How to enable IBM z/OS Connect rule sets and policies

You must enable IBM z/OS Connect policies to have IBM z/OS Connect perform the actions that are defined in your rule sets.

You can manually enable your policies and rule sets either by restarting the server or by using the Refresh Modify command. The Refresh Modify command refreshes all server artifacts, including bind files, policies, .aar, .sar, and .ara files, and the server.xml configuration file. For more information, see MVS system MODIFY commands in the Reference section.

When the server starts, it enables any rule set files in the location defined in the location parameter of the zosconnect_policy element in the server.xml configuration file.

The following message indicates that a global policy is active.
BAQR7056I z/OS Connect policy <policy name> is active.
The following message indicates that an API-specific policy is active:
BAQR7082I: z/OS Connect policy <policy name> is active for API <API name>

You can also use MBeans to update your policies and rule sets on demand. For more information, see Using an MBean to trigger updates.

How to apply rule set changes dynamically

Before you begin

Follow the instructions in Defining a rule set to create your rule set files.

About this task

Follow these steps to configure IBM z/OS Connect to enable changes to your rule sets as soon as the file is saved to the defined location. With this configuration, you do not need to restart the server to enable the rule sets.

Procedure

  1. Ensure that the rule set files are in the location that you defined in the location parameter of the zosconnect_policy element in the server.xml configuration file.
  2. In the zosconnect_policy element, set the pollingRate to a suitable value for your installation. The default is 1 minute.
  3. In the same element, set the updateTrigger value to polled. The default is disabled.
    For example,
    
    <zosconnect_policy id="production" location="/var/zosconnect/rules/" updateTrigger="polled" pollingRate="120s">
        <ruleset file="rulefile1.xml"/>
    </zosconnect_policy>
    With this configuration, the server checks for changes to rule sets every 2 minutes.
  4. Restart the IBM z/OS Connect server to enable this configuration.
    This step is only necessary if the updateTrigger parameter of the config element is set to disabled.
  5. From now on, when you make a change to a rule set and save the file to the defined location, IBM z/OS Connect will automatically enable that rule set.

How to apply policy changes dynamically

Before you begin

Follow the instructions in Configuring IBM z/OS Connect policies to configure IBM z/OS Connect to use policies.

About this task

Policies are defined in the server.xml configuration file. You can configure IBM z/OS Connect to dynamically apply changes to the policy configuration by following this procedure.
Note: This change will also automatically update other artifacts defined in the configuration file, such as API archive files, service archive files, and API requester archive files. For more information, see Configuration updates on demand.

Procedure

  1. In the server.xml configuration file, set the updateTrigger parameter of the config element to polled.
    You can also set this parameter to mbean to enable updates on demand. For more information, see Using an MBean to trigger updates.
  2. Save the configuration file.
    If the updateTrigger parameter was set to disabled, restart the server or issue the Refresh Modify command to activate this change.
  3. From now on, changes to the server.xml configuration file, will be enabled automatically without restarting the server.