Installing, configuring, and managing Z APM Connect Distributed Gateway

Before you begin the installation process, verify that your system meets the software requirements specified in prerequisites section.

Important: If you're using fix pack 2 or earlier, follow the instructions in Installing, configuring, and managing Z APM Connect Distributed Gateway

The Z APM Connect DG component must be installed on a distributed system with connectivity to your monitored z/OS® systems and APM platforms. For more info about Z APM Connect DG, see Z APM Connect Distributed Gateway.

The Distributed Gateway is shipped as a set of OCI-compliant container images and is supported on multiple Linux platforms. To adapt to various environments and for different purposes, three installation options are offered for installing Z APM Connect Distributed Gateway (Z APM Connect DG). You can choose the option that best meets your needs.

  • Deployment for production: Installing on a Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform cluster or a Kubernetes cluster

    Z APM Connect DG cluster deployment is recommended for production. You can deploy Distributed Gateway images in either an OpenShift or CNCF Kubernetes cluster. You can easily deploy it by editing the values file, and deploy with Helm (recommended) or without Helm support. For detailed steps, see Deploying Z APM Connect DG for production in a cluster.

Info: The cluster deployment ensures optimal performance and scalability, especially when dealing with large volumes of trace data that needs to be processed. Using a cluster, you can scale the Distributed Gateway components both horizontally and vertically. You can increase the number of machines running the workload of the Distributed Gateway and increase the resources that each machine has.

However, to get Distributed Gateway up and running quickly, it is recommended that you start with the Sandbox deployment files. These will minimize what you need to configure. You can start with the sandbox deployment files for a POC and then use the values in the production deployment files as a guide to iterate towards a more robust deployment for production.

  • Deployment for Proof of Concept/evaluation purposes

    • Installing Kubernetes One-Machine Sandbox (recommended)

      This approach uses the simplest configuration to deploy the Distributed Gateway in a Kubernetes Cluster. Although it is not recommended for a production environment, it allows for scalability by adding more cluster nodes and adjusting the number of replicas of each pod. You can begin with this configuration and later scale up for a proper production environment. For detailed instructions on installation and configuration, see Installing Kubernetes One-Machine Sandbox.

    • Installing on a distributed Linux® environment with Docker standalone

      The Z APM Connect DG Docker images are provided for installing on a single machine using Docker. To configure Z APM Connect DG, you need to use the ./zapmctl script along with command line arguments. This option is most suitable for a sandbox environment or proof of concept. However, it has limited scalability and may not fulfill the requirements for a production environment. For detailed instructions on installation and configuration, see Installing Z APM Connect DG with Docker standalone.