Running Different Levels of IPCS

The version and release level of IPCS must match the level of the system that produced the dump. You must use the z/OS MVS™ libraries of IPCS code, for example, to analyze a dump or trace produced by an z/OS MVS system.

With z/OS® Release 2, enhancements are added that make it more important that the user confirm that the level of IPCS being used matches the level of the system that generated dumps and traces. If there is a mismatch between the IPCS level and the level of the dumping program, IPCS will issue an appropriate message when IPCS dump initialization is performed.

If the levels match, message BLS18223I is issued; source is one of the following: SADUMP, SVC, SYSMDUMP, SLIP, or unknown agent.
```
BLS18224I Dump of z/OS 01.13.00-0 - level differs from
          IPCS level
BLS21001I IPCS for z/OS 01.13.00-1 
```
If there is a mismatch between the level of the dumped system and the IPCS level, message BLS21001I follows message BLS18224I.
In all cases, IPCS will attempt to process the dump despite the lack of information about the level of system being dumped.

Also with z/OS Release 2, IPCS issues messages to indicate whether the level of IPCS matches the level of the dumping program and the level of the system being dumped. If all are at the same level, one of the following messages will be issued:

BLS18224I Dump of z/OS 01.02.00 -
          level same as IPCS level
BLS18224I Dump of z/OS 01.02.00 -
          level same as both SADUMP
          and IPCS levels

With z/OS with FMID JBB778H, an additional indicator is added to identify an MVS release. IPCS has been updated to display this indicator as a part of the product name as shown below:

BLS18224I Dump of z/OS 01.13.00-0 - level differs from
          IPCS level
BLS21001I IPCS for z/OS 01.13.00-1

With the exception of SADUMP, z/OS dumping programs are part of the system itself and cannot be matched with the wrong system level. SADUMP is intended to be used to process a system of a matching level. However, if there is a mismatch between the level of the dumped system and the SADUMP level, message BLS18224I identifies the nature of the mismatch.

If there is a mismatch between the level of the dumped system and the SADUMP level, message BLS18224I identifies the level of SADUMP used to generate the dump.
If there is a mismatch between the level of the dumped system and the IPCS level, message BLS2100I precedes message BLS18224I.

In all cases, IPCS will attempt to process the dump.

Although IPCS and the dump or trace must have matching levels, you can run IPCS on different levels of the system. See z/OS MVS IPCS Customization for requirements for running IPCS on different levels of z/OS.