IBM z/OS Connect enhancements include cloud native application development support and API first mapping for creating OpenAPI V3 programming interfaces to z/OS assets and data. z/OS Connect provides the new functionality in two new components, z/OS Connect Designer and z/OS Connect Server.
Overview
The use of REST APIs for z/OS has matured as a key mechanism for modernizing and unlocking the value of existing applications and data. With this maturity has grown the number and diversity of development teams engaging with the mainframe. This requires a development and deployment model that supports agility and enables self service provisioning. z/OS Connect is enhanced to provide capabilities in support of these requirements.
Continuous delivery
In addition, z/OS Connect will be updated periodically using the continuous delivery (CD) model, in support of current API standards and containerized deployment, to empower agile development teams to build APIs as part of their DevOps pipelines.
New z/OS Connect components
Available through a choice of purchase options, z/OS Connect protects an existing investment in REST APIs, and at the same time provides new experiences with IBM integration and DevOps tooling.
z/OS Connect delivers two new, key components:
These new components are available to order from March 2022.
Ordering Information
z/OS Connect Designer
z/OS Connect Designer is delivered as a container image with the following capabilities:
- Web user interface that provides a low code approach to create APIs in minutes. z/OS Connect Designer is delivered as a stand alone container image, ready to run in Red Hat OpenShift, alongside IBM Wazi Developer for Red Hat CodeReady Workspaces, to deliver a cloud native experience for creating and managing end-to-end flows.
- OpenAPI 3 support to provide enterprises with the confidence that the APIs being built will meet company and industry standards. This support allows OpenAPI 3 interfaces to be created for all z/OS assets that are supported by z/OS Connect.
- API first functional mapping to create an API first process that puts the API specification at the heart of a project. This capability allows the transformation of native Z data and services into schema designs to meet clients' business demands.
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For clients that have an installed container environment, the z/OS Connect Designer can be 'pulled' directly. For example, using Docker or Docker desktop1, issue the following command:
docker run -it -p 9080:9080 -v $PWD:/workspace/project icr.io/zosconnect/ibm-zcon-designer:3.0.60
Note that 3.0.60 in the command line above denotes the release level of the container. Refer to the z/OS Connect release notes to see the very latest release.
1For Podman, simply replace "docker' with "podman" in the command line.
For a full tutorial with samples for getting started, see the Getting Started section in the z/OS Connect OpenAPI 3 document.
Note that z/OS Connect Designer is not for production use without an appropriate z/OS Connect license.
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z/OS Connect Server
z/OS Connect Server is delivered as a container image with the following capabilities:
- Decentralized ownership of API integrations is achieved by using the containerized z/OS Connect Server and its provided Kubernetes operator. This decentralized ownership enables teams to work in parallel. Developers have the freedom to build and deploy APIs in isolation and system administrators maintain control through the use of a container orchestration platform.
- Enhanced role-based security model to provide more control to security administrators. This security model takes advantage of the improved security schemes provided by the OpenAPI 3 specification, to deliver more granular control of user authorization at the API operation level.
- Access to metrics and near real-time statistics to provide to third-party tooling, such as Prometheus, to track usage data, such as how many times an API operation is called or how long those calls take.
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Ordering Information
z/OS Connect Designer and z/OS Connect Server are available by ordering either of the following IBM offerings:
- IBM z/OS Connect Enterprise Edition 3.0 (5655-CE3)
- z/OS Connect delivers a number of key capabilities, including the following:
- The z/OS Connect EE API toolkit, which complements API projects to enable the end-to-end creation of z/OS Connect EE API and dependent services from within the same Eclipse-based environment.
- A consistent user experience for the creation of both CICS and IMS services.
- The Service Interface Editor, which can be used to increase the number of eligible z/OS-based applications that can be API-enabled.
- IBM z/OS Connect Enterprise Edition Unlimited 3.0 (5655-CE5)
- z/OS Connect (Unlimited) provides a simple and intuitive way to bring the power of APIs to the mainframe. This offering is available for use in traditional (native server) and containerized environments such as RedHat Openshift.
- Purchase of this offering provides entitlement to the following components:
- z/OS Connect Designer container image, available in IBM Cloud Container Registry
- z/OS Connect Server container image, available in IBM Cloud Container Registry
- Native server install of the latest z/OS Connect runtime2
2The native server install provided with this z/OS Connect update supports OpenAPI 3 API integrations created through the z/OS Connect Designer.
Planned availability
- March 15, 2022: General availability of IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Stack 2022.1.1 (5900-A8N)
- March 21, 2022: Continuous delivery update to z/OS Connect Enterprise Edition Unlimited 3.0 (5655-CE5)
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