Description
We have been delivering official IBM training around the world for over 15 years. The IBM z/OS Bootcamp (ESZ0G) is the reference course for IT professionals joining a mainframe environment: over ten days, combining theory with hands-on labs, it builds the groundwork needed to work with IBM Z servers, z/OS and its software ecosystem, whatever technical role you are heading for.
Course details
| IBM course code: ESZ0G | Category: z/OS / Introduction z/OS |
| Delivery: Online and classroom | Duration: 10 days |
| Minimum attendees: 4 | Structure: 16 teaching units and 11 hands-on labs |
Description
This course is built to give new IT professionals a complete introduction to the IBM Z environment. It covers IBM mainframe servers, their operating systems and the main software products. Through lectures and hands-on labs on a real system, attendees pick up the basic skills to be productive from day one. What is taught applies across several roles: system administration, systems programming, application development and operations.
Who it is for
Technical professionals who are new to the mainframe environment.
Prerequisites
- Basic data processing concepts
- Input and output (I/O) concepts
Instructors
The vast majority of the IBM courses we offer are taught directly by our own engineers. It is the only way we can guarantee their quality. We complement every course with materials and labs of our own, built on our experience across the deployments, migrations and courses we have run over these years.
What you also get
Our courses are deeply oriented to the role you will perform. A development team does not need the same command of a technology as the people who deploy and administer the infrastructure. So beyond commands and tasks, we focus on solving the problems each team meets day to day, providing the knowledge, competencies and skills each project calls for. Our documentation is based on the latest release of each product.
Course agenda
- Mainframes and distributed server comparisons: why so many servers?
- Mainframe directions: past, current and future
- Mainframes: IBM Z introduction and relative performance comparisons
- IBM Z hardware design: frames, CEC cage, books, models and MSUs
- I/O infrastructure and processor usage
- IBM Z Capacity on Demand
- Physical and logical partitioning, server initialization and CHPIDs
- I/O configuration and an HCD overview
- MVS to z/OS software overview
- z/OS Parallel Sysplex
- z/OS enhancements on the z platform
- z/Architecture overview and virtual addressing concepts
- System concepts: the big picture
- HMC introduction, groups and activation profiles
- Determining object status and error conditions
- Activation and the operating system interface
- z/OS base elements and optional features
- z/OS system programming
- z/OS system libraries
- Data centre components and trends
- TSO/E and ISPF/PDF
- Data sets and accessing them with ISPF/PDF
- The ISPF/PDF editor
- Copy, move, rename and delete
- Data set lists
- TSO/E commands and TSO/E programming
- Introduction to JES and JCL
- JOB, EXEC and DD statements
- DD parameters
- Traditional applications
- Programming languages
- Object technology
- System-level security
- Network-level security
- Transaction-level security
- Directory services
- z/OSMF
- SDSF
- Working with UNIX System Services
- Introduction to utilities and conditional execution
- Data management, organization and format
- Generation data groups
- Procedures
- More about utilities
- More on procedures
- Selected JCL topics
- SORT and MERGE
- ABENDs
Do you need this outline adapted to your situation, or are you interested in another course? Talk to us, no strings attached.
Official IBM training
We have been delivering official IBM training for 15 years. We are an IBM Business Partner: the material and the labs are the official ones, and they are taught by our engineers, several of them IBM Champions. At your premises or remotely with a live instructor.
Last updated: July 2026
