As someone still relatively new to Z, I am eager to participate in any learning programmes or events that will further my knowledge. Fortunately these are pretty frequent! I became aware of the newly launched Mainframe Skills Depot and was keen to discover the courses it had to offer.
The first course I enrolled on was 'Introducing AI', this was presented as bite-sized videos, providing clear and concise information that was completed quickly. Following this, I continued reading articles on generative AI from sources such as Planet Mainframe and Google Cloud Skills Boost.
Next up I decided to start building on my Z experience with the 'Introduction to IBM z/OS' course, hopefully all the material here should be somewhat familiar! The course very quickly moves to topics such as paging, certainly not a fluffy summary of what a Z system is, with the usual history lessons etc. Acronyms such as LPAR are very quickly detailed, one of the first stumbling blocks people will encounter is all those TLAs! The sooner we start breaking these down the better. Soon I was actually learning concepts that I'd maybe heard reference to in the past, but never really queried what they actually were, CHPIDs for example.
At this point, I decided to start taking notes of what was being presented, I find this solidifies topics even if I've covered them as part of other training over the years. This was entirely necessary as the information here comes thick and fast.
I progressed through the Mainframe Environment section relatively easily, watching the videos back a couple of times. Arriving at Mainframe Features, the course quickly fast forwarded to the current day and the z16. Navigating through the Mainframe Infrastructure section, I learnt about how machines interact, Server Time Protocol, coupling, resource serialisation etc. To complete the sections, a multiple choice checkpoint must be completed. These are tricky as occasionally all the options sound perfectly viable as answers.
The Mainframe Security section adds quiz questions as it goes along. This is a pretty fun way to ensure you've understood the concepts covered. The section is heavy on security, rather than Z itself, whether this is entirely necessary in an 'Introduction to Z' course, I'm not certain, but all the same it is interesting. The course content does swing back to Z, swiftly breaking down more acronyms. So many acronyms!
Frequently, especially during my early days on Z, I would feel overwhelmed with the amount of information I was trying to absorb. And during the IOCDS section, I had this feeling for the first time in a while. During this time, I'd think back to the words of my manager who would remind me that some of the information would stick, at least. With that in mind, I persevered. The final part of the introduction related to the IPL process, this commanded a decent portion of time to try and absorb. Fortunately I had already been introduced to CCWs (Channel Command Word) and channel programming as part of our internal Macro 4 training, so this began to make sense.
One of the major issues I've found throughout the process of learning Z is the availability of information, and the difficulty in locating resources, in part due to the use of acronyms. Googling IPL RIM leads us immediately to a selection of alloy wheels! Of course what I'm actually interested in is Resource Initialisation Modules!
At the end of the module, you have to complete a quiz. Not being a huge fan of this approach, I spent a couple of days going back over the course material, possibly spending more time than necessary on this, but I finally plucked up the courage to attempt it. If you fail twice, you have to wait five days before you can try again. I felt this was actually quite difficult for an introduction, but I achieved a pass grade and received an Introduction to IBM z/OS badge from IBM.
Along with two further courses, 'Introduction to Mainframe with z/OS Commands and Panels' and 'Introduction to Systems Programming on IBM Z', the introduction forms part of a further IBM z/OS Mainframe Practitioner certificate. This certainly seems like a goal worth aiming for, an initial look at the 'Commands and Panels' course looks less daunting than the name would imply, actually resembling the old 'Master the Mainframe' course. May be I'll document my progress on that too!
This blog was originally published on the IBM Community.