Welcome to the Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS content solution, your homepage for technical resources. Use it to improve the agility of your DevOps team, integrate z/OS® into your hybrid cloud, and transform your IT infrastructure.
With IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS, you can create software service templates that provision IBM®
IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management is available through z/OSMF, which provides a web browser-based user interface as well as REST APIs.
Automate IBM Z applications and IT infrastructure.
Configure z/OSMF Cloud Provisioning, and set up security. Set up Cloud Provisioning by defining roles, enabling the pre-requisite plug-ins and specifying the security mode (automatic or manual). If the defaults are not appropriate, define the cloud domain (systems) and tenants (users). If you’re not already using z/OSMF, you may need to configure z/OSMF.
IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS includes a sample template that you can use to provision and deprovision 'brand new' z/OS systems.
Cloud Provisioning roles include a provisioning administrator (z/OS system programmer), domain amdinistrator (middleware system programmer),
As the provisioning administrator, you define:
- The domain with the target systems to use for software provisioning. The systems can be in the same sysplex where z/OSMF is running or can be in different sysplexes. z/OSMF also provides a default domain with local system and a default tenant (the users) definitions to help you get started. You can modify default domain to add additional systems as provisioning targets.
- Whether to perform security updates manually or allow Cloud Provisioning to perform them automatically. The recommended security mode is automatic.
As the provisioning administrator, you need to perform the following planning activity for z/OS provisioning:
The z/OS system that you use to provision a brand-new z/OS system is known as the provisioning system. Some planning and setup is required to enable the provisioning system to drive the provisioning of brand-new z/OS systems. This work involves defining a source z/OS software instance and modification of the provisioning template’s properties file. You must plan for which logical partition (LPAR) to use for hosting the new z/OS image. You can use the Hardware Management Console (HMC) to locate an available LPAR, or use the HMC to create a new LPAR in your enterprise. If you use an existing LPAR, verify that the LPAR is not needed for any other systems at your installation. You must ensure that IODF dataset used on provisioning system includes I/O definition for the LPAR where the new z/OS system will be provisioned.
Update
Work with the security administrator to set up security for Cloud Provisioning using the IZUPRSEC sample, which enables access to the Cloud Provisioning tasks in z/OSMF, Resource Management and Software Services.
Define a new domain if the z/OSMF provided default domain is not adequate.
After your z/OS system programmer has identified you as the domain administrator of either the z/OSMF provided default domain or a new domain that the z/OS system programmer has defined, create templates for z/OS software provisioning or brand-new z/OS system provisioning. Templates that are created by a user will initially be in a draft or draft pending approval state.
Obtain your workflow and related files from the software provider, and use the information included with the files to understand what you need to customize, for example: input variables, JCL, actions, and approvers.
Obtain workflow and other files:
z/OS Connect (download z/OS Provisioning Toolkit)
The z/OS system that you use to provision a 'brand new' z/OS system is known as the provisioning system. Some planning and setup is required to enable the provisioning system to drive the provisioning of a 'brand new' z/OS system. This work involves some host system customization and modification of the provisioning template's properties file.
To prepare a software services template and provision software, perform these steps using the Software Services task of z/OSMF:
- Expand the Cloud Provisioning category in the navigation area, then select Software Services.
- Select the Templates tab.
- In the table, click Add Template, then select either Standard or Composite to specify the type of template that you want to create.If Add Template is not available, it might be because you are not a domain administrator.
- On the page that is displayed, supply values.
The steps for creating a z/OS system provisioning template are similar to the steps that you follow for creating other types of software services templates.
z/OSMF provides a default tenant in the default domain which supports provisioning actions from any user that is in the z/OSMF users group (normally IZUUSER). If the z/OSMF provided default tenant is not suitable, identify the consumers, such as application developers, and create the tenant in a domain where the software services template or z/OS provisioning template is created. Connect the template to tenants and create resource pools. A resource pool represents a group of z/OS resources (e.g.
Identify the domain associated with the z/OS software services or z/OS system provisioning template where the tenant and resource pools need to be created.
If you are using the default domain, decide whether you want to use the default tenant or create a new tenant. If you are planning to use the default tenant, be aware that all users of z/OSMF can provision this template. If you are using a non-default domain, you need to create a tenant.
Determine what z/OS resources are required by the provisioning template. The z/OS software provisioning template requires network resources, where as the z/OS system provisioning template requires LPAR resources.
To make your software services template available in your marketplace, you will need to approve, test, and publish your template. Once you have defined, configured and tested your template, you can publish it and make it available for provisioning to authorized users identified in the tenant definition associated with the template. This also allows the template to be added to the marketplace that is available with Cloud Provisioning and Management. Templates can also be run multiple times to consistently create instances of softwares.
After you have created your tenants and resource pools, in many cases the state of the template that you are working with is Draft Pending Approvals. The approval must be completed by the appropriate approver before you can use the template to provision an instance. Approval records are created for a template when a workflow or action definition file contains an element that identifies a user ID under which a workflow step or action is to be performed (a runAsUser ID). Approvers can also be defined for the template in general, and for a domain. When there are no approval records, template will remain in draft state.
Approve the various approval records associated with the template.
Once the template is approved the state of template is draft approved. Test the template by driving test run action to be sure that it successfully creates a software instance. Test run creates a workflow, starts the workflow, and creates a software services instance. It leaves the template open for further changes. If changes are made to the workflow, template will go back to draft pending approval state and approval step needs to be performed again.
After successful test run, publish the template.
How to approve, test run, and publish a software services template (see steps 7 and 8)
The steps to approve, test run and publish a z/OS system provisioning template are similar to the steps that you follow for creating other types of software services templates.
How to publish a z/OS provisioning template (see steps 10 and 11)
Make your z/OS software services available to consumers, such as an application development team, through a self-service marketplace. Choose the approach that is best for your enterprise.
With an Ansible strategy to drive automation, the following can also be provisioned using z/OSMF Ansible collection:
CICS MQ (queue manager and queues)- z/OS connect
Db2 subsystem- Websphere Liberty Profile
Determine how you want to make z/OS software services available to your consumers.
You can use:
- The z/OSMF user interface to provision and manage software services
- An enterprise self-service cloud marketplace
- The z/OS Provisioining toolkit
- Urban Code Deploy z/OSMF Plugin
- The Zowe Command Line Interface
- The z/OSMF Cloud Provisioning sample marketplace
- The z/OSMF Ansible collection from IBM
Modify an existing marketplace or create a new marketplace, begin by learning about the z/OSMF Cloud Provisioning REST APIs by reviewing the source code for the Marketplace and Marketplace Administration plug-ins to see examples of REST API invocation or by using Swagger documentation of the z/OSMF Cloud Provisioning REST APIs.
Learn more about z/OSMF Cloud Provisioning REST APIs
How to use Swagger to display z/OSMF Cloud Provisioning REST APIs
Enable the Marketplace plug-in provided with z/OSMF.
How to enable the marketplace plug-in
Enable provisioning through Ansible playbooks, by using sample playbooks provided in the Ansible Z Playbook Repository.
Get started with sample playbooks in the Ansible Z Playbook Repository
Consumers, such as application developers, can consume and manage the software services that have been made available through a self-service marketplace or other means.
Focus on your application design and development. You can determine when you need the environment.
Depending upon your environment, you can any of the following methods to provision software services and manage software service instances:
- The z/OSMF user interface to provision and manage software services
- An enterprise self-service cloud marketplace
- z/OS Provisioning Toolkit
- Urban Code Deploy z/OSMF Plugin
- Zowe Command Line Interface
- The z/OSMF Cloud Provisioning sample marketplace
- z/OSMF Ansible collection from IBM
If you are using the z/OSMF user interface to provision and manage software services, you can perform following steps:
- Run templates from Software Services Catalog. The Templates tab of the Software Services task displays z/OS software provisioning or z/OS system provisioning templates that you are authorized to run. To run a template for z/OS software service provisioning or z/OS system provisioning, select the template from the Software Services Templates table and use the Run action. This action creates an instance of z/OS software or brand-new z/OS system. Repeat this step every time you want to provision a new instance of z/OS software or brand-new z/OS system.
- Manage software instances in the Software Instance Registry. The Instances tab of the Software Services task displays z/OS software instance or z/OS system instance that you provisioned from templates. From the table of instances, you can view details for an instance, or take an action against an instance, such as de-provisioning. The actions that are available depend on the actions definition file that was provided with the template.
Find a comprehensive collection of content about IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS.
IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS: An introduction.
IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS: CICS Scenario.
zTrial lets you try Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS on a live system, with cost or installation.
This blog post describes how to use Swagger with the APIs for Cloud Provisioning and Management
Provision z/OS Software with the z/OSMF Ansible collection from IBM
Find DevOps Agility with IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS
Use the videos in this playlist to see how to configure Cloud Provisioning, create a template, create a tenant and resource pool, configure a network resource pool, test and publish a template, and set up a consumer.
Learn how to create a template.
Learn how to create a tenant and resource pool.
Learn how to complete a tenant and resource pool using the Network Configuration Assistant
Learn how to test and publish a template
Learn how IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS can improve the agility of your DevOps team and transform your IT infrastructure
Learn how a system programmer can set up Cloud Provisioning in z/OSMF
Learn how a domain administrator can enable an application programmer to create a middleware instance.
Automate IBM Z applications and IT infrastructure.
Get self-service access to z/OS resources.
For a comprehensive list of new features added to IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS check out the What’s New section in the IBM Documentation.
Links to IBM Documentation were changed to reflect the publication of the z/OS 2.5 library.
New content was added to the introduction and 'How to Get Started' sections about z/OS provisioning and Ansible.
Transcript added for IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS overview video.
A Hot Topics article, DevOps Agility With IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS, was added to the Other resources tab in the Technical resources section.
The Big Picture was modified for accessibility.
A link to the z/OSMF Ansible collection was added to the Other Resources tab in the Technical Resources section. Read the z/OSMF Ansible collection announcement here.
The Journey to hybrid cloud with IBM Z content solution was added to the Content solutions tab in the Technical Resources section.
The article Use Swagger to document APIs for Cloud Provisioning applications was added to the Other Resources tab of the Technical Resources section.
A link to a blog post on using the Workflow Editor was added to the Other Resources tab of the Technical Resources section.
Links to the IBM Marketplace were removed.
A link to Zorow: z/OS Open Repository of Workflows was added.
How-to videos were added to the Multimedia tab of the Resources section.
A link to the IBM Marketplace was removed.
A link to the z/OS Cloud Broker content solution was added.