Customized Offerings Driver
- You do not have an existing system to use as a driving system.
- Your existing system does not meet driving system requirements and you do not want to upgrade it to meet those requirements.
The Customized Offerings Driver is a subset of a 
z/OS® V2R4
system. It is in DFSMSdss dump/restore format and supports DASD
volumes that are formatted as 3390-9 or larger. The driver requires a locally
attached non-SNA terminal and a system console from the IBM®
(or equivalent) family of supported terminal types: 317x, 327x, 319x, or 348x.
- As of May 17, 2023, the Customized Offerings Driver is updated to include
support for the IBM
z16 A02 server and to provide the certificate and key ring that
is required to optionally verify the digital signature of z/OSMF ServerPac portable software
instances and CBPDO order packages.
- As of 3 October 2022, the Customized Offerings Driver includes a source control
data set (SCDS), which contains a minimum SMS configuration. The SCDS defines a storage management
policy that enables the allocation of data sets larger than 4 GB. The Customized Offerings Driver
also includes a generic RACF profile for data sets.
- As of z/OS V2R5, the Customized Offerings Driver supports the installation of a
ServerPac portable software instance with workflows by using z/OSMF Software Management.
- As of 2 October 2020, the Customized Offerings Driver includes z/OSMF functions.
- As of z/OS V2R4, the Customized Offerings Driver supports internet delivery. See IBM United States Software Announcement 219-344, dated 23 July 2019.
- As of z/OS V2R3, the Customized Offerings Driver is delivered on DVD only (four DVDs per order). It is no longer delivered on IBM 3590 and 3592 tape media. The DVD restore process takes approximately 15 minutes per DVD. The DVD drive on the Hardware Management Console (HMC) can be used to restore the driver.
The Customized Offerings Driver is intended to run in single-system image and monoplex modes only. Its use in multisystem configurations is not supported. The Customized Offerings Driver is intended to be used only to install new levels of z/OS with ServerPac or CBPDO. Or, to install service on the new software until a copy (clone) of the new system can be made. The use of the Customized Offerings Driver for other purposes is not supported. For example, IBM does not support the use of the Customized Offerings Driver to run any production workload.
The Customized Offerings Driver includes a zFS file system and uses Communications Server (IP Services), Security Server, and the system-managed storage (SMS) facility of DFSMSdfp, but these items are not customized. However, existing environments can be connected to, and used from, the Customized Offerings Driver system.
Depending on the level of your existing system, the Customized Offerings Driver might be at higher product and service levels. Therefore, as with the level of software you plan to install, fallback service might be necessary to IPL and use your existing level of software after the Customized Offerings Driver is IPLed. You must either use the Customized Offerings Driver in an isolated environment or install the needed fallback service on your existing system before the Customized Offerings Driver is IPLed. An isolated environment shares no DASD with any other system and is not used to IPL an earlier level of software.
Installing the service on your existing system, as described in Coexistence and fallback, satisfies the requirements for falling back from the Customized Offerings Driver. Thus, you can IPL and use your current level of software after you use either the Customized Offerings Driver or the new system. IBM installs the service on the Customized Offerings Driver to allow it to be IPLed and used, if necessary, after the new system is IPLed.
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