We Love IBM Support

One of the best things about being a mainframer is IBMs support. This has to be the best in the world for any computing platform. So, in this issue, we look at some of the brilliant IBM support features, and how to get the most from them.

In our first technical article, we look at IBM APAR documentation, and how to understand them.

In our second technical article we take a step back, and look at IBM product IDs, components IDs and FMIDs: what they are, why they're different, where to find them, and when to use them.

Finally, in our third technical article David Stephens discusses some of the things he can find from the IBM support site.

We hope you enjoy this issue.

technical: How to Read IBM APARs

The IBM support pages provide, amongst a whole bunch of other things, APAR documentation. This is information from IBM support teams about errors, fixes and other issues relating to IBM products. There's a lot of information in this APAR documentation, but they can be a bit confusing, and it's hard to find any IBM documentation explaining them. So, in this article we'll show how to read these APARs.

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technical: IBM Program Number, Component ID and FMIDs

You'd think it would be simple, wouldn't you? IBM releases a product, and you use it. However, it isn't. IBM products have names that change, program IDs, component IDs, FMIDs and release numbers. So, let's look at IBM products and all the identification they have.

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technical: What I Find Out From IBMs Support Site

Throughout my career, I've believed that IBM has the best mainframe documentation and supporting resources of any vendor or platform. Their manuals are great, their Redbooks brilliant, and they'll fix things that are broken: fast. In particular, their support site is sensational. But you may be surprised how much you can find in this treasure chest.

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