New and Changed Features of Base Natural

This section describes all changes and enhancements provided with Natural Version 9.1.2.

Note:
The SYSEXV utility gives you access to examples of new features available in the current and in some earlier versions of Natural. SYSEXV is described in the Utilities documentation.

Operations and Performance

New Selectable Units Not Yet Available

All features previously supplied as selectable units are integrated in Natural Version 9.1.2. Selectable units are not yet available.

As a result, the setting of the SELUNIT profile parameter is ignored and appropriate messages occur for the SHOWSU system command and the SU line command of the SYSPROD system command.

Roll Server Support for VSAM

The Natural Roll Server now also supports roll files for VSAM.

For more information, see Natural Roll Server Operation and Formatting the Roll File in the Operations documentation.

Roll Server Start with Parameter File

The Roll Server can now also be started with a parameter file as an alternative to a JCL EXEC statement.

For more information, see Starting the Roll Server and in the Operations documentation.

New Authorized Services Manager Features for NATASM91

Support for SECURITY_CACHING of NDV Server

To support the new SECURITY_CACHING feature of the Natural Development Server, the Authorized Services Manager NATASM91 has been enhanced to verify an NDV client with user ID and password against the z/OS Security Server (RACF or any other compliant external security product) and to link the created ACEE to the NDV client request.

New Parameters in the ASMPARM Parameter File

The following parameters have been added to the ASMPARM parameter file:

  • TIMEOUTREPEAT: Specifies the interval between two timeout checks.

  • FSSMxxxx: Defines parameters for the Shared Memory Objects File Server (FSSM) of Natural for DB2.

For more information, see Parameters in the Parameter File in the Operations documentation.

New Option to Control Timeout Processing

The Authorized Services Manager (NATASM91) now offers a timeout service for the Session Information Pool (SIP) to control timeout settings through startup parameters and operator commands similar to the Natural Roll Server.

For more information, see the new TIMEOUT command described in ASM Operator Commands and the TIMEOUTCHECK parameter described in Parameters in the Parameter File in the Operations documentation.

New Parameter File

Parameters for the Authorized Services Manager can now be supplied through a keyword parameter file instead of the positional parameters specified with the JCL EXEC statement.

For more information, see Starting the ASM in the Operations documentation.

Unicode and Code Page Support

ICU Version Upgrade

The ICS (International Components for Unicode) version 3.1.1 has been upgraded to ICU Version 65.1 which supports Unicode Version 12.0.

ICU Version 65.1 enhancements include improvements in performance and robustness.

For a summary of all changes in ICU Version 65.1 and Unicode Version 12, see the Download ICU 65 website at http://site.icu-project.org/download/65 and the Unicode 12.0.0 website at http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode12.0.0/, respectively.

The ICS version 3.1.1 is delivered in addition to the ICS version 2.2.2

See also Changes to ICU Data Libraries.

Localization Data in Newer ICU Releases

Due to significant changes in the method of compiling and loading localization data in newer ICU releases, an ICS Transition Version 222 is provided in addition to ICS 311. Data libraries provided by Software AG are not supported with ICS 311. However, they will still be supported as part of the ICS Transition Version 222.

For more information on using localization data based on ICS Transition Version 222 see Unicode and Code Page Support.

For more information on using localization data based on ICS 311 see Unicode and Code Page Support.

New ICS Load Modules with Minimum Collation Data

Starting with ICS Version 2.2, the additional load modules SAGICUM and SAGICUM9 are delivered to provide the option to include only the bare minimum of collation data in the module build. This enables a light-weight configuration and better performance for particular use cases.

System Commands

Note:
The sections indicated for more information are contained in the System Commands documentation, unless otherwise noted.

ZIIP System Command

RESET Functions

The new RESET function can be used to reset the various counters and CPU times to zero.

zIIP Report Adapted to PROJECTCPU Setting

The ZIIP system command now considers the z/OS system parameter PROJECTCPU and provides an adapted zIIP Processing Information report if PROJECTCPU is set to YES and no zIIPs are configured to the current logical partition. This is indicated on the first line of the zIIP Processing Information display.

For more information, see the zIIP Processing Information reports and the syntax of PRINT INFO.

New zIIP Statistics about Roll Server

The ZIIP system command now provides the new ROLL option to view zIIP statistics information about the Roll Server.

For more information, see the Roll Server zIIP Information report and the syntax of PRINT ROLL.

LIST System Command

The LIST profile of the LIST system command now provides the option to specify a step increment for scrolling right or left in a list: see the new LIST-SHIFT-INCREMENT parameter described in LIST Profile Parameters.

TECH System Command

The TECH system command now provides information on the architecture level supported by the IBM processor on which your z/OS or z/VSE system runs.

Editors

Note:
The sections indicated for more information are contained in the Editors documentation, unless otherwise noted.

Disabled Editors

Since Natural Version 9.1, the following Natural editors have been disabled (deactivated) by default in a local z/OS mainframe and UNIX environment:

  • Program editor

  • Data area editor

  • Map editor

With Natural version 9 on Mainframe, Unix and Linux, NaturalONE and the Natural Development Server are integrated into Natural. The Natural editors (program editor, data editor and map editor) are disabled. As NaturalONE and Natural Development Server licenses are integrated with Natural, they can be activated with the Natural (NAT) license key. This does not apply to Natural for Windows.

However, an environment with Natural ISPF, as well as (at minimum) Natural Mainframe 9.1.2 Cumulative Fix 01 installed, allows for using all Natural editors.

For more information on this, see section Editors > Disabled Editors.

DDM Editor: SQL and DL/I Services Discontinued on z/VSE

The DDM editor (SYSDDM utility) no longer supports SQL services for Natural for SQL (NSQ) and the DL/I services for DL/I on z/VSE platforms.

See also Features Dropped with this Natural Version.

Utilities

Note:
The sections indicated for more information are contained in the Utilities documentation, unless otherwise noted.

DBLOG Utility

The DBLOG utility now also supports VSAM calls.

For more information, see the section DBLOG Utility - Logging Database Calls.

Object Handler

The FIND direct command of the Object Handler now also considers the save and catalog date of a Natural object in an object search operation with specified date/time range.

For more information, see the new DATECHECK option of the select-clause described in Syntax of Natural Library Object and DDM Selection.

SYSCP Utility

The new function Loaded Code Pages lists the already loaded code pages in the current Natural environment. For more information, see Loaded Code Pages in section SYSCP utility of the Utilities documentation and the Unicode and Code Page Support documentation.

SYSPARM Utility

Enhanced SYSPARM TERM1ST Option

The TERM1ST option of the SYSPARM direct command now also allows resetting a warning counter for SYSPARM commands that output return codes.

For more information, see TERM1ST in the basic command syntax of the SYSPARM command in the section SYSPARM Utility.

New SYSPARM LOWER Option for Lowercase Conversion

The SYSPARM direct command now provides the LOWER option to specify whether lowercase letters are converted to uppercase.

For more information, see LOWER in the basic command syntax and the with-clause of the SYSPARM command in the section SYSPARM Utility.

SYSRPC Utility

The SYSRPC utility is a subcomponent of Natural RPC: see SYSRPC Utility in section Utilities.

SYSTP Utility

New Permanent Storage Segments Function

The new function Permanent Storage Segments displays permanently allocated storage segments. For more information, see Permanent Storage Segments in section SYSTP Utility of the Utilities documentation.

Enhanced Natural Sub-Systems and Roll Server Information

The display of Natural Sub-Systems and Roll Server Information has been completely revised to provide an overview as well as detailed information screens. The new line command E displays the ECSAD storage. For more information, see Natural Sub-Systems and Roll Server Information in section SYSTP Utility of the Utilities documentation.

Natural Profiler Utility

Transaction Response Time Evaluation

The Natural Profiler utility now provides the option to evaluate transactions and generate a transaction summary. The summary shows how many events occurred during execution of the transaction and the response time used by the transaction.

For more information, see Transaction Summary in the section Using the Profiler Utility in Batch Mode.

New Rich GUI Interface for the Natural Profiler

The Natural Tools and Utilities in NaturalONE offers a new rich GUI interface for the Natural Profiler. The Natural Profiler page lists all Profiler resources of a given library. For a selected Profiler resource, the properties and statistics of the profiling are displayed. Functions are available to consolidate or evaluate Profiler data, to analyze monitored programs, or to delete a resource file.

For more information, see NaturalONE > Using NaturalONE > Using Natural Tools and Utilities > Rich GUI Interface of the Natural Profiler.

Profile and Session Parameters

Note:
The sections indicated for more information are contained in the Parameter Reference documentation, unless otherwise noted.

New Profile and Session Parameters

Parameter

Corresponding
Macro

Task Description
THPINIT NTPRM Name of Pre-initialized Storage Thread Model

This new profile parameter is used to save the contents of the Natural storage thread after static session initialization and to reuse it for other sessions in order to improve performance.

SHAPED NTPRM Character representation in terms of language direction (left-to-right / bidirectional)

This Natural profile and session parameter determines whether base characters in their basic forms (unshaped) are converted to their shaped forms before they are stored or the other way around when they are read out and displayed on screen.

STEPLIB NTCFICU ICS 3.1.1 Initialization options.

New ICS 3.1.1 initialization option.

Name of the dataset containing the ICU 3.1.1 data items to be dynamically allocated.

Changed/Enhanced Profile Parameters

Parameter

Corresponding
Macro

Task Change/Enhancement
PGP NTPGP Properties for External Programs New Property for Standard Linkage under CICS

The new STDLQ property shows whether standard linkage on QR TCB under CICS is used.

ZIIP NTZIIP zIIP Processing (z/OS Only) Disable Caching for Print and Work Files

The new PWCXAM keyword subparameter disables caching for print and work files for single or multiple file access methods.

Note:
The ZIIP keyword subparameter IMSG replaces functionality introduced with the special purpose Zap NA95083. This Zap is no longer required when using IMSG.

Application Programming Interfaces

The following Natural application programming interfaces (APIs) are new in the SYSEXT system library or have changed:

API Task Enhancement
USR2026N Get TECH information. This API now also returns IBM architecture level information as supplied by the TECH system command (see the relevant section).
USR3004N Improved usage of bufferpool fast locate Reduces the time spent in the bufferpool and increases the overall performance.
USR8204N Create a new zIIP Report for PROJECTCPU PoVs