Inside Velocity July 2026

Inside Velocity - July 2026:

Support for IBM z17 and LinuxONE 5

Velocity Software is ready for the z17 hardware and software features! We have built observability for these changes into our 5.1.6.0 release. These changes include:

Our goal has been (as it has always been) to understand changes, determine the performance implications and create useful performance reports and tuning advice.

The largest change has been to the physical I/O architecture. This change added a large processor on the z17 chip called a Data Processing Unit (DPU) as well as the Network Express and Ficon Express 32-4P adapters. The DPUs take on a lot of the heavy lifting of I/O processing. Network reports have been enhanced to provide visibility into the utilization of these new network devices, DPU utilization and the channel activity associated with each DPU.

The introduction of two new virtual networking devices - the EQDIO Virtual NIC and the EQDIO VSwitch - has significantly increased the complexity of the virtual networking environment. To address this increased complexity, Velocity Software has expanded support by adding extensive new information, along with enhanced performance and configuration metrics, providing greater visibility into the impact of these changes to the virtual networking environment.

The final z17 enhancement we are excited to introduce is support for the new power metrics. Velocity Software understands that power has become increasingly important in the computing environment. For so many enterprises, reducing their carbon footprint has become a key objective. Luckily, the mainframe is among the most power efficient computers in the world. The new z17 not only is more efficient, it reports power metrics from both the CP Monitor and the Hardware Management Console (HMC). Unique to Velocity Software, our new power report brings together two previously separate metrics, weaving them into a unified view of power consumption. This enables organizations to better understand their power consumption patterns and identify potential power issues - making their power reduction and sustainability goals a reality!

Velocity Software z/VM Instructor-led Education

Velocity Software is very excited to announce a new series of no-charge, instructor-led training classes!

We recognize the growing need for live, interactive education in today's computing environment. As many experienced professionals retire, organizations face the challenge of transferring decades of expertise to the next generation of system programmers, operators, and others. Providing effective, hands-on training has never been more important.

With Velocity's wealth of z/VM expertise, we are committed to helping the z/VM community. By leveraging Webex, we've created live training sessions that make it easy for participants to learn directly from experienced instructors (featuring interactive quizzes) while accommodating the schedules of both organizations and individuals. Questions will be addressed both in class and via email after the class concludes, ensuring participants continue to receive support as they apply what they've learned.

We are thrilled by the overwhelming response to our first class! Our second class is coming soon and we look forward to expanding our training offerings in the months ahead. Thank you to everyone who registered! We're excited to continue helping the z/VM community build the skills needed for the future.

Our training webpage provides information for upcoming classes, a curriculum outline with links to helpful self-study resources, and instructions for accessing our demo system for practice and learning reinforcement. (Student credentials will be part of live classes.) Instructor-led class recordings will also be posted as classes are completed. Our main education webpage also has helpful information about upcoming performance classes, performance tuning expertise, industry events and past presentations.

z/VM Linux Monitor Daemon (zLMD)

zLMD is a lightweight data-collection agent for Linux systems running under z/VM and was originally built as an alternative for customers who could not use SNMP due to network security concerns. Instead of sending performance data over the network, zLMD pushes data directly into z/VM's CP Monitor stream, where Velocity's Performance Suite can access and process it at each interval. This collection method has also appears to be much more resource-efficient than SNMP; using less of the Linux guest's memory and using less CPU overhead, all while delivering the same data as an SNMP agent.

For existing Velocity Software customers, the only requirement to install and use zLMD is to set up the z/VM Linux guests by enabling the "OPTION APPLMON" statement in their CP Directory entries.

Based on growing interest, our team has also added a new, fully-integrated module to zLMD for collecting MongoDB performance data. These new MongoDB metrics can now be viewed via Grafana alongside z/VM, LinuxONE, and System Z hardware data. For more detailed information, please see the zLMD product page or Contact Us!.

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Velocity Software z/OS Visibilty

Many shops that run z/VM also run z/OS. Velocity Software does very low cost performance monitoring for z/OS as well as z/VM! Available for some time now, the extremely lightweight zOSMON agent runs on z/OS and sends SMF records to z/VM to be processed much more efficiently and cost-effectively than what can be done on z/OS itself or by other off-platform tools. zOSMON currently provides visualization into the following SMF records: 30, 70, 75, 100, 101, 110 and 113. It also supports the monitoring of DB2 and CICS and is easily installed with only the lightweight z/OS agent being required.

zOSMON data can be viewed together with z/VM, Linux, Linux applications and VSE data on a single pane of glass using zVIEW. This is extremely helpful for everyone from system operators to management that need to view specific details of their entire enterprise in one place - when given the proper authority.

The zOSMON product also utilizes alerting through zALERT. Alerts for issues such as highwater marks, batch job abends and CICS response-time issues can be used to notify the correct parties to mitigate issues or potential issues before they affect production. Alerts can be as simple as color-coded text or graphics to sending emails and/or integrating alerts into your IT Service Management (ITSM) tool.

The performance data for zOSMON is presented at one-minute granularity with virtually no impact on system performance. The high-resolution monitoring enables faster detection of performance issues, allowing for potential problems to be identified and addressed before they become significant.

Here is an example of a view into one z/OS LPAR from zOSMON:

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Velocity hosted Performance Class and The VM Workshop 2026

Velocity Software began 2026 by offering our legendary z/VM performance classes in the UK and then again to a sold-out crowd the day before the VM Workshop in Richmond VA at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) this past June. This year Barton shared the stage with Tyler Rossi, one of Velocity's new young professionals who was able to share channel performance along with the changes that went into IBM's latest z17 offerings. Managing OpenShift on IBM Z, together with changes to cache on the z17, seemed to drive the most conversations and interest.

Onto the VM Workshop. More than 15 years ago a conversation between Barton Robinson and Len Diegel resurrected the VM Workshop. Having started in 1977, this user group of enthusiasts met for the first time at Waterloo University in Ontario CA. Worth noting, the Internet was still called ARPNET, and only contained 111 nodes at that time. The original VM Workshop ended at Marist University in Poughkeepsie NY in 1998.

When the VM Workshop made its triumphant return at The Ohio State University in July of 2011, Linux had cemented itself as the new virtual machine (VM) running as a guest on z/VM and the community needed help once again. Sharing things like tuning tips, tools that helped make certain tasks easier, what's coming next and education still remains the core goal for this hands-on technical community. In 2026, 153 people showed up at VCU to attend approximately 80 sessions and 2 labs. IBM even brought a Plexiglass z17, allowing folks to get selfies hugging a mainframe while at this event!

Velocity Software would like to once again thank the 12 sponsors, 20 volunteers and the VM Workshop board who make all of this possible. Follow-up conversations from some of the 11 students that attended, and even presented, prove that the ongoing effort is well worth it. Presentations provided by Velocity Software can be viewed/downloaded here. Material submitted to the VM Workshop can be viewed/downloaded here.