IBM brought VM in the modern internet world on March 24 when it finally added TCP/IP networking to the venerable mainframe operating system. While IBM undoubtedly wants VM customers to move to OS/390, which includes the kind of system partitioning that made VM popular years ago and which was missing from MVS for many years, they have thus far resisted. About half of the IBM mainframe base is using OS/390 or MVS, but another 25 percent are still plugging along with VM. IBM can’t get them to change, so it has had to.

By Timothy Prickett Morgan

With VM/ESA version 2 release 3.0, IBM is making VM part of the family once again. The new operating system includes integrated TCP/IP networking like IBM’s other strategic operating systems – AIX, OS/390 and OS/400 – do. Unlike those operating systems, however, VM/ESA customers will have to pay for their TCP/IP software, which is not included in the base operating system license. Prices for TCP/IP for VM/ESA range from $12,460 to $47,820; monthly license fees for those who would rather rent than buy run from $260 to $996 per month. In addition to TCP/IP support, IBM has also added Network File System (NFS) features, which provide functionality that is equivalent to the NFS standard set by Sun Microsystems some years ago. Not many customers use NFS, but it is one of the tick marks that people want to see when they are negotiating for systems and upgrades these days. NFS for VM also costs extra. Prices range from $2,490 to $9,535, with monthly rental fees ranging from $51 to $198. There are some free features in VM/ESA V2R3. The release includes support for the latest Java Virtual Machine and Java Development Kit (1.1.1) as well as for IBM’s NetREXX programming language. The new VM also includes hooks for IBM’s MQSeries middleware, extended Year 2000 support and more than 700 Unix application programming interfaces. The software runs on any S/390 server, including the latest G4 and Multiprise series S/390s. The base VM license costs $33,260 to $849,600, with monthly license fees running $693 TO $17,700; these prices are the same as for VM/ESA V2R2, which has been withdrawn from marketing.

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