Phoenix Software International
News

Phoenix Software Product Releases: September 2025

In a world with pervasive outsourcing and dwindling HLASM skills, bringing JES Policies to JES3^plus is a project of great strategic importance. JES Policies will benefit our clients by providing a way to customize JES3^plus processing without assembler language programming. Clients can formulate customization requirements in high-level terms based on general understanding of z/OS jobs and their attributes, and define these requirements to JES3^plus in a high-level human readable syntax. This release of JES3^plus implements the JobConversion policy. Future releases are expected to deliver additional policies, such as PreConversion, SYSOUTGroup, etc.

“The tedious and arcane process of transforming business requirements into assembler language statements is becoming increasingly burdensome to mainframe installations, given the industry-wide decline in HLASM skills among new sysprog hires," said Ed Jaffe, Chief Technology Officer at Phoenix Software International. “Some installations don't even understand what their exits are doing anymore. Providing a way to express those business requirements in human-readable syntax is an important step toward improving the cost effectiveness of maintaining our platform.”

With z/OS 3.2 being the second version of z/OS to no longer offer IBM JES3, clients looking to continue using JES3 technology should be pleased with the continued direction of JES3^plus. Not only is Team JES3^plus committed to advancing the technology and continuing to move it forward, but so are our clients, particularly those who participate in the JES3^plus Client Advisory Council (JCAC). Take a look at the complete list of enhancements that have occurred across releases that are directly attributable to JCAC here.

Team Phoenix has been busy this last year, enhancing your favorite products. Take a look at what they have delivered:

JES3^plus V1R5

JES3^plus is a plug-compatible solution for IBM JES3 customers who do not wish to undertake a costly and potentially risky JES2 conversion.

Enhancement Highlights:

• HOLDUNTL and STARTBY SCHEDULE JCL Parameters are now supported.
• The &SYSJOBID and &SYSJOBNM symbols are now supported in addition to the existing &SYSUID support.
• Dump Core Support for OPTION=ITX was added for certain control blocks using dump core, *START,DC.
• DISPDJC DSP now not only displays all successors of a job but also flags the ones that are missing from the system. This enables the client to identify the issue and rectify it quickly.
• MAINPROC Entry Deletion and Reuse allows you to delete a MAINPROC initialization definition from the middle of the configuration. The deleted system remains defined and its name is changed to lowercase characters. This allows the sequence number assigned to the system to stay the same. It also preserves system masks used by JES3^plus to determine resource availability, etc. The system can be replaced in the future by a different one.
• Display Jobs Using a Reserved Device allows the operator to find out what jobs have allocated a reserved device. A device is reserved by JES3^plus when a job requires it, but the device is not available. The operator can issue the *I S,DEV=dddd,RSVD command and get a list of jobs using the device or waiting for the device to be freed by the current job(s).
• A new module has been added to the Exception Analysis report, which focuses on Output Service exceptions. The initial exception checking/flagging is for the combination of the Writer Selection (WS) criterion of a Line Limit with a Limit specification of 0, which prevents any output from being selected on an Output Writer.
• JES3^plus policies are rule-based and are defined using a JSON-like syntax, specifying conditions and actions. Each policy defines a logical expression (condition) that, when true, triggers specific actions on JES3^plus objects.
• JES3^plus will now start NJECONS automatically when a command or message arrives via NJE, instead of issuing message IAT9131 and discarding the command or message.

(E)JES^® V6R5

(E)JES is a systems management tool that provides all the information you need to monitor, manage, and control your z/OS JESplex—whether you are running JES2 or JES3.

Enhancement Highlights:

• The Memory Contents display has been improved with some important usability enhancements.
• Security warnings and violations are now being captured by the System Events display. This should minimize the need to search the log looking for messages such as IBM RACF’s ICH408I.
• Support for JES3 //*NET JECL has been added to the JES2 Job Groups Job Status display, along with new line commands for manipulating the NHOLD count, etc.
• Sample started task JCL is now delivered with (E)JES for EJESPLIC, EJESPOPT, EJESPSEC. Additionally, a new EJESPIPL started task has been introduced. It is intended to run at IPL time and perform an UPDATE of whichever dynamic policies a client has implemented.
• Six new operator commands are now available to clients utilizing the Phoenix TP Monitor. These new commands allow the operator to see who is logged on, limit the number of allowable users to as few as zero, send messages to users - for example to notify them the system is coming down, and force them off.

These enhancements serve to improve the (E)JES experience for both End Users and Administrators. Despite not having a formal advisory council, our developers continue to look for ways to honor client requests in each and every new release.

Entrypoint^® 16.6.0

Entrypoint is a Java-based suite of easy-to-use tools, available under Windows, Linux, and z/OS for developing custom applications with graphical user interfaces. It includes a Web Services API and a Java-based SDK for extending its core functionality. Deploying the Entrypoint Server on z/OS can help eliminate cross-platform data movement, strengthen the security characteristics of your workflow, and leverage the stability, performance, and scalability inherent in the mainframe to create mission-critical applications.

Enhancement Highlights:

• Entrypoint Platform:
• Java 21
• Strong cryptography (RSA/AES) for Entrypoint Client Protocol (EPXP)
• PostgreSQL Provider - Upgrade to PostgreSQL JDBC Driver 42.7.5
• Configuration option for NTLMv2 to the SQL Server Provider
• Support for IBM z/OS (Configuration, SAF Authentication Provider, PDS DataSet Linear Exporter)
• Server-integrated support for HTTPS - Configuration now supports direct SSL/TLS using Entrypoint Server (Reverse Proxy Server/SSL-offload not required)
• Support for Linux Desktop
• Support for standard (unencrypted) LDAP Authentication
• Desktop Workstation:
• Keyboard shortcuts for Data Entry operations
• Automatic scaling of formats in Data Entry mode
• Export from rule
• Ability to create and view/download Reports from the Desktop Workstation
• Batch Generator now accessible from Desktop Workstation w/added Key from Image support included
• New JSON exporter
• Application Studio:
• Support for global headers and footers (text and logic) in Linear Output Specification
• Support for cloning Formats
• Support for HTML email in Logic (EntrypointScript)
• WebClient – System Manager:
• Server Logs zip-file download
• New System Performance Report

Phoenix Software Product Releases: September 2025

Product downloads are available to customers via the Phoenix Software International Support portal.
Visit: https://phoenixsoftware.com/support.htm#downloads.

New product releases include:

• (E)JES V6R5
• CONDOR^® z/OS 26.5 z/VSE 32.5
• CYGNET^® z/OS 26.5 z/VSE 32.5
• Entrypoint 16.6
• FALCON^® z/OS 26.5 z/VSE 32.5
• JES3^plus V1R5
• PHX-BDT^® V1R5