Provisioning instances to target environments

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Learn how to provision z/OS instances to target environments.

The provisioning options in the web server will install and configure the ZD&T emulator on the selected target environment, which is followed by the initial program load of z/OS® that is contained in the selected image.
Note: To ensure that a provisioning is shown as success after IPL is complete, SSHD must be running. The provisioning operation for ZD&T relies on being able to SSH to the target z/OS to determine when the IPL is complete. It is also used as a means of being able to initiate data set restorage after IPL. If SSHD is not started with the IPL process, the web server will time out after ten minutes because a successful SSH connection to the target z/OS is not established. Even the IPL can be completed successfully, the web server determines that the IPL fails, and shows that the provisioning operation has failed.

Pre-provisioning validation

Before you provision instances from images to a Linux® target environment, you must ensure that the following items are valid. Otherwise, when you provision instances, the pre-provisioning validation function will automatically check the items, and some error messages might occur.
Note: The pre-provisioning validation is only applicable for the Linux target environments.
  1. Linux distribution

    Only RHEL and Ubuntu operating systems are officially supported. CentOS, SLES operating systems are unofficially supported.

  2. CPU architecture

    Only x86_64 is supported.

  3. CPs and RAM

    The number of central processors (CPs) must be no longer than 8 characters. And at least 2G random access memory (RAM) size is required.

  4. Emulator status

    The emulator cannot be running.

  5. License server connectivity
    • If you use a software-based license server, the port number must be 1947 or 9451.
    • If you use a hardware-based license server, the port number must be 9450 or 9451.
  6. Storage server connectivity
    • If you use FTP as the storage server, the port number must be 21.
    • If you use SFTP as the storage server, the port number must be 22.
  7. User and group configurations
    If you did not select to automatically configure users and groups when you configured the Linux target environments, the pre-provisioning validation function will check the user and group configurations by using zdt_congfig_user_byRoot.sh.
    • Group

      The function will check whether the group 'zpdt' exists.

    • Users
      • If you provision instances from images by using the root user ID, this function will check whether the user ID 'ibmsys1' exists, and whether 'ibmsys1' belongs to the group 'zpdt'.
      • If you provision instances from images by using a non-root user ID, this function will check whether the user ID is assigned to the group 'zpdt'.
  8. Dependent libraries
    • If you did not select to install all dependencies when you ran the ZD&T installer, this function will check the following dependent libraries by using zdt_install_dependencies_byRoot.sh.
      • REHL operating system
        iptables
        ftp
        libstdc++.i686
        perl
        zip
        unzip
        gzip
      • Ubuntu operating system
        iptables
        libc6:i386 libncurses5:i386 libstdc++6:i386 lib32z1 lib32stdc++6
        ftp
        perl
        zip
        unzip
        gzip
        bc
        libasound2
  9. Permission on the deployment directory

    Check whether the user ID has the write access to the deployment directory that was specified.

  10. Available disk space on the deployment directory

    Check whether the available disk space of the deployment directory is adequate. To provision instances from created images successfully, a full application size and an extra space of the maximum decompressed volume size are needed.

  11. Privilege commands permission
    If you use a non-root user ID to provision instances from created images, this function will check whether the user ID has the permission to do the following actions.
    1. Change the ownership of the files.
      [deployment directory]/zdt/zdtInstall/zdt_install_product_byRoot.sh
If allow install dependencies
[deployment directory]/zdt/zdtInstall/zdt_install_dependencies_byRoot.sh (optional)
if allow configure user
[deployment directory]/zdt/zdtInstall/zdt_config_user_byRoot.sh (optional)
if allow configure network
[deployment directory]/zdt/zdtInstall/zdt_config_network_byRoot.sh (optional)
[deployment directory]/zdt/zdtInstall/zdt_config_tcpports (optional)
[deployment directory]/zdt/zdtInstall/zdt_config_udpports (optional)
if allow clean up when withdraw an image
[deployment directory]/zdt/zdtInstall/zdt_cleanup_byRoot.sh (optional)
    2. Run the following scripts.
      [deployment directory]/zdt/zdtInstall/zdt_install_product_byRoot.sh
If allow install dependencies
[deployment directory]/zdt/zdtInstall/zdt_install_dependencies_byRoot.sh (optional)
if allow configure user
[deployment directory]/zdt/zdtInstall/zdt_config_user_byRoot.sh (optional)
if allow configure network
[deployment directory]/zdt/zdtInstall/zdt_config_network_byRoot.sh (optional)
[deployment directory]/zdt/zdtInstall/zdt_config_tcpports (optional)
[deployment directory]/zdt/zdtInstall/zdt_config_udpports (optional)
if allow clean up when withdraw an image
[deployment directory]/zdt/zdtInstall/zdt_cleanup_byRoot.sh (optional)

Manually issue IPL commands

When you provision instances from the created images, if you clear the option to issue the IPL command manually, complete the following step after the provisioning.
  1. Click Manage instances on the home page. Or, click the Instances tab on the header. Then, expand the image that is provisioned to the system.
  2. Find the section that is called Initial Program Load under the image. This Initial Program Load contains the IPL command to issue.
  3. SSH to the target environment, and login with the account that you used to do the provisioning.
    Note: If you choose a Linux target environment, and provision instances from images by using the root user ID, login with the user ID ibmsys1.
  4. Issue the command. For example, issue the command ipl 0a80 parm 0a82au.
    If the IPL fails, you can issue the following commands in sequence from path /home/ibmsys1/zdt/volumes.
    1. awsstop

      Wait for few minutes for a running ZD&T to stop.

    2. awsstart aprof1

      Wait for few minutes for ZD&T to get ready.

    3. ipl 0a80 parm 0a82CS

      Monitor the console for any outstanding message.

    After IPL is successful, you can use ipl 0a80 parm 0a82au to IPL next time.

Note: This process can be done by any application programmer or tester on-demand whenever they need a new environment.