Linux on System z

Linux on System z 1 'Linux on System z' is the collective term for the Linux Operating System compiled to run on IBM mainframes, especially System z machines. Other terms with the same meaning include 'Linux on zEnterprise 196', 'Linux on System z10', 'Linux on System z9', 'Linux on zSeries', 'Linux/390', 'zLinux', 'z/Linux', etc.

Linux on System z - History 1 IBM published a collection of patches and additions to the Linux Kernel (computer science)|kernel on December 18, 1999, to start today's mainline Linux on System z

Linux on System z - History 1 At the start of IBM's involvement, Linux patches for System z included some object code only (OCO) modules, without source code. However, currently Linux on System z is completely free software under the GNU General Public License.

Linux on System z - Hardware 1 Linux on System z is available in both 31- bit and 64-bit versions. The Linux kernel architecture designation is s390 for 31-bit kernels and s390'x' for 64-bit kernels. 64- bit distributions can still run 31-bit applications. The 31-bit versions are rapidly losing favor as z/Architecture mainframes become more prevalent than the earlier ESA/390 generation.

Linux on System z - Advantages 1 Linux on System z gives the flexibility of running Linux with the advantages of mainframe hardware

Linux on System z - Pricing and costs 1 Thus, beyond some minimum threshold, Linux on System z can quickly become cost-advantageous when factoring in labor and software costs.

Linux on System z - Pricing and costs 1 Server centralization, as Linux on System z provides, might reward cooperation with better service and lower costs, but that's not to say that cooperation is always easily accomplished within a corporate bureaucracy.

Linux on System z - Pricing and costs 1 Linux on System z also supports less expensive disk storage devices than z/OS because Linux does not require FICON or ESCON attachment, although z/OS may use disk space more efficiently due to hardware- assisted database compression on z/OS. This compression effect is somewhat variable and may be somewhat reduced due to the minimum space allocation requirements for z/OS data set (IBM mainframe)|data sets (a full disk track).

Linux on System z - Appropriate workloads 1 On the other hand, mainframes in general, and Linux on System z in particular, do not perform well for single task computations

Linux on System z - Support 1 Like all other versions of Linux, Linux on System z is governed by the GPL free software license. Complete Linux on System z source code is available from numerous groups on a free and equal basis, and architectural support is now part of the main Linux kernel effort. IBM assigns several of its programmers to the community effort, but IBM is by no means the only participant.

Linux on System z - Support 1 IBM currently supports two Linux distributions, Red Hat Enterprise Linux|Red Hat and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server|SUSE. Other notable Linux on System z distributions are Debian, Gentoo Linux|Gentoo and Fedora (Operating System)|Fedora.

Linux on System z - Support 1 Nearly every free or open-source software package available for Linux generally is available for Linux on System z, including Apache HTTP Server, Samba software, JBoss, PostgreSQL, MySQL, PHP, Python (programming language)|Python programming language, Concurrent Versions System (CVS), GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), and Perl, among many others.

Linux on System z - Support 1 Red Hat and SUSE offer mainline support for their distributions running Linux on System z. IBM Global Services also offers support contracts, including 24x7 coverage. Some standard Linux software applications are readily available pre-compiled, including popular closed-source enterprise software packages such as WebSphere, IBM DB2|DB2 and Oracle database|Oracle databases and applications, SAP R/3, SAP ERP, and IBM's Java (programming language)|Java Developer's Kit (JDK), to name only a few.

Linux on System z - Developer resources 1 * The Linux Test Drive, a free program granting a single Linux on System z virtual machine for 30 days.

Linux on System z - Developer resources 1 * The Community Development System for Linux on System z (CDSL) program, a platform for providing open source developers a platform for porting to Linux on System z.

Linux on System z - Developer resources 1 Linux on System z supports Unicode and ASCII just like any other Linux distributionmdash;it is not an EBCDIC- based Operating System. Linux is able to read kernel parameters in EBCDIC; this ability is used in z/VM installations.

Linux on System z - Developer resources 1 Porting Linux applications to Linux on System z is fairly straightforward; issues include endianness (Linux on System z is big-endian) and conversion between 32-bit integers and 31-bit pointers on the s390 architecture.

Linux on System z - Emulators 1 * The open source Hercules emulator supports Linux on System z (and can even run on Linux on System z itself).

Linux on System z - Emulators 1 * In 2010, IBM introduced the Rational Developer for System z Unit Test Feature, which provides a restricted use execution environment that can run on X86 hardware. IBM's license terms limit use of the Unit Test Feature to certain application development tasks, not including final pre-production compiling or pre-production testing (such as stress testing). The Unit Test Feature includes z/OS (with common middleware) and is also compatible with Linux on System z.

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