IBM Z Remote Development Program
IBM Z Remote Development Program Information and Enrollment
The IBM Z Remote Development Program (RDP) is available to IBM Z Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) who are members of IBM PartnerWorld. The RDP provides IBM Z ISVs with low-cost remote access to virtual system environments for the purposes of developing, porting, and testing applications that run on IBM Z platforms. The virtual system environments include generally available versions of operating systems that run on the IBM Z platform, including z/OS, z/VM, and Linux on z Systems distributions (Red Hat, Inc., SUSE LLC). PartnerWorld membership is a requirement for participation in the Remote Development Program.
The system environments are comprised of generally available and supported operating systems and software products running as virtual guests under IBM z/VM. Each virtual guest system is dedicated to the use of the participating partner which provides a high level of system control and configuration independence within their environment.
The RDP is structured for the partner to be largely self-reliant with minimal assistance needed from IBM. Participants in the program assume the role of system and security administrator for their virtual guest system environment and are expected to have the necessary system skills. Those skills include subsystem administration, security administration, and console operations.
Please select the link below to view the description and details of the Remote Development Program.
Additional virtual system information is provided in the sections below.
Ready to Enroll?
When you are ready to enroll select the link below or at the bottom of the page. A valid IBM ID is required to use the Online Enrollment application. To avoid delays with processing your application, please also include your IBM PartnerWorld (Enterprise) ID with your contact information.
Available Virtualized Environments
The virtualized environments available through the RDP are listed below.
Where applicable, select the links to view details of the base system software configurations.
Questions regarding the availability of IBM software products not listed in the configuration information can be sent to zTech@us.ibm.com
z/OS
Remote Development Program for z/OS V2 R5
Remote Development Program for z/OS V2 R4
The IBM z/OS Authorized Code Scanner (zACS) is an optional priced feature for z/OS V2R4 and above that provides dynamic scanning for authorized programs running on z/OS. Utilizing this scanner is recommended for all such programs. Its solution brief can be found at ibm.biz/zacsbrief with full documentation at ibm.biz/zacsdoc . The Remote Development Program (RDP) supports the option of zACS testing.
In addition to software options listed above, there are also hardware options available to the z/OS guest systems. These options include access to specialty processors such as z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) and the CryptoExpress processor. Also available to z/OS guest systems are Extended Address Volumes (EAV), additional General Purpose CPs, and zEnterprise Data Compression (zEDC). The option of a virtualized Parallel Sysplex with Coupling Facility is also available.
Please contact us at zTech@us.ibm.com if you have questions concerning testing with any of the specialty processors or hardware features described above.
z/VM
z/VM 7.3
Linux for IBM Z
The Linux for IBM Z distributions listed below are also available using the Remote Development Program Online Enrollment process.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12
Ubuntu Server for IBM Z
RDP Fees
z/OS and z/VM
The IBM Z Remote Development Program fees for z/OS and z/VM systems are based on a minimum monthly fee and actual CPU usage as reported by z/VM. The CPU usage is measured in "workunits". A workunit is designed to roughly provide the equivalent of one (1) real, non-dedicated hour of total processor time on an IBM 2003-225 processor as recorded in the VM accounting records.
Note: Workunits are used as way to level typical work in our system environment based on our observation and are not meant to convey any performance comparisons between IBM Z mainframes.
The minimum monthly program fee ($550 USD) includes initial system set-up, environmental support, up to 30 workunits of CPU usage each calendar month, and 10 Gigabytes of 'user' disk (DASD) space. Workunits used and user disk allocated in excess of those amounts will incur topitional monthly charges.
- Charge for additional monthly workunits used in excess of 30: $22 USD per workunit
- Charge for additional disk allocated in excess of 10 Gigabyte: $10 USD per 5 Gigabyte unit (5GB unit is 6000 cylinders)
Linux Distributions - Red Hat, SUSE, Ubuntu
The IBM Z Remote Development Program fees for all virtual guest system Linux distributions are based on the number of shared CPs defined to the system and the allocated disk space (DASD). The base minimum monthly charge for each Linux virtual system is: $125 Monthly Flat Rate The base monthly charge includes:
- 1 vCPU
- 2G Virtual Memory
- 50GB disk
Additional Monthly Charges:
- Each additional vCPU = $125 USD monthly flat rate
- Each additional 5GB disk in excess of 50GB = $1.00 USD per 5GB unit
The initial billing period for each program begins when the login information is provided to you and ends last day of the calendar month. The initial billing period will be prorated to actual workunit usage if provided after the 1st day of the month. Subsequent monthly billing periods (including the final billing period) will always end on the last day of each calendar month.
Additional products and resources for z/OS and z/VM remote systems
There are several additional software products and resources not included in the standard configuration that could be added to a remote access system. Please contact us at zTech@us.ibm.com if you have questions concerning the availability of a particualar software product or system configuration.
A few of the additional software products available include a one-time installation fee such as additional versions of IBM subsystems that were not included in the standard configuration for a particular release of z/OS.
Other system resources such as additional disk (DASD) or Extended Address Volumes (EAV) include a monthly fee.
There are no one-time or monthly fees for the addition of a specialty processor or additional general purpose processor however the use of the processor may increase the level of workunit usage on your remote access system which could result in a higher monthly fee.
Select the following link to view pricing information for additional resources:
Ready to Enroll?
If you are ready to enroll in the RDP, please select the link below to access the Remote Development Program Online Enrollment application. A valid IBM ID is required to use the Enrollment application. To avoid delays with processing your application, please also include your IBM PartnerWorld (Enterprise) ID with your contact information.
IBM Z Remote Development Program Online Enrollment
Questions regarding the availability of IBM software products not listed in the enrollment packages can be sent to zTech@us.ibm.com