What is z/OS Provisioning Toolkit?

z/OS Provisioning Toolkit (z/OS PT) is a command line utility for the rapid provisioning of development runtime environments. System programmers can set up the environments that can be provisioned in this way, authorize access to individuals or teams, and set provisioning controls and limits. Application developers can use a command line interface to provision and deprovision z/OS development environments quickly and independently, without needing mainframe administration skills or authority.

DevOps tools and processes allow development and operations teams to collaborate on reducing time to delivery. Automation is critical to an efficient development process. z/OS PT helps to automate the development process by providing application developers with immediate access to the environments that they need, while the operations team retains overall command and control of the provisioning process.

z/OS Provisioning Toolkit has three main elements:
Command line utility
z/OS PT provides commands for an application developer to build an application image, run that image, provision the underlying middleware environment, and, later, deprovision that environment. Commands provided include:
  • zospt build Build an application image.
  • zospt run Run an application image and automatically provision and start the associated z/OS middleware.
  • zospt ps List environments that are provisioned.
  • zospt rm Deprovision an environment.
zosptfiles and associated images
zosptfile text files define the environments that can be provisioned. z/OS PT provides sample files and images to make it quicker to set up the foundation of commonly used environments such as CICS® or IBM® z/OS Connect Enterprise Edition.
z/OSMF workflows
The toolkit uses two features of z/OS to enforce control over provisioned environments. You can define workflows in IBM z/OS Management Facility (z/OSMF) that can provision runtime environments. You can manage and control these workflows by using IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS. The workflows can be customized to local naming standards and operating procedures. z/OS PT drives these workflows.

To go a little deeper into the architecture and components, see How does z/OS Provisioning Toolkit work?.

Build, run, manage

Systems programmers can define software templates in z/OSMF. These templates specify the z/OSMF workflows, and definitions to be used by the workflows, to provision middleware systems. The workflows can be configured to support local naming standards and operating procedures. Appropriate provisioning controls and limits can be set by using IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS, including how many environments can be provisioned through z/OS PT. An application developer user ID, or a group of user IDs, can be granted access to run these templates within defined controls and limits.

After the operations team configures the z/OSMF templates, application developers can use the z/OS PT command line utility to issue simple commands to provision z/OS environments such as a CICS region or an instance of z/OS Connect Enterprise Edition. Application developers can share a single installation of z/OS PT, including images.

z/OS PT provisioning support

z/OS PT supports provisioning of a range of environments, by providing example scripts and images and z/OSMF workflows. The flexible nature of a z/OSMF workflow means that more tools and third-party products that the environments need can be automatically configured and provisioned at the same time.

z/OS PT includes images to provision the following environments:
  • CICS Transaction Server, with a Liberty JVM server
  • A standard CICS TS environment for traditional COBOL 3270 development
  • z/OS Connect Enterprise Edition V2.0 stand-alone server
  • z/OS Connect Enterprise Edition V3.0 stand-alone server

Try z/OS PT for yourself

Download z/OS PT without charge from IBM z/OS Provisioning Toolkit product page.

z/OS PT provides a getting started scenario that enables CICS system programmers to quickly evaluate the CICS workflows that are provided for provisioning and deprovisioning a CICS region before they try z/OS PT with Cloud Provisioning. For more information, see Getting started with CICS by using z/OSMF workflows.