Releases

Version 2.1.0

What’s New

New modules

General Availability of CICS provisioning modules. You can use these Ansible modules to create automation tasks that provision or deprovision, and start or stop a CICS region. Sample playbooks show you how to do this with the latest version of the Ansible IBM z/OS CICS collection.

You can use the following modules to provision and manage CICS TS data sets:

  • aux_temp_storage can be used to create or remove the CICS auxiliary temporary storage data set.

  • aux_trace can be used to allocate the CICS auxiliary trace data sets.

  • csd can be used to create, manage, or remove the CICS system definition data set.

  • global_catalog can be used to create, manage, or remove the CICS global catalog data set.

  • local_request_queue can be used to create, manage, or remove the CICS local request queue data set.

  • td_intrapartition can be used to create or remove the CICS transient data intrapartition data set.

  • transaction_dump can be used to allocate the CICS transaction dump data sets.

You can use the following modules for CICS startup and shutdown operations:

  • region_jcl can be used to create a CICS startup JCL data set.

  • stop_region can be used to stop a CICS region.

The group name for the CICS provisioning modules is region.

CICS provisioning modules provide support for all in-service CICS TS releases including the latest CICS TS 6.2.

Changed modules

The group name for the CMCI modules is changed to cmci instead of cmci_group. cmci_group is deprecated.

New playbooks

Sample playbooks are available at the samples repository. The CICS provisioning playbook samples demonstrate how to configure and allocate the required data sets to provision and start a CICS region, with or without SMSS support. The deprovisioning sample shows how to stop a running region and delete all the associated data sets.

Version 2.0.0

What’s New

  • Removed support for Python 2.7. Python 2.7 is no longer supported as the managed node runtime.

Version 1.0.6

What’s New

  • Bug fix that allows the CICSPlex SM Scope and Context to contain special characters ‘$’, ‘@’, and ‘#’.

Version 1.0.5

What’s New

  • Bug fix that includes the requirements.txt file in the built collection.

Version 1.0.4

What’s New

  • Provide variables for all modules in one go using Ansible’s group module defaults support. The group name for the CMCI modules is cmci_group.

  • Prevent cmci_get from failing if no records are found via the fail_on_nodata option. The default value is true if not specified.

Version 1.0.3

What’s New

  • Updated timeout support on requests to be configurable via the timeout option. The default value is 30 seconds if not specified

  • Improve sanitisation and validation of parameters.

  • Added support for CMCI Feedback on failed CMCI Requests.

Version 1.0.1

What’s New

Initial release of the IBM® z/OS® CICS® collection, also referred to as ibm_zos_cics, which is part of the broader offering Red Hat® Ansible® Certified Content for IBM Z®.

This collection can manage CICS and CICSPlex® SM resources and definitions by calling the CMCI REST API, which can be configured in a CICSplex or in a stand-alone region.

Modules

  • cmci_create - Create definitional CICS and CICSPlex SM resources in CICS regions, by initiating POST requests via the CMCI REST API.

  • cmci_delete - Remove or discard definitional and installed CICS and CICSPlex SM resources from CICS regions, by initiating DELETE requests via the CMCI REST API.

  • cmci_get - Retrieve information about installed and definitional CICS and CICSPlex SM resources from CICS regions, by initiating GET requests via the CMCI REST API.

  • cmci_action - Install CICS and CICSPlex SM resources into CICS regions from definitions, by initiating PUT requests via the CMCI REST API.

  • cmci_update - Make changes to CICS and CICSPlex SM resources in CICS regions, by initiating PUT requests via the CMCI REST API.

Documentation

  • Generic documentation is available at the documentation site, covering guidance on installation, modules, and other reference.

  • Documentation related to playbook configuration is provided with sample playbooks at the samples repository. Each playbook contains a README that explains what configurations must be made to run a sample playbook.

Playbooks

  • Sample playbooks are available at the samples repository. Each playbook contains a README that explains what configurations must be made to run a sample playbook.

Reference

  • Supported by IBM CICS V4.2 or later