Summary of changes

November 2025, changes for V16R1M2

This edition of the document provides information applicable to Z Data Tools Version 16 Release 1 Modification Level 2. Here are the major changes to this document from the previous release:

For enhanced security, define data set profiles for data sets allocated to the HFMAUTH DD with UACC(NONE) and encrypt these files. For more details, see Preparing for Z Data Tools Remote Services.
TSO/ISPF is the preferred environment to access CICS resources using Z Data Tools. For installations using CICS via the ZCC server environment, HFM3PRFD should specify *PASSWORD=PASSTICKET. *PASSWORD=REMEMBER will be deprecated in a future release. For more information, see the topics Checklist for installing and customizing Z Data Tools to access CICS resources and Modifying and submitting HFM3INST and HFM3PRFD.

June 2025, changes for V16R1M1

This edition of the document provides information applicable to Z Data Tools Version 16 Release 1 Modification Level 1. Here are the major changes to this document from the previous release.

A new option has been added to use an auxiliary data set when viewing a large non-VSAM data set that will not fit into memory. See the new option in VIEWAUX.

April 2025, changes for V16R1M0 First Edition

This refresh version of Z Data Tools includes the following new support:

Z Data Tools provides a Microsoft Visual Studio Code extension client with an intuitive interface to access, edit, and manage data sets and files on z/OS systems. See Z Data Tools on VS Code for more details about downloading the extension.

March 2025, V16R1M0 First Edition

This edition of the document provides information applicable to Z Data Tools Version 16 Release 1 Modification Level 0. Here are the enhancements delivered with this version:

Z Data Tools provides updated internal COBOL and PL/I compilers with this version. Starting with this version, by default, the internal default COBOL compiler is used and additional internal compilers are provided.
To determine which Z Data Tools COBOL compiler is to be used, a new option, ALTCOB, has been added. See ALTCOB for more information about the available COBOL compilers.
To determine which Z Data Tools PL/I compiler is to be used, a new option, ALTPLI, has been added. See ALTPLI for more information about the available PL/I compilers.
To discover the level of the internal PL/I compiler being used, a new command is available, SHOWPLI, from both batch and the Z Data Tools command line. See Customizing for processing PL/I include books for more information about submitting this command.
Z Data Tools provides the SHOWCOB command, from both batch and the Z Data Tools command line, to determine which COBOL compiler is being used, internal or external. When the Z Data Tools internal COBOL compiler is being used, more detailed messages are provided with this release to indicate why it is being used. See Customizing for processing COBOL copybooks for more information.
ZDT/Db2 IVP updates for supported versions of Db2 Version 12 and later. See the section Verifying the customization of ZDT/Db2 for the updates.