Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS Everything you need to get started quickly. Get started - Play overview Transcript

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® middleware, such as IBM Customer Information Control System (CICS®), IBM Db2, IBM MQ, and IBM WebSphere Application Server. Quickly provision and de-provision an environment as needed through a self-service software services catalog, with no need for intervention by a system administrator, and track software instances provisioned from those templates. IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS also includes a sample template that you can use to provision and de-provision z/OS systems. After defining a z/OS provisioning template in the software services catalog, you can provision a new instance of z/OS in a monoplex configuration in less than one hour.

IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management is available through z/OSMF, which provides a web browser-based user interface as well as REST APIs.

Related solution Red Hat Ansible Certified Content for IBM Z

Automate IBM Z applications and IT infrastructure.

Big picture 1. Build a repository of z/OS Software provisioning templates and services, enabling you to provision z/OS software using templates published in the Software Services Catalog. 2. Automatically track each provisioned instance and its assigned resources with a service instance registry. Perform lifecycle actions directly from the registry to start or stop an instance, and de-provision an instance. 3. Support a robust, multi-tenant environment with resource pools that isolate services and resources for different lines of business or user groups. 4. Drive provisioning and management tasks in z/OS from other interfaces of an enterprise cloud strategy with z/OSMF REST APIs or the IBM z/OSMF Ansible collection. 5. Use a z/OS provisioning template to provision a 'brand new' z/OS system in a monoplex environment. How to get started
Overview

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.

Set up z/OSMF Learn more about Cloud Provisioning
Planning

Cloud Provisioning roles include a provisioning administrator (z/OS system programmer), domain amdinistrator (middleware system programmer), WLM and network administrators, and consumers (application developers).

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.

    Cloud Provisioning roles and terms How to plan for automatic or manual security How to plan for provisioning in multiple-sysplexes How to plan for z/OS provisioning
Steps

Update parmlib member IZUPRMxx to enable pre-requisite plug-ins and to specify automatic or manual security.

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.

How to update parmlib How to enable plug-ins and set up security using IZUPRSEC How to define a domain (see step 3) Watch a video about the configuration steps
Overview

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.

Domain administrators and other roles and terms Use templates to provision software
Planning

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:

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.

Steps

To prepare a software services template and provision software, perform these steps using the Software Services task of z/OSMF:

  1. Expand the Cloud Provisioning category in the navigation area, then select Software Services.
  2. Select the Templates tab.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.

  • How to create a z/OS provisioning template (see steps 5-7)
  • Overview

    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. TCP/IP, ports, Workload Manager resources, Storage resource, LPAR resources etc.) and can be defined per authorized user group and service template. Defining and using resource pools for provisioning effectively enforces resource entitlement by policy as users and their services are limited to the predefined set of resources. When a service is run, resource requests are dynamically orchestrated from the set resource pools.

    Planning

    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.

    Steps How to create the tenant How to associate the template with the tenant and create the resource pool How to associate a z/OS system provisioning template with the tenant (see step 8)
    Overview

    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.

    Planning

    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.

    Approving the software services template
    Steps

    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.

    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.

    Overview

    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
      • Explore the 'Red Hat Ansible Certified Content for IBM Z' content solution to learn more
    Planning

    Determine how you want to make z/OS software services available to your consumers.

    You can use:

    Steps

    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.

    Enable the Marketplace plug-in provided with z/OSMF.

    Enable provisioning through Ansible playbooks, by using sample playbooks provided in the Ansible Z Playbook Repository.

    Overview

    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.

    Planning

    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:

    Steps

    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.
    Learn more about managing software instances
    Documentation Comprehensive content collection

    Find a comprehensive collection of content about IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS.

    Explore the collection
    Technical resources

    IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS: An introduction.

    Read the IBM Redbook

    IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS: CICS Scenario.

    Read the IBM Redbook

    This blog post describes how to use Swagger with the APIs for Cloud Provisioning and Management

    Read the article

    Provision z/OS Software with the z/OSMF Ansible collection from IBM

    Explore the collection
    Playlist of How-To videos

    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.

    New View the playlist
    How to create a template in IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management

    Learn how to create a template.

    New Watch the video (04:07)
    How to create a tenant and resource pool in IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management

    Learn how to create a tenant and resource pool.

    New Watch the video (03:56)
    How to configure a network resource pool in IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management

    Learn how to complete a tenant and resource pool using the Network Configuration Assistant

    New Watch the Video (03:43)
    How to test and publish a template in IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management

    Learn how to test and publish a template

    New Watch the video (02:58)
    Accelerate Provisioning of z/OS Middleware with IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS

    Learn how IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS can improve the agility of your DevOps team and transform your IT infrastructure

    Watch the video (03:21)
    How to configure IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS

    Learn how a system programmer can set up Cloud Provisioning in z/OSMF

    New Watch the video (04:55)
    How to set up a consumer in IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management for z/OS

    Learn how a domain administrator can enable an application programmer to create a middleware instance.

    New Watch the video (02:21)
    Related solutions Red Hat Ansible Certified Content for IBM Z

    Automate IBM Z applications and IT infrastructure.

    z/OS Cloud Broker

    Get self-service access to z/OS resources.

    What's new

    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.

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