PopUp Mainframe Release Notes
Details of previous versions are available here.
Release Naming Convention
PopUp Mainframe release versions are made up of the following segments:
- The first three characters define the z/OS version included in this PopUp Mainframe build (e.g. 3.1 or 2.5, etc)
- A PopUp Mainframe instance runs on a Linux host. The fourth character designates the Linux operating system used (e.g. "U" for Ubuntu or "R" for Red Hat Enterprise Linux)
PopUp Product Releases
Foundation Components
| Component | PopUp Z 3.1U(Aug 2025) | PopUp X 3.1R(Sep 2025) | PopUp X 2.5R(Dec 2025) | PopUp X 2.4R(Mar 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operating System | Ubuntu 22 | RHEL V9 | RHEL V9 | RHEL V9 |
| IBM zD&T | 14.2.2 | 14.2.2 | 14.2.2 | 14.2.2 |
| IBM z/OS | 3.1 | 3.1 | 2.5 | 2.4 |
| Image Types Available | KVM for Z | AzureOVA | AzureAWSOVA | KVM for XAzureOVA |
Mainframe Subsystems, Applications and Utilities
| Component | PopUp Z 3.1U(Aug 2025) | PopUp X 3.1R(Sep 2025) | PopUp X 2.5R(Dec 2025) | PopUp X 2.4R(Mar 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IBM ADCD for z/OS | V3R1 | V3R1 | V2R5 | V2R4 |
| IBM CICS TransactionServer | 6.1 | 6.1 | 5.5 & 5.6 | 5.5 & 5.6 |
| IBM Db2 | 13 | 13 | 12 | 12 |
| IBM IMS | 15.4 | 15.4 | 15.1 | 15.1 |
| IBM MQ for z/OS | 9.3.5 | 9.3.5 | 9.2 | 9.1.5 |
| IBM Java SDK for z/OS | 8.0 | 8.0 | 7.1 & 8.0 | 7.1 & 8.0 |
| IBM Enterprise COBOL | 6.4 | 6.4 | 6.3 | 6.3 |
| IBM Enterprise PL/1 | 6.1 | 6.1 | 5.3 | 5.3 |
| IBM Rational COBOL Runtime (EGL) | 6.0.1 | 6.0.1 | 6.0.1 | 6.0.1 |
| IBM z/OS Connect | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| IBM Debug for z/OS | 16.0.5 | 16.0.5 | 14.2.2 & 15.0.3 | 14.2.2 & 15.0.3 |
| IBM PerformanceManagement Suite for z/OS | 5.5 | 5.5 | ||
| IBM Z Monitoring Suite for z/OS | 1.3 | 1.3 | ||
| IBM DBB | 2.0.2 | 2.0.2 | ||
| IBM Wazi Deploy | 3.0.2 | 3.0.2 |
PopUp Add-ons
| Component | PopUp Z 3.1U(Aug 2025) | PopUp X 3.1R(Sep 2025) | PopUp X 2.5R(Dec 2025) | PopUp X 2.4R(Mar 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FastTrack | All Versions Supported | All Versions Supported | All Versions Supported | All Versions Supported |
| Ansible | 2.18.0 & Pre-builtPlaybooks | 2.18.0 & Pre-builtPlaybooks | 2.18.0 & Pre-builtPlaybooks | not supported |
| Python | 3.12 | 3.12 | 3.12 | 3.8.5 |
| Galasa | Core Managersavailable as of June2024 | Core Managersavailable as of June2024 | Core Managersavailable as of June2024 | |
| IBM Open EnterpriseFoundation for z/OS | 1.1.0 | 1.1.0 | 1.1.0 | not supported |
| ZTI | Installed | Installed | Installed | Installed |
| DMFU (Delphixmainframe file utility) | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
PopUp Utilities and Open Source products included on the PopUp are detailed here.
BMC AMI DevX tools
| Component | PopUp Z 3.1U(Aug 2025) | PopUp X 3.1R(Sep 2025) | PopUp X 2.5R(Dec 2025) | PopUp X 2.4R(Mar 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BMC AMI EnterpriseCommon Components(CMSC/HCI) | 17.02 | 17.02 | 17.02 | 17.02 |
| BMC AMI DevX Code Pipeline | 22.01 | 22.01 | 22.01 | 22.01 |
| BMC AMI DevX Abend- AID for batch | 17.02 | 17.02 | 17.02 | 17.02 |
| BMC AMI DevX Abend-AID for CICS | 17.02 | 17.02 | 17.02 | 17.02 |
| BMC AMI DevX Abend-AID Viewer (server) | 17.02 | 17.02 | ||
| BMC AMI DevX File-AID for MVS | 23.01 | 23.01 | 23.01 | 23.01 |
| BMC AMI DevX File-AID for Db2 | 23.01 | 23.01 | 23.01 | 23.01 |
| BMC AMI DevX Code Debug for TSO and IMS | 17.02 | 17.02 | 17.02 | 17.02 |
| BMC AMI DevX Code Debug for CICS | 17.02 | 17.02 | 17.02 | 17.02 |
| BMC AMI DevX Code Coverage | 17.02 | 17.02 | 17.02 | 17.02 |
| BMC AMI DevX Total Test | 23.04.02 | 23.04.02 | 23.04.02 | 24.02.01 |
| BMC AMI Common Enterprise Services(CES) | 24.02.01 | 24.02.01 | 23.04.02 | 24.02.01 |
PopUp Utilities
PopUp Mainframe ships with utilities to help make it easier to manage your z/OS environments.
DASD Volume Creation Utility
THis utility creates Linux volumes, mounts those volumes into z/OS, initializes them and performs SMS conversion. Full step-by-step guide to using this utility available here.
V2.0 (Feb 2024) - PL/I INCLUDE member support added. Now supports more volume types including DB2, CICS, IMS etc.
Data Migration Utilities
We augment IBM's Migration Server Utility to reliably transport selected applications and data from a source mainframe onto PopUp Mainframe. IBM's Migration Server Utility is discussed in detail in Chapter 15 of IBM's zPDT Guide and Reference Redbook.
Corral & Decorral Utility
The Corral & Decorral utility simplifies the transfer of data to and from the transport volumes used by the IBM Migration Server Utility.
This utility produces jobs to be run at migration time, which streamline the copying of data onto the available transport volumes, using space efficiently.
V2.0 (Feb 2024) - Added more automation features to the corral/decorral functionality, allowing for unsupervised execution of corralling and decorralling jobs, improving transfer of data from client mainframe to PopUp.
Auto-Migration
Provides controlled execution of corralling and decorralling jobs to facilitate unattended migration of application datasets. This is particularly useful when transferring large amounts of data. This tool utilises the Volume Hot-swap facility to seamlessly transfer all files in a conveyor belt like fashion. For more details, see the Data Transfer page.
GitSync Utility
A set of tools designed to assist in integrating a mainframe-hosted SCM solution (e.g. Endevor, Changeman) with a git-based solution. GitSync translates z/OS datasets into Unix/Linux files and vice versa, taking care of the formatting conversion between EBCDIC and ASCII. GitSync also enables you to import full SCM history into git, ensuring auditability in future.
Other utilities
Additional utilities include:
- JES Spool Utility - Monitors JES spool volumes and generates automated email alerts on user specified thresholds.
- Log viewer - Provides a readily accessible, user filterable web interface to the Master Console log.
- Master Console Management - Automates access to the master console from Linux at IPL.
- IPL Monitoring - Monitors the Master Console and automates actions based on console output.
Open Source Products
PopUp comes with the following open-source products pre-installed and pre-configured on the PopUp, designed to get you up and running with open-source tools quickly.
Ansible Automation
Ansible automation and pre-built playbooks are shipped with the PopUp. For more details, see Automation.
Galasa
Galasa CLI Integration: PopUp includes support for Galasa CLI v0.34.1, to facilitate automated testing and continuous integration processes. Refer to Galasa site for more information about Galasa.
Galasa has three major components (see below diagram):
- The Galasa test framework
- A collection of Managers
- A test runner
IMON
IMON is a real-time system monitor for z/OS allowing users to quickly locate information of interest. Information is either displayed on a single panel allowing the user to select the information they are interested in, or they can navigate to a specific display with a single command string.
Showzos
Showzos makes MVS control information displayable, providing a wealth of information about your z/OS system, everything from Operating System Information to Software levels and Storage Configuration is provided in a single call. The tool can be web-enabled to allow you to display and use the information from a web browser.
IBM Open Enterprise Foundation for z/OS
IBM Open Enterprise Foundation for z/OS provides a comprehensive suite of open source tools and libraries that are designed to enhance and simplify the experience on the z/OS platform for z/OS 2.5 and above. The tools available as part of this suite are git, GNU Bash, curl, GNU Make, perl, vim, Ncurses, Less, GPG, JQ and GNU which. All these tools are available in the z/OS USS environment. In order to experience the full functionality, IBM recommends to use it in an SSH envionment rather than through TSO OMVS.
Additional information available here.
ZTI - Z Terminal Interface
Z Terminal Emulator allows you to run a 3270 user interface from within a linux environment. You can run against a local or a remote PopUp Mainframe that has appropriate network connectivity.
Additional information available here.
COBOL Check
COBOL Check is a unit testing framework for COBOL.
Additional information available here.
Delphix Plugin
PopUp Delphix Virtualization Plugin V1.0
Enables the Delphix Continuous Data Engine to interact and function with a PopUp Mainframe instance in order to provide data virtualization capabilities. Provides seamless integration with the Delphix Continuous Data product in order to facilitate highly efficient storage, bookmarking, re-setting and branching of PopUp Mainframe images.
Delphix Mainframe File Utility (DMFU)
Complements the Delphix Continuous Compliance Engine to provide masking capabilities for various mainframe file types including fixed length files (eg QSAM & flat files) and variable length files (eg VSAM).
DMFU V3.0 - January 2025
Updated to support Delphix Continuous Compliance version 14 onwards.
DMFU V2.0 - February 2024
PL/I INCLUDE member support added.
DMFU V1.0
Initial implementation.
Delphix IMS Mainframe Utility (DIMU)
Complements the Delphix Continuous Compliance Engine to provide masking capabilities for IMS databases.
DIMU V2.0 - February 2024
PL/I INCLUDE member support added.
DIMU V1.0
Initilal implementation.
Watch this video for more detail on the mainframe masking plugins from PopUp Mainframe.
Page last revised on: 2026-04-20