Questions about CA Common Services for z/OS PTF RO96886

Products

• COMMON SERVICES FOR Z/OS
• 90S SERVICES
• Common Services

Issue/Introduction

The CA Maintenance Compatibilities matrix found on CA Support Online lists RO96886 as required for z/14 compatibility.  Customers may have several questions about this maintenance.  The fix updates the CA Master Hardware Interface to prevent a CATHW03W machine type xxxx unknown from being issued with the new hardware.         

How critical is this PTF? 

Will it cause CA products not to function? 

Does it only affect the CAMASTER address space? 

The implementation description for RO96886 says to IPL to validate this fix. 
Is there another way to test it? 

The description of message CATHW03W directs users to take the following action: “Report this message to CA Common Services Tech Support. CAMASTER code sets the machine type to a lower level in a CA Common Services control block. CA product code that has delivered different flavors of the same high use module will run with code optimized for an older machine type. This can cause a small performance difference.”  
What would be impacted? 

Environment

Common Services executing on a new z/14 machine in a z/OS environment.

Resolution

Q1: How critical is this PTF?

A1: Not critical at all, this CATHW03W is just a warning message, even though the text can be a bit concerning.

Q2: Will it cause CA products not to function?

A2: No in fact, as of today, there is no product currently exploiting this feature

Q3: Or does it only affect the CAMASTER address space?

 

A3: There is no effect on the CAMASTER address space except to have it displayed.