The Hercules-MVS 'binary' distribution

Preface

After so any people in the Hercules Community have worked on MVS 3.8. and many got it up and running there might be some left that do not have the time (or interest) in building the system 'from the ground' - but they'd probably like to play with MVS anyway. Or, there might be people that would like to do there own full installation - but with a more stable system then the MVS 3.7 starter system.

This distribution contains a fully functional MVS 3.8, build from the SMP install. It's a pure system with no maintenance applied (yet). Anyway, it's working quite good. Also VTAM and TSO is preconfigured. As a bonus for TSO the 'FSE' - a full screen editor from the CBT tape (http://www.cbttape.org) is also included. After some very few installation steps, you're ready to IPL.

In the future it might be easier to supply 'software packages' (i.e. tools from the cbttape) to some 'standard' distribution ...

I do not want to discourage anyone from building his own system ... this is just meant to be a little helper. To keep the download small I've left out the distribution libraries, but I'll probably publish this one later.

The most current version of this distribution can be found at http://www.schaefernet.de/hercules - in the future you'll also find corrections and add-ons at that place.

Have fun with MVS 3.8

If you have questions, comments or suggestions feel free to contact me at s390@schaefernet.de - but please don't expect 7x24 support :-))

January 2001, Wolfgang Schäfer

Table of Contents

  1. Release Notes
  2. Prerequisites
  3. Contents of the distribution
  4. Installation
    1. Windows
    2. Linux
  5. Your first IPL
  6. Remarks

Release Notes

Release 1.00 2001-01-23

This is the first release. MVS, JES, TSO and VTAM and FSE should be fully functional. For the page datasets I've choosen a 3340 disk pack which circumvents a problem with Hercules' DASD emulation in releases prior to 1.71.

The complete build was done on a Win98 system - on Linux only a few tests were done.

Prerequisites

This distribution assumes that you already have hercules installed and are familiar with operation of Hercules. For MVS 3.8 you'll also need a 3270 emulator which allows you to open at least 3 sessions (2 might be o.k. if you remove the secondary console from the configuration.

The basic disk drives require about 770 MB of disk space. This includes two (empty) 3330 storage volumes for your datasets.

Contents of the distribution

It is recommended that you unpack the distribution to a subfolder (this document assumes 'mvs') below your hercules directory (the one with the hercules executables/binaries). Once you have unpacked the distribution zip/tgz package you should find the following files in your destination folder:

Installation

If you've unpacked the distribution, you're almost done.

Windows

Open a DOS window (Commandline) and change (CD) to the 'install' subdirectory below your 'mvs' directory.

Note to Win/ME users: there is no DOS window. I could never use it under ME, but I thing you can create an assoctiation for the batch files and/or commands so that they use the install directory as working directory.

At the DOS prompt enter 'create_dasd' - this will execute the create_dasd.bat file. Using the dasdload program, this batch file creates 3 3350 volumes: spool01, work01 and tso001. If your 'mvs' directory is not directly below the folder that contains the hercules programs, you'll have to modify the .bat file before you run it.

Next you should review the mvs.cnf file in the 'mvs' directory. If you have changed any dataset names of the dasd files, you'll have to do change this file accordingly. You'll also might want to change the TZOFFSET parameter to match your timezone (if you're not on CET).

You are ready to IPL!

Linux

Change to the install subdirectory of your 'mvs' directory. Use 'bash create_dasd.sh' - using the dasdload program, this script creates 3 3350 volumes: spool01, work01 and tso001. If your 'mvs' directory is not directly below the folder that contains the hercules programs, you'll have to modify the script file before you run it.

Next you should review the mvs.cnf file in the 'mvs' directory. If you have changed any dataset names of the dasd files, you'll have to do change this file accordingly. You'll also might want to change the TZOFFSET parameter to match your timezone (if you're not on CET).

You are ready to IPL!

Your first IPL

Time to start MVS for the very first time ... this first IPL is 'special' since some datasets (i.e. page, spool) are uninitialized - starting with the next IPL the procedure is slightly different.

 

Remarks

I know that this documentation is not perfect ... but it's a start ..., some more will follow ...

Finally a list of the FMIDs I accepted: EAS1102 EBB1102 EBT1102 EDE1102 EDM1102 EDS1102
EER1400 EGA1102 EGS1102 EIP1102 EJE1103 EMF1102 EMI1102 EML1102 EMS1102 EPM1102 EST1102 ESU1102 ESY1400 ETC0108 ETI1106 ETV0108 EUT1102 EVT0108 EXW1102 FBB1221 FDM1133 FDS1122 FDS1133 FDZ1610 FUT1133

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