Prerequisites and system preparation

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Before you install and run Instana Observability on z/OS, your system must meet the hardware requirements and you must install the software.

Download the service

Depending on the platform that you are using, download the available fixes for the host and the distributed system from:

IBM Z APM Connect Distributed Gateway installation prerequisites

IBM Z APM Connect Distributed Gateway (DG) supports the flow of data from z/OS® into the APM solutions. Install this component on a Linux distributed system with connectivity to the z/OS systems that you are monitoring and to the APM solutions.

IBM Z APM Connect DG offers two installation options. The prerequisites that you must meet depend on the installation option that you choose.

Note: For production purposes, deploy Distributed Gateway images in either an Red Hat OpenShift or CNCF Kubernetes cluster. The cluster deployment provides optimal performance and scalability to manage the large volumes of trace data that it processes.
  • Cluster deployment - to install in a Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform or Kubernetes cluster on x86 or s390x Linux:
    Table 1. Linux distributions support or installation in a cluster
      Versions CPU architectures
    SUSE V15 or later x86_64 / amd64
    Ubuntu V20 or later x86_64 / amd64
    Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) V8 or later x86_64 / amd64
    V8 or later s390x
    Table 2. Supported product versions
    Kubernetes V1.25 or later
    Red Hat OpenShift V4.10 or V4.11
    (Red Hat OpenShift) Helm V3.1 or higher
    Table 3. Resource requirements for installation in a cluster
      Minimum requirements Recommended for higher performance
    CPU cores at least 24 cores, or 8 cores per node, whichever is higher 48 cores or 8 cores per node, whichever is higher
    Memory size at least 16 GB (14.9GiB) ram, or 8 GB (7.45GiB) per node, whichever is higher 100 GB (93.3GiB) or 16 GB per node, whichever is higher
  • Option 2: To install on x86 based Linux with Docker or Podman Compose:

    Table 4. Supported Linux distributions for Docker and Podman Compose installation

    SUSE
    • Docker - V20 or later
    • Docker Compose - V2

    Ubuntu
    • Docker - V20 or later
    • Docker Compose - V2

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
    • Podman - V4.7 or later
    • Python - V3.7 or later
    • Podman Compose - V1.2.0
Table 5. Resource requirements for Docker and Podman installation
CPU cores No less than 4 cores
Memory size No less than 4 GBs of memory
Disk space No less than 20 GBs of free disk space

Prerequisites for the z/OS systems and subsystems from which transaction data is gathered

Before installing IBM Z APM Connect components on the z/OS side, ensure that your z/OS environment meets the prerequisites. The prerequisites depend on which types of transactions you want to track and on which z/OS systems and subsystems. Therefore, assess your installation scenario and install the prerequisites that meet your needs.

z/OS system requirements:

  • IBM z/OS 2.4 or later
    Note: Only the supported levels of z/OS and subsystems are tested. If you are using extended support for z/OS or certain subsystems, please reach out to IBM support team for assistance.
  • IBM CICS Transaction Server for z/OS V5.4 or later
  • IBM IMS V15.2 or later
  • IBM MQ for z/OS V9.1 or later
  • IBM z/OS Connect Enterprise Edition V3.0.27 or later and APAR PH09950
  • IBM CICS Transaction Gateway for z/OS V9.2 or V9.3 and APAR PH12635/PTF UI65916
  • IBM Db2 for z/OS V12.1 or later
  • (Required for JDBC-Db2 support)
    • Z Common Data Provider APAR OA63662/PTF UJ09384.
    • Z APM Connect APAR OA65201/PTF UJ93393.
Java

For CICS TG transaction tracking

  • Java V8 must be installed on both the CICS TG client application environment and the CICS TG server environment.
  • If client applications use the CICS TG resource adapter, Java EE Application Servers V8 or later is needed.

APM prerequisites

See Installing Instana.

Networking prerequisites

The various components within the z/OS system, the IBM Z APM Connect DG machine, and the Instana backend use TCP/IP for communications. Make sure you have the following ports opened for communications:

If an OpenShift route or proxy is not in use, the following ports must be open:
  • Ports used from z/OS host components to IBM Z APM Connect DG machine:
    • Z APM Connect Base proc uses port 30455
    • CICS TG server and z/OS Connect EE server use port 30090
  • Ports used from IBM Z APM Connect DG machine to Instana backend machine:

    Communicating with the Instana backend requires the serverless endpoint to be enabled, which is the default behavior. The port number is automatically handled when retrieving the serverless endpoint URL from the Instana UI and no separate configuration is needed.

Attention:
  • If using TLS, Kafka and the Connection Manager both use a Java style .jks keystore and truststore (as well as their passwords) to load certificates for TLS. Each keystore should contain a private key and a matching certificate to use for connections, and each truststore should contain the full trust chain of certificates used to validate the contents of each keystore. Java Keytool can be used to easily convert a pkcs12 keystore into .jks format.
  • TLS v1.2 is required when using TLS to connect the Z APM Connect Base to the Distributed Gateway.