Centos 7 in the IBM Mainframe z/Linux environment

[ITMetrics]

Hi forum members,

If it possible to use Centos 7 as the supporting Linux OS in the IBM Mainframe z/Linux environment?

I know RHEL 7 can be used, but is Centos 7 also supported and if not why not?

Cheers
Steve

[TrevorH]

There is no S/390 version of CentOS. It would need significant hardware investment

[ITMetrics]

Thanks for the feedback TrevorH

We are using an £800 GBP AMD Powered PC, running Centos 7, with the zPDT (z/Series Mainframe) emulator that allows us to run IBM's z/VM, z/OS 2.2 and a z/Linux environment .. all for around $5000 USD per year. This is not really a significant hardware investment

But if we cannot use Centos 7 and have to revert to RHEL 7, SUSE or Ubunto then so be it. Shame

Cheers
Steve

[DocDJ]

There is no S/390 version of CentOS. It would need significant hardware investment

Don't you mean "There is no CentOS version 7..."? Since we have been running CentOS 6.5 on an IBM Z10 for a few years.

[TrevorH]

There hasn't been a CentOS version for IBM mainframes since 4.x. I don't know what you're running but it didn't come from the CentOS project.

[DocDJ]

There hasn't been a CentOS version for IBM mainframes since 4.x. I don't know what you're running but it didn't come from the CentOS project.

Our version is newer than 4.x. It came from Sine Nomine, but it does run on an IBM z10. From what info I have, version 7 requires newer hardware than the z10. Sine Nomine does not support our version any more, although it was still available on their download site as of middle of last year.

[TrevorH]

It doesn't appear to be CentOS - they call it ClefOS - http://www.sinenomine.net/products/linux/clefos

[DocDJ]

Thank you for the clarification. However, I believe a useful response to the OP's question is that there IS a version of a Linux distribution that DOES run on the IBM z-series, which is BASED on CentOS. We got it here: http://www.sinenomine.net/products/linux/clefos
There are later versions that require newer CPU's than available on the z10.