Deploying software

Software deployment is the process of making software available to be used on a system by users and other programs. You might deploy software to create a backup copy of the software, to move the software to another system, or to create another SMP/E-serviceable copy for installing service or other products. To assist you with performing these tasks, the Software Management task provides the deployment capability.

A deployment is a checklist that guides you through the software deployment process. It is the object in which z/OSMF stores your input and any output that is generated for each step in the checklist. You can use a deployment to deploy one software instance onto one system at a time.

To view a list of current or past deployments or to define a new deployment, use the Deployments page. To display this page, click Deployments on the Software Management page or select Deployments from the Switch To menu provided on the Software Instances page and the Products page.

Deployment checklist

The deployment checklist guides you through the following steps:
  • Specifying the name, description, and categories to use for the deployment.
  • Selecting the software to be deployed.
  • Selecting the objective of the deployment.
  • Generating reports that help you identify if SYSMODs are missing in the source software or any related instances.
  • Specifying the data set names, catalogs, volumes, mount points, and SMP/E zone names to use for the target software.
  • Defining the settings to use for the deployment jobs, and generating the jobs.
  • Submitting the deployment jobs, and viewing the job output.
  • Specifying the name, description, and categories to use for the target software.

When completing the steps in the checklist, you will work with the source for the deployment and the target for the deployment. The source for the deployment is the software to be deployed or the original copy. The source can be either a software instance or a portable software instance. The target for the deployment is the new software copy and will be a software instance. When a deployment is complete, you will have two copies of the software – the source copy and the target copy.

Figure 1 depicts a sample deployment. The deployment name is ZOSV2R2_TO_COPY_OF_ZOSV2R2. The deployment was used to deploy source software ZOSV2R2 to another location. The target software is called Copy_of_ZOSV2R2.
Figure 1. Deployment "ZOSV2R2_TO_COPY_OF_ZOSV2R2"
Depicts a deployment and the source and target software.
The deployment checklist helps you adhere to IBM® recommendations for software deployment because many of those recommendations are integrated into the deployment process. For example, when deploying SMP/E software, z/OSMF:
  • Uses SMP/E DDDEF entries to automatically locate data sets, such as SMP/E data sets, target libraries, and distribution libraries.
  • Deploys all of the software included in a target zone and optionally the related distribution zone.
  • Copies the SMP/E consolidated software inventory (CSI) with the software. If you currently do not copy your SMP/E CSIs, you will see a slight increase in DASD usage per target software.

Deployment history

As you complete each step in the checklist, z/OSMF maintains a history or log of your input and any output it generates in the deployment object. For example, z/OSMF captures the:

  • Source software you selected.
  • Configuration values you specified for the target software.
  • Deployment summary, which describes the impact the configuration values will have on the target system.
  • List of jobs it generated for the deployment.
  • Resulting target software.
  • User ID of the user who created, modified, and completed the deployment, and the date and time those actions occurred.

You can use this information to assist you with audits and problem determination. You can also use it to simplify subsequent deployments by basing them on existing deployments. For more information about the contents of the deployment history, see help topic View Deployment page. To view the history, complete the steps provided in help topic Viewing deployments.