Installation and Compatibility


Changes to Installation

This section describes the changes in the installation process of base Natural and the Natural add-on products released with this Natural version.

The sections indicated for more information are contained in the Natural Installation documentation, unless otherwise noted.

Stop and Restart Global Bufferpools

A small change in the layout of the global bufferpool header became necessary.

Therefore it is required to stop active global bufferpools from Natural version 9.2.1 and to restart them with the new modules of Natural 9.2.2, when the installation has been completed.

Follow these steps:

  1. Shut down existing version 9.2.1 global bufferpools

  2. Relink your global bufferpool module NATGBP92 and include the newest version of module NATBPMGR provided with Natural 9.2.2

  3. Restart your global bufferpools

System Maintenance Aid: Readme File

For installation guidance and information on new or changed System Maintenance Aid (SMA) parameters and Natural features, you can view the product-specific readme files by using the appropriate SMA function.

Start of instruction setTo view a product-specific Readme

  • From the product list on an SMA Maintenance screen, execute the RM (Show Readme File) command for the required product(s).

Software AG Mainframe Product Licensing (MLC)

Natural Version 9.2.2 requires MLC version 1.3.8. Previous versions of MLC are no longer supported. Any error detected by the license check during session initialization stops the execution of the product.

Please ensure that your license file contains the tag <CPUIDs> with the correct value(s). This used to be optional for all previous versions of zIIP support products like Natural Batch for zIIP (NAZBT), Natural for CICS for zIIP (NAZCI), etc.

If you have such license files, please contact Software AG to get an updated license file, which can run with MLC version 1.3.8.

License Checks for Selected Add-on Products

In addition to the license checks for Natural for z/OS and Natural for zIIP, license checks for the following add-on products are now performed:

  • Natural Optimizer Compiler (version 9.2.2 or higher)

  • Predict (version 8.6.1 or higher)

The license files must be installed in your environment when using the Natural Optimizer Compiler and Predict.

For information about the steps for installing the Natural Optimizer Compiler on z/OS, see Installing Natural Optimizer Compiler on z/OS.

For information about installing Predict, see the Predict documentation.

For information about the license handling for the Natural Optimizer Compiler, see Activating the Optimizer Compiler.

Compatibility

This section provides the latest information for this Natural release regarding compatibility with earlier versions of Natural for Mainframes as well as with Natural on other platforms.

Note:
For information regarding Software AG product compatibility with IBM platforms and any IBM requirements for Software AG products, please review the Product Compatibility for IBM Platforms web page at http://www.softwareag.com/.

Special-Purpose Zaps

The following table lists Natural Version 9.2 Zaps and the special purposes they support:

Zap Special Purpose
NA21002

Suppress NAT3145 error information

Suppress extra L2 calls to Adabas after a NAT3145 error has occurred.

If this Zap is applied, the application programming interface USR8202N no longer provides extended information on the NAT3145 error message.

NA21003 Resolve problems (RSP=46) during Natural mainframe calls to Adabas for Windows, Linux and Cloud

Resolve problems that can arise when Natural calls Adabas on Linux, UNIX or Windows from a mainframe platform: an unexpected RSP=46 can occur if a READ loop at the level 1 (*LEVEL=1) ends with an End-of-File (RSP=3) and is executed multiple times. This occurs because Natural on the mainframe does not send a final RC command to release the Adabas Format Buffer if the READ receives RSP=3.

Note:
Former special purpose zaps are either replaced by parameters (e.g. Support for the Arabic shaped format) or will no longer be required for Natural version 9.2.2.