Managed node

The managed z/OS node is the host that is managed by Ansible, as identified in the Ansible inventory. The managed node has dependencies that are specific to each release of the IBM z/OS IMS collection. Review the details of the dependencies before you proceed to install the IBM z/OS IMS collection.

• IBM Open Enterprise Python for z/OS

• z/OS V2R3 or later

• IBM Z Open Automation Utilities (ZOAU)

  • IBM z/OS IMS collections are dependent on specific versions of ZOAU. For information about the required version of ZOAU, review the release notes.

• z/OS OpenSSH

• The z/OS® shell

• IBM IMS V15 or later

Note

Currently, only z/OS® shell is supported . Using ansible_shell_executable to change the default shell is discouraged. For more information, see Ansible documentation.

Shells such as bash are not supported because they handle the reading and writing of untagged files differently. bash added enhanced ASCII support in 4.3 and thus differs from 4.2. If bash shell is the only shell available, you will need to control how the new and existing files are tagged and encoded. This can be controlled by setting both “_ENCODE_FILE_NEW” and “_ENCODE_FILE_EXISTING”. For example,

• _ENCODE_FILE_NEW: “IBM-1047”

• _ENCODE_FILE_EXISTING: “IBM-1047”

Please review the README.ZOS guide included with the ported bash shell for further configurations.

Python on z/OS

If the Ansible target is z/OS, you must install IBM Open Enterprise Python for z/OS which is ported for the z/OS platform and required by IBM z/OS IMS Collection.

Installation

• Visit the IBM Open Enterprise Python for z/OS product page for FMID, program directory, fix list, latest PTF, installation and configuration instructions.

• For reference, the Program IDs are:

  • 5655-PYT for the base product

  • 5655-PYS for service and support

• Optionally download IBM Open Enterprise Python for z/OS, here

• For the Python supported version, refer to the release notes.

Note

Currently, IBM Open Enterprise Python for z/OS is the supported and recommended Python distribution for use on z/OS with Ansible and ZOAU. If Rocket Python is the only available python on the target, review the recommended environment variables for Rocket Python.

ZOAU

IBM Z Open Automation Utilities provide support for executing automation tasks on z/OS. With ZOAU, you can run traditional MVS commands, such as IEBCOPY, IDCAMS, and IKJEFT01, as well as perform a number of data set operations in the scripting language of your choice.

Installation

• Visit the ZOAU product page for the FMID, program directory, fix list, latest PTF, installation and configuration instructions.

• For reference, the Program IDs are:

  • 5698-PA1 for the base product

  • 5698-PAS for service and support

• For ZOAU supported version, refer to the release notes.