What is involved with upgrading to CA GEN release 8.6 from release 8.5?

Products

• Gen
• Gen - Workstation Toolset
• Gen - Host Encyclopedia
• Gen - Run Time Distributed

Issue/Introduction

What is involved with upgrading from CA Gen release 8.5 to release 8.6? Will programs need to be regenerated and installed - batch(ZOS), server(ZOS)? We need to determine the amount of work that will be involved before deciding when to upgrade.

Environment

Release: KGNDDL99000-8.6-Gen-DBP Developer License
Component:

Resolution

Here is the link under the General Considerations for the Release Notes which has information for you:

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__docops.ca.com_ca-2Dgen_8-2D6_en_release-2Dnotes_general-2Dconsiderations&d=DwICAw&c=gtIjdLs6LnStUpy9cTOW9w&r=9dg2vACIQTd1sM4klLjyy9aMnKjaat0ZTmXXzsNJYqo&m=ix6-m3XykgAP8Sx2zaMx8U6fFdlzFQdKQFAahCKpAqM&s=XScDYYo0fmYTawkWk8COJI5s1tR7OFkyNh43DeMUAvU&e= 

Most applications built using CA Gen 8.5 (DLLs or Compatibility) do not need to be re-generated or re-installed to work with CA Gen 8.6 runtimes. 

It is expected that CA Gen 8.5 applications include changes introduced by Gen 8.0 PTFs RO40953 and RO53824, so no extra re-link is required to use CA Gen 8.6 runtimes. 

CA Gen 8.5 removed the 32KB Common Format Buffer (CFB) limitation for CICS applications. To enable larger CFBs Gen uses dynamic allocation and management of certain data areas, namely views, CFB, GURB, GLOBAL-AREA and a number of internal buffers. The same memory management routines are used for data areas greater and smaller than 32KB. Details of this feature are documented in the CA Gen 8.5 Release Notes. 

Gen 8.5 CICS applications migrating to CA Gen 8.6 that do not want to take advantage of the greater than 32KB CFB feature do not need to be re-generated or re-installed. Greater than 32KB CFBs are not supported for IMS applications. 

Changes made in Gen 8.5 to server-to-server applications (implemented in various PTFs) required re-generation and re-install when the PTFs were implemented so no further changes are necessary for to these applications to use CA Gen 8.6 runtimes. Server-to-server changes introduced new server runtime routine TIRPXMIT, which is included in TIRORUNC and TIRORUNI DLLs. TIRPXMIT is not used until the Server Manager is re-generated as part of applying the server-to-server PTFs (if cross generation is used the co-required PTFs may not be z/OS PTFs). Once regeneration is done, deployment of these applications require that the mentioned DLLs also be deployed. 

Additional Information

If you applied CA GEN 8.5 PTF RO86229, then you did need to re-generate the Server at that time.  If you already re-generated and installed the server, you do not need to do anything else to use CA Gen 8.6. If the PTF has been applied and the server was not regenerated and reinstalled, then you will need to do that at this time.