Hardware and software requirements

Storage server requirements

To install and run ZVDT, a storage server to host the ZVDT artifacts, such as z system volumes, data sets, and ZVDT metadata, must be set up. To transfer volumes images files from the storage server or to the storage server, you must choose SFTP as the transferring method.

• Disk space
  • Sufficient space is needed to hold numerous and potentially large files for extracted IBM® Z volumes.
  • Sufficient disk space to potentially hold multiple Extended ADCD z/OS® distributions.
• Software requirements
  • A running SFTP server
• SFTP server
  • Open the firewall port for SFTP command.

z/OS system requirements

• Supported z/OS versions: V2.4 and V2.5.
• You must install all the PTFs that are identified with the SMP/E FIXCAT of IBM.TargetSystem-RequiredService.AlternateHypervisors. Installation of all these PTFs must be completed on the z/OS system before being provisioned. For more information, see IBM Fix Category Values and Descriptions and Checklist for applying an APAR or PTF.
• If you want to extract volumes from z/OS systems, the following requirements are needed.
  Required

  • An SSH server must be running and accessible by the system to run ZVDT.
  • The SFTP client must be able to connect to the ZVDT storage server.
  • To use SFTP, Java™ 1.6 or later versions must be installed, and the PATH needs to be specified in the $HOME/.profile and pointed to the bin directory of the Java installation.
  • Make sure to grant access to each volume or data set that is extracted. For more information, see Creating components from IBM Z® mainframe volumes and Creating components from IBM Z mainframe data sets.
  • Make sure to grant READ access to DFDSS program ADRDSSU.
  Optional

  • Configure zEnterprise® Data Compression (zEDC) if it is available. Grant READ access to the resource FPZ.ACCELERATOR.COMPRESSION in SAF class FACILITY to the user ID that is used in the ZVDT.
  • Grant READ access to resource STGADMIN.ADR.DUMP.CNCURRNT in SAF class FACILITY.
• If you want to extract volumes from an existing z/OS instance, Java must be installed, and the user who creates volume components must have access to Java after login.

Db2 extraction requirements

• User Access
  To use the user ID that is specified on the source system to extract Db2 data, you must ensure that the user ID has the following access.

  • Read access to the Db2 catalog tables.
  • Read access to the tables that are selected for an extraction.
  • Unload access to the tables that are selected for an extraction.
  • Authority to stop Db2 UNLOAD utilities.
  • If you need to use the Db2 Admin Tool, the user ID that runs the extraction must have the Db2 or RACF® access to run the DDL Generation Plan, for example, ADB2GEN.
• System Libraries

  REXX.SEAGALT or REXX.SEAGLPA must be in the system search order, that is, Linklist or LPA.

• Db2 Admin Tool

  To obtain the source database DDL, the Db2 Admin Tool must be installed and available. If the Db2 Admin Tool is not available, you must supply and verify all DDL source. The database DDL that is created on the target system must be compatible to Db2 supplied sample DSNTEP2.

Linux on IBM Z requirements

• ZVDT is supported on IBM Linux® on Z, only when it is installed directly onto an LPAR on IBM z16, IBM z15™, or IBM LinuxONE III hardware. Currently supported Linux distributions are Ubuntu 22.04, Red Hat® Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9.1, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.7.
• The minimum kernel level on a target Ubuntu 22.04 system is 5.4.0-109-generic.
• libnbd, perl-FindBin, and perl-lib must be installed on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.1 target environment with the following commands for the hypervisor to function properly.

  yum install libnbd
  yum install perl-FindBin
  yum install perl-lib

• sha256sum must be installed. It can be installed with package coreutils.
• Users running a z/OS instance via ZVDT must be a part of the kvm Linux group. For example, if a z/OS instance is to be run under the ibmsys1 Linux user account, user ibmsys1 must be added to group kvm before starting the instance. To add a user to group kvm and leave it in the supplementary group that it is already a member of, the following Linux command can be used:

  usermod -a -G kvm <user_name>

• A set of IP addresses must be reserved, and referenced when you add a target environment on the web server. Each z/OS instance acquires one IP address from this set.
• A set of MacVTap adapters must be manually created against a physical adapter on the Linux on IBM Z system, and referenced when you add a target environment on the web server. Each z/OS instance requires one MacVTap adapter, which allows the instance to have a dedicated IP address and the full set of ports for use. Before you create MacVTap adapters, check MacVTap driver considerations. For more information about creating a MacVTap adapter, go to https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/jammy/man8/ip-link.8.html.

  Example

  ip link add link physical_adapter_name macvtap_name type macvtap mode bridge
  ip link set macvtap_name up

• To avoid any potential Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) flux issues that might randomly occur, it is recommended that at least two dedicated Open Systems Adapters (OSA) are available to the Linux environment. The first one can remain dedicated to Linux, while the others are for linking the MacVTap adapters that are used by the virtualized z/OS instances.
• It is recommended to not over-commit memory on the hosting Linux environment, as out of memory conditions on Linux can result in all virtualized z/OS instances being forcibly terminated.
• The hypervisor must be installed on a different machine than the web server, storage server, and license server.