdwards version A7.3, cume 16. Are there any known problems taking this software to OS V6R1?

Plg says: For any questions about software issues, the first thing to do is run ANZOBJCVN. For ISV software, you may also want to contact the System i ISV group, at iaic@us.ibm.com

Question from Robert.engel: Hello Paul, what’s the reason for object conversion for V6R1 - changing the hardware from i to p and running i5/OS as a guest operating system under AIX or enhancement from 64 bit to 128 bit, or what else?

Plg says: The short answer is that we are leveraging the MI architecture to upgrade software. Programs will generally be faster, the system will be even more secure, and we're able to add a number of functional improvements as well, so the conversion is not related to the specifics you asked about.

Question from Tami_Deedrick: Does V6R1 have a general availability date?

Question from Mike Cunningham: My primary concern is getting a better idea on the exact release date. I usually have 2 times a year I can do a version upgrade, December and June.

Plg says: Sorry, the only public statements about v6r1 GA so far are "in 2008". I can't be more specific for you yet.

Question from Jeanmikhaleff: what about Web Services integrated to i5/OS?

Plg says: some work has been done there, but that's not specific to conversion, so a later talk about new features would probably address your question better

Question from Techcons: Do you see V6R1 having a performance problem with say, a model 520?

Plg says: I wouldn't expect any. In general, V6R1 will perform better on a given hardware model

Question from Kent Hohlen: Will objects, like programs, have to be recreated if you go from V5R3 to V6R1?

Plg says: any program that uses MI, including OPM and ILE programs, must be re-created to run on v6r1

Question from CFBurnsSr: Will the preparations be similar whether you are installing V6R1 on the same box, or moving to a new box ?

Plg says: Yes. you may want to use a different method of causing conversions to occur - be sure to see Redpaper REDP-4293, “i5/OS Program Conversion: Getting ready for i5/OS V6R1,” from www.redbooks.ibm.com

Question from Jtaylor: Will the ANZOBJCVN tool work with S/36 resources (e.g. program objects and display files)?

Plg says: in general, programs are the only objects requiring conversion. S/36 environment programs will be supported on V6R1, unless some explicit action has been taken to remove creation data

Question from I5pilot: is upgrade from v5r1 to v6r1 supported

Plg says: No, the usual N-2 upgrade rules apply, so you'll want to upgrade first to V5R3

Question from Watco07: we have V5R3 and we have Domino enterprise running on iSeries, what impact it will have to move to V6R1

Plg says: again, the general rule is that programs will convert, though the time required for conversion will vary.... there will be specific information about Domino versions supported added to the Redpaper later this year

Question from Vhamberg: Paul - do you have information about testing v6 on a virtual loaner program partition? Can we put an early-ship copy on one of those?

Plg says: that capability is planned, but I'm sorry I don't have the specifics for you  now

Question from Pcatlin: Paul,  With the CISC to RISC conversion there was a significant change in object size.  Do you anticipate a size change with this conversion?

Plg says: No, we expect programs to be roughly the same size, even though there are lots of changes being made to the encapsulated program objects

Question from Gap: Hello Paul, can I download the anzobjcvn ptfs today from the IBM Fix Central web site?

Plg says: an English version is available now, however I'd strongly recommend waiting for an enhanced version, which should be available  next week. It will be followed by national language translated versions as soon as they are available

Question from Mewaring: When will ANZOBJCVN be available and will it be available via a PTF?

Plg says: Please see my previous answer, and ANZOBJCVN is available only as a PTF

Question from Nosnhojd: I understand that there are quite a few changes involving Encryption.  Can you tell us a little about those changes and how they will affect  the current encryption processes?

Plg says: please ask your question again during the v6r1 features chat coming up. program conversion is not affected by the encryption changes

Question from LaurinB: Will this be as complex as the CISC to RISC conversion?

Plg says: no, this one will be much easier, for a number of reasons....first, most object types are not being converted... in addition, more programs retain the creation data needed for conversion, and of course the hardware is very much faster now

Question from Bwoodruff11: Will the Backup / Recovery guide have a release to release section to help plan upgrades to V6R1

Plg says: not sure. The install/migration topic in InfoCenter is being extensively updated to help with V6R1.

Question from UAMark: We use Vision Solutions/iTera software to replicate data and programs from a primary system to a backup and would only be able to upgrade one system at a time.  Are there issues with programs created on one version being copied to another?

Plg says: I'm not directly familiar with that software, but the copy must be occurring using a restore operation...the main issue might be that programs expected to run on each of the systems  would have to be converted going each way between the different releases

Question from Mike Cunningham: Will Websphere based java applications be affected and does ANZOBJCVN work on java apps?

Plg says: ANZOBJCVN considers optimized Java programs that cause a program object to be attached to a jar file - all such programs are being converted, though for reasons largely independent of the MI program conversion

Question from CFBurnsSr: Any advantage to recompiling all our programs under V6R1 at upgrade time, as opposed to converting them ?

Plg says: That would depend upon improvements made to the specific language compiler since the programs were last compiled - such improvements might add even more benefits, but in general, conversion will pick up the  MI program upgrades

Question from Kent Hohlen: I assume the programs have to be observable?

Plg says: the programs must have creation data, which is a subset of observability .... all programs targeting release V5R1 or later do retain sufficient creation data

Question from Crower: We have an internal and an external xSeries each running Windows 2003 attached to our i825. Do you know of any issues for attached xSeries? Any tips for attached xSeries? Thanks.

Question from Techcons: Are there any changes to the file information area such as what happened from V4R4 to V4R5+?

Plg says: sorry, I don't have information for either question

Question from TSIMikeW: Will programs created by compilers that are no longer supported be converted?

Plg says: yes, as long as the program has creation data. I'd like to repeat for everyone that anzobjcvn is your friend. You'll want to run it to prepare for V6R1

Question from Mlarson: What options are there for controlling when the conversion happens?

Plg says: there are 3 options - one is to explicitly schedule conversion, using STROBJCVN. Another is to have conversion occur during restore. If conversion has not previously occurred, then it will occur the first time the program is called

isociety says: Paul, where am I doing the conversion - inside V5Rx or V6R1?

Plg says: run anzobjcvn on V5R3 or V5R4, but the conversion occurs only one V6R1

Question from Gundo: Can you explain what "creation data" is?  Thank you

Plg says: it's the data actually needed to create the program, a "program template" if you will - in contrast, debug data and profiling data are parts of observability that are not  needed for creating a program

Question from Hoss: we are running an iAsp and during the upgrade will we need to have the iAsp varied on?

Plg says: conversions can occur later, after the iASP is varied on ... for the preparation, be sure to have any iASPs varied on when you run ANZOBJCVN

Question from MarkSWaterbury: which will be faster, the backwards conversion needed when restoring a *PGM from V6R1 onto V5R4 or V5R3, or the forwards conversion going from V5R3/V5R4 to V6R1, or are they both about the same speed?

Plg says: they'd be roughly equivalent, if done on the same sort of hardware configuration

Question from Tomliotta: If I create a *PGM on V6R1 for a previous release, is it already "converted"? I.e., create it, save it for V5R4, restore on V5R4... Will it be converted again when the V5R4 upgrades to V6R1? Minimal time, I assume.

Plg says: No, programs created on a given release can run on that release, so programs created on V6R1, even for an earlier target release must be converted before they can run on V5R4. Think of V6R1 programs as having a different format than earlier programs

Question from Mike Cunningham: I ran anzobjcvn on one library where a purchased system resides. conversion was estimated at 8 hours for 2,341 objects. My other libraries will most likely triple this time. So with the first touch option I could bring the system up and it could be in use while the 24 hours of object conversion completes?

Plg says: the conversions can take place concurrently, so depending on processor and main store resources in particular, the conversion may not take that long... still, in a case like this, I'd recommend converting the programs before use, with STROBJCVN

Question from CFBurnsSr: Are *SRVPGM and *MODULE objects affected as well ?

Plg says: yes. note that *MODULE would not be converted when run, because they don't run

Question from Pcatlin: On a multi partition system, will we need to upgrade all partitions to V6R1 or can we migrate 1 at a time

Plg says: yes, program conversion doesn't directly affect partition interactions - yes, 1 at a time, I mean

Question from Donna.Koopman: So will purchased software (with no available source) still have the needed "creation data"?

Plg says: if its target release is V5R1 or later, it will. If it targeted an earlier release, then it depends on whether the provider removed creation data

Question from Gap: For applications purchased from a vendor, is it possible that the vendor might have a  'V6R1 ready' set of their code?

Plg says: all the vendor will have to do is provide a version that targets V5R1 or a later release, so a compatible version can be made available even before v6r1 is generally available

Question from Bwoodruff11: Are there changes in the amount of resources required to manage LPAR systems

Plg says: no, program conversion doesn't affect LPAR function at all. you might want to ask this question again during the features chat

Question from Vhamberg: If a program is created with minimum release to run of V5R3, say, and it is converted on V6, is the minimum release changed? Can it be saved to the early release and restored there?

Plg says: no the minimum release is not changed - so the program can be saved for the earlier release, but will have to be converted again if it has been converted on V6R1

Question from MarkSWaterbury: I read that there will also be conversion even when saving from V6R1 on Power5 or Power5+ and then restoring on V6R1 with Power6 hardware (and vice versa) -- is this conversion faster than the normal conversion or about the same?

Plg says: V6R1 introduces ACG, adaptive code generation, which will allow programs to immediately use the features of POWER6 processors - such programs will have to be converted to run on V6R1 on an earlier processor. But the reverse is not true, because a program created on an earlier processor can run on a POWER6 processor - the conversion time will be the same, on the same hardware, as it would be when moving between releases

Question from MQueue: When you say "an earlier target release must be converted before they can run on V5R4", does that mean there will be a backward conversion process of some sort ?

Plg says: yes, when a program created on V6R1 is moved to an earlier release, the earlier release detects it as a "future format" program and realizes that it must be converted before it can run

Question from Gap: But if a vendor provides a 'V6R1 ready' version of their code (as opposed to providing their code that was just created for a V5r1 target release), that would mean that we wouldn't have to spend time converting that vendor's code, correct?

Plg says: That's true. ... programs created on V6R1 are ready to go and need not be converted

Question from Mlarson: Will programs created at older versions (V4R2 or older) still convert as long as they have creation data?

Plg says: Yes. Even programs originally created on System/38 can be converted!

Question from MarkSWaterbury: so then, as an ISV, if I prepare a V6R1 compatible version of my product, but on a Power5 or Power5+ processor, my customers will have to incur the overhead of conversion if they restore it on a Power6 processor, or vice-versa?

Plg says: No, only if the program was created on a POWER6 processor and no steps were taken to "opt out" of ACG

Question from Rjd2: are there options to control when the conversion occurs on v5rx?

Plg says: conversion options are available on v6r1, but if the program is moved from V6R1 to an earlier release, the conversion occurs during the restore

Question from Bwoodruff11: Will the ANZPGMCNV PTF be included in future Cumulative PTF packages

Plg says: yes, the enhanced version which will be available soon, will also be added to cum packs

Question from MQueue: Being an ISV, would I then have to maintain 2 partitions so that my customers don't have to go through the conversion process?  I want to provide them with objects that need no conversion.  Do I maintain a V5R4 and a V6R1 partition?

Plg says: yes, to avoid any conversion overhead, two program creation partitions would be needed... you'll want to also try out ACG and see if the benefits on POWER6 processors for your application make it worthwhile to have the conversion occur

Question from MarkSWaterbury: OK, thanks, that's an important distinction... but what if my customers want to take advantage of their Power6 processors? Can they decide to run STROBJCVN against my V6R1 ready product (created on Power5/5+) and will it take advantage of ACG?

Plg says: strobjcvn will only convert objects that must be converted, so ... to take advantage of ACG, they'd have to force conversion during restore, or if creation data is observable, they could use CHGPGM or CHGSRVPGM

Question from Vhamberg: As an ISV we still support V4R4 - at this time we RMVOBS(*ALL) - it seems we could make our code ready for V6 by altering this to leave creation data - is this right? Then we would not need separate creation partitions to have V6 preparedness?

Plg says: that's true.

isociety says: Thanks for everyone who joined us today. A transcript of this chat will be posted at iSociety.org very soon.

isociety says: Paul, thanks for being here today. We appreciate your time.

Plg says: my thanks to iSociety for the opportunity to answer questions