Learners Edition
ZD&T for Learners Edition enables a single user to run an IBM® Z distribution on a personal computer.
ZD&T for Learners Edition can create an environment to learn about mainframe technologies without Z mainframe hardware. It enables z/OS®, middleware, and other z/OS software to run on Intel and other compatible computers.
To install ZD&T for Learners Edition, you need to run the Learners Edition package on the 8086 Intel-based hardware with RHEL or Ubuntu operating system. This package can emulate z/Architecture® with virtual I/O and devices. For more information about hardware and software requirements, see Prerequisites.
ZD&T for Learners Edition provides the following features:
- Current® levels of IBM z/OS software that can offer additional learning experiences with new middleware and runtime capabilities
- An approachable and portable environment for education on Z for a single user
License Key (USB)
ZD&T for Learners Edition comes with a USB hardware device that contains the fingerprint that is used to identify the entitlement of user. After you install Learners Edition, you need to insert the USB hardware device to the USB port of the machine to enable the license. For more information, see Enabling a license key.
Application Developers Controlled Distribution (ADCD)
ZD&T for Learners Edition comes with the Application Developers Controlled Distribution (ADCD) package, which is known as z/OS ADCD. A z/OS ADCD for ZD&T for Learners Edition contains many of the products and subsystems that you might need to try z/OS coding applications such as CICS®, Db2®, IMS, and z/OS compiler. Most of these products and subsystems can run without any customization, but some need customization or initialization.
For a complete list of z/OS products in ADCD, see Products contained in this release.
3270 terminal emulator
After Learners Edition and ADCD is installed successfully, you can IPL the z/OS distributions with the specified IPL parameters. Before the IPL process, you need to install a 3270 terminal emulator on your machine. The terminal emulator is not supplied with the package. You can download the x3270 Linux package on your machine, or purchase IBM Personal Communication Terminal Emulator to access Mainframe machine. You can run the emulator either on the Linux machine where you installed ZD&T for Learners Edition, or on your personal Windows, Mac devices to access the ZD&T z/OS distributions by the IP and port (3270) of the machine.
For the detailed steps to install, update, or uninstall ZD&T for Learners Edition, see Checklist.