Selecting which z/OSMF plug-ins to add

In z/OSMF, a plug-in is a collection of one or more system management tasks that add function to z/OSMF. When you configure a plug-in, you make its tasks available to users in the z/OSMF navigation area.

z/OSMF includes a number of base functions, which are always enabled when you configure the product. A base configuration of z/OSMF contains only these functions (referred to as core functions in this document).

The core functions of z/OSMF include the following:

Welcome task
Notifications and Notification Settings tasks
Workflows task
Workflow Editor task
Application Linking Manager task
Import Manager task
Links task
FTP Servers task
Resource Management task
Software Services task
Systems task
Usage Statistics task
z/OS Operator Consoles task
z/OSMF online help system.

For a ServerPac installation, if you select the full system replacement installation type, a base configuration of z/OSMF is set up for you. Here, the configuration is created through a ServerPac post-installation job that uses IBM-supplied defaults.

You can add significant function to z/OSMF through the addition of optional plug-ins. To help you decide, this chapter provides a functional overview of each plug-in.

Enabling an optional plug-in involves the following activities:

In your active IZUPRMxx member, ensure that the PLUGINS statement is uncommented and includes the plug-in ID for the required plug-in. See Statements and parameters for IZUPRMxx.
Create security profiles for the tasks that are associated with the plug-in. IBM provides a set of IZUnnSEC jobs in SYS1.SAMPLIB with RACF commands to help with performing these changes. Each IZUnnSEC job is associated with a plug-in, as described in Setting up security for the z/OSMF plug-ins.
Perform the various z/OS system customization updates that are associated with each plug-in, as described in Customizing your z/OS system for the z/OSMF plug-ins.

Note: After a plug-in is enabled, you might later decide to remove it. To do so, edit the IZUPRMxx parmlib member and remove the plug-in identifier from the PLUGINS statement. Then, restart the z/OSMF server. This action removes the plug-in tasks from the z/OSMF navigation area. Any residual data that is associated with the plug-in is saved in z/OSMF, in case you decide to enable it again later.

Table 1 shows which optional plug-ins are available for configuration in z/OSMF. By default, z/OSMF does not include any of the optional plug-ins.

Table 1. z/OSMF optional plug-ins and associated tasks
Plug-in name	Tasks provided by plug-in	Task description
Capacity Provisioning	Capacity Provisioning	Query the status of the Capacity Provisioning Manager.
Incident Log	Incident Log	Diagnose system problems, and send diagnostic data to IBM® or other vendors for further diagnostics.
ISPF	ISPF	Access traditional ISPF applications.
Network Configuration Assistant	Network Configuration Assistant	Configure TCP/IP policy-based networking functions.
Resource Monitoring	Resource Monitoring	Monitor the performance of the z/OS, AIX®, Linux, and Windows systems in your enterprise.
Resource Monitoring	System Status	Quickly assess the workload performance on the systems in your enterprise, and define the systems to be monitored.
Software Deployment	Software Management	Manage your z/OS software inventory, deploy SMP/E packaged and installed software, and generate reports about your software.
Sysplex Management	Sysplex Management	Manage the sysplex resources in your enterprise.
Workload Management	Workload Management	Administer and operate WLM, and manage WLM service definitions and policies.
IBM zERT Network Analyzer	IBM zERT Network Analyzer	Analyze SMF records to identify the cryptographic protection attributes of TCP and Enterprise Extender (EE) traffic in your enterprise.

Your decision on which plug-ins to configure will depend in part on your installation's readiness to perform the various z/OS system customization updates associated with each plug-in. When planning for the plug-ins, review the system setup requirements for each plug-in, as described in Customizing your z/OS system for the z/OSMF plug-ins.

External plug-ins

Besides the optional plug-ins that are supplied with z/OSMF, your installation can choose to add applications from other sources (IBM or other vendors) to your configuration. In such cases, a z/OSMF administrator can use the Import Manager task to import the applications into z/OSMF. For more information, see the online help for the Import Manager task.

As an example, z/OS System Display and Search Facility (SDSF) supplies a plug-in for use with z/OSMF. For the installation and customization requirements for a particular application, see the documentation that is provided with the application. For example, the set-up requirements for the SDSF plug-in are described in the topic about z/OSMF considerations in in z/OS SDSF Operation and Customization.

Further, your installation can create its own applications to use with z/OSMF. For more information, see IBM z/OS Management Facility Programming Guide.