Releases¶

Version 1.3.0-beta.1¶

What’s New¶

Modules
- zos_apf - Add or remove libraries to and from Authorized Program Facility (APF).
- zos_backup_restore - Backup and restore data sets and volumes.
- zos_blockinfile - Manage block of multi-line textual data on z/OS.
- zos_find - Find matching data sets.
- zos_data_set - added support to allocate and format zFS data sets
Playbooks
- In each release, we continue to expand on the use cases and deliver several new playbooks in the playbook repository that can be easily tailored to any system.
  - Authorize and synchronize APF authorized libraries on z/OS from a configuration file cloned from GitHub
  - Automate program execution with copy, sort and fetch data sets on z/OS playbook.
  - Automate user management with add, remove, grant permission, generate passwords, create zFS, mount zFS and send email notifications when deployed to Ansible Tower or AWX with the manage z/OS Users Using Ansible playbook.
  - Use the configure Python and ZOAU Installation playbook to scan the z/OS target to find the latest supported configuration and generate inventory and a variables configuration.
  - All playbooks have been updated to use our temporary data set feature to avoid any concurrent data set name problems.
  - In the prior release, all sample playbooks previously included with the collection were migrated to the playbook repository. The playbook repository categorizes playbooks into z/OS concepts and topics, it also covers playbook configuration as well as provide additional community content such as blogs and where to open support tickets for the playbooks.
Bug Fixes
- Modules
  - Module zos_copy was updated to fail gracefully when a it encounters a non-zero return code.
  - Action plugin zos_copy was updated to support Python 2.7.
  - Module zos_tso_command support was added for when the command output contained special characters.
  - Module zos_job_submit referenced a non-existent option and was corrected to wait_time_s.
Documentation
- All documentation related to playbook configuration has been migrated to the playbook repository. Each playbook contains a README that explains what configurations must be made to run a sample playbook.
- We have been carefully reviewing our users feedback and over time we have compiled a list of information that we feel would help everyone and have released this information in our new FAQs.
- Learn about the latest features and experience them before you try them through the blogs that discuss playbooks, modules, and use cases:
  - Running Batch Jobs on z/OS using Ansible details how to write and execute batch jobs without having to deal with JCL.
  - z/OS User Management With Ansible explains all about the user management playbook and its optional integration into AWX.

Availability¶

Reference¶

Supported by IBM Open Enterprise Python for z/OS 3.8.2 or later
Supported by IBM Z Open Automation Utilities 1.1.0

Note

There is an additional step for Z Open Automation Utilities 1.1.0 (ZOAU) over prior installations of ZOAU on the target z/OS. After you have configured IBM Open Enterprise Python on z/OS environment variables on the z/OS target and have installed ZOAU from a PAX archive or through SMPe, you will need to perform a PIP installation of the ZOAU Python libraries and ensure you have either exported or added these environment variables to your z/OS host .profile.

Variables:

export ZOAU_HOME=/usr/lpp/IBM/zoautil

export PATH=${ZOAU_HOME}/bin:$PATH

export LIBPATH=${ZOAU_HOME}/lib:${LIBPATH}

PIP installation command:

pip install zoautil_py-1.1.0.tar.gz.

This will install the ZOAU Python libraries on the z/OS target for use by z/OS Ansible core and other collections.

However, the Python installation may not have the the symbolic link for pip in which case you can use pip3 to install the libraries:

pip3 install zoautil_py-1.1.0.tar.gz.

If the Python installation has not installed the wheel packaging standard and not updated the pip version to the latest, the warning messages can be ignored.

Example output:

Processing ./zoautil_py-1.1.0.tar.gz

Using legacy setup.py install for zoautil-py, since package ‘wheel’ is not installed.

Installing collected packages: zoautil-py

Running setup.py install for zoautil-py … done

Successfully installed zoautil-py-1.1.0

WARNING: You are using pip version 20.1.1; however, version 20.2.4 is available.

You should consider upgrading via the ‘<python_path>/pyz_3_8_2/usr/lpp/IBM/cyp/v3r8/pyz/bin/python3.8 -m pip install –upgrade pip’ command.
Supported by z/OS V2R3 or later
The z/OS® shell

Known issues¶

Modules
- When executing programs using zos_mvs_raw, you may encounter errors that originate in the implementation of the programs. Two such known issues are noted below of which one has been addressed with an APAR.
  1. zos_mvs_raw module execution fails when invoking Database Image Copy 2 Utility or Database Recovery Utility in conjunction with FlashCopy or Fast Replication.
  2. zos_mvs_raw module execution fails when invoking DFSRRC00 with parm “UPB,PRECOMP”, “UPB, POSTCOMP” or “UPB,PRECOMP,POSTCOMP”. This issue is addressed by APAR PH28089.

Version 1.2.1¶

Notes¶

Update required
Module changes
- Noteworthy Python 2.x support
  - encode - removed TemporaryDirectory usage.
  - zos_copy - fixed regex support, dictionary merge operation fix
  - zos_fetch - fix quote import
Collection changes
- Beginning this release, all sample playbooks previously included with the collection will be made available on the samples repository. The samples repository explains the playbook concepts, discusses z/OS administration, provides links to the samples support site, blogs and other community resources.
Documentation changes
- In this release, documentation related to playbook configuration has been migrated to the samples repository. Each sample contains a README that explains what configurations must be made to run the sample playbook.

Availability¶

Reference¶

Supported by IBM Open Enterprise Python for z/OS: 3.8.2 or later
Supported by IBM Z Open Automation Utilities 1.0.3 PTF UI70435
Supported by z/OS V2R3 or later
The z/OS® shell

Version 1.2.0¶

Notes¶

Update recommended
Collection changes
- Beginning this release, all sample playbooks previously included with the collection will be made available on the samples repository. The samples repository explains the playbook concepts, discusses z/OS administration, provides links to the samples support site, blogs and other community resources.
Documentation changes
- In this release, documentation related to playbook configuration has been migrated to the samples repository. Each sample contains a README that explains what configurations must be made to run the sample playbook.

Availability¶

Reference¶

Supported by IBM Open Enterprise Python for z/OS: 3.8.2 or later
Supported by IBM Z Open Automation Utilities 1.0.3 PTF UI70435
Supported by z/OS V2R3
The z/OS® shell

Version 1.2.0-beta.4¶

Notes¶

Update recommended
Bugfix
- Fixes a bug for zos_data_set module where some parameters were not getting passed correctly because python considers integer value of 0 to be false.
- Fixes documentation in module zos_job_submit where wait_time_s should have been written as duration_s.
- Fixes requirements version in sample playbook hosts-setup.yaml
Module changes
- Module zos_copy can now use wildcards to copy multiple PDS/PDSE members to another PDS/PDSE

Availability¶

Reference¶

Supported by IBM Open Enterprise Python for z/OS: 3.8.2 or later
Supported by IBM Z Open Automation Utilities 1.0.3 PTF UI70435
Supported by z/OS V2R3
The z/OS® shell

Known issues¶

Modules
- When executing programs using zos_mvs_raw, you may encounter errors that originate in the programs implementation. Two such known issues are noted below of which one has been addressed with an APAR.
  1. zos_mvs_raw module execution fails when invoking Database Image Copy 2 Utility or Database Recovery Utility in conjunction with FlashCopy or Fast Replication.
  2. zos_mvs_raw module execution fails when invoking DFSRRC00 with parm “UPB,PRECOMP”, “UPB, POSTCOMP” or “UPB,PRECOMP,POSTCOMP”. This issue is addressed by APAR PH28089.

Version 1.2.0-beta.3¶

Notes¶

Update recommended
Bugfix
- Fixes a bug which causes action plugins to fail when collections are referenced using fully qualified collection names instead of playbook level imports

Availability¶

Reference¶

Supported by IBM Open Enterprise Python for z/OS: 3.8.2 or later
Supported by IBM Z Open Automation Utilities 1.0.3 PTF UI70435
Supported by z/OS V2R3
The z/OS® shell

Known issues¶

Modules
- When executing programs using zos_mvs_raw, you may encounter errors that originate in the programs implementation. Two such known issues are noted below of which one has been addressed with an APAR.
  1. zos_mvs_raw module execution fails when invoking Database Image Copy 2 Utility or Database Recovery Utility in conjunction with FlashCopy or Fast Replication.
  2. zos_mvs_raw module execution fails when invoking DFSRRC00 with parm “UPB,PRECOMP”, “UPB, POSTCOMP” or “UPB,PRECOMP,POSTCOMP”. This issue is addressed by APAR PH28089.

Version 1.2.0-beta.2¶

Notes¶

Update recommended
Module changes
- Update zos_fetch and zos_copy to allow for user specified SFTP transfer port.
- Refactor module option backup_file to backup_name in modules zos_copy, zos_lineinfile, zos_encode.
- Fix zos_copy record format.
- Fix zos_job_submit allowable characters for data sets.
- Update zos_fetch and zos_copy with option ignore_sftp_stderr to alter module behavior.
- Fix zos_operator_action_query so that all outstanding messages are returned.
- Update zos_mvs_raw with verbose option.
Documentation
- Update documentation in support of centralized content.
New playbook to aid in generating group_vars

Availability¶

Reference¶

Supported by IBM Open Enterprise Python for z/OS: 3.8.2 or later
Supported by IBM Z Open Automation Utilities 1.0.3 PTF UI70435
Supported by z/OS V2R3
The z/OS® shell

Known issues¶

Modules
- When executing programs using zos_mvs_raw, you may encounter errors that originate in the programs implementation. Two such known issues are noted below of which one has been addressed with an APAR.
  1. zos_mvs_raw module execution fails when invoking Database Image Copy 2 Utility or Database Recovery Utility in conjunction with FlashCopy or Fast Replication.
  2. zos_mvs_raw module execution fails when invoking DFSRRC00 with parm “UPB,PRECOMP”, “UPB, POSTCOMP” or “UPB,PRECOMP,POSTCOMP”. This issue is addressed by APAR PH28089.

Version 1.2.0-beta.1¶

Notes¶

Update recommended
New modules
- zos_copy
- zos_lineinfile
- zos_mvs_raw
Bug fixes
Documentation updates
New samples
Module enhancements:
- zos_data_set - includes full multi-volume support for data set creation, addition of secondary space option, improved SMS support with storage, data, and management classes

Availability¶

Galaxy
GitHub

Reference¶

Supported by IBM Open Enterprise Python for z/OS: 3.8.2 or later
Supported by IBM Z Open Automation Utilities 1.0.3 PTF UI70435
Supported by z/OS V2R3
The z/OS® shell

Version 1.1.0¶

Notes¶

Update recommended
New modules
- zos_fetch
- zos_encode
- zos_operator_action_query
- zos_operator
- zos_tso_command
- zos_ping
New filter
Improved error handling and messages
Bug fixes
Documentation updates
New samples

Availability¶

Automation Hub
Galaxy
GitHub

Reference¶

Supported by IBM Open Enterprise Python for z/OS: 3.8.2 or later
Supported by IBM Z Open Automation Utilities: 1.0.3 PTF UI70435
Supported by z/OS V2R3
The z/OS® shell

Version 1.1.0-beta1¶

Notes¶

Update recommended
New modules
- zos_fetch, zos_encode, zos_operator_action_query, zos_operator, zos_tso_command, zos_ping
New filter
Improved error handling and messages
Bug fixes
Documentation updates
New samples

Availability¶

Galaxy
GitHub

Reference¶

Supported by IBM Z Open Automation Utilities: 1.0.2 or 1.0.3 PTF UI70435

Version 1.0.0¶

Notes¶

Update recommended
Security vulnerabilities fixed
Improved test, security and injection coverage
Module zos_data_set catalog support added
Documentation updates

Availability¶

Automation Hub
Galaxy
GitHub

Reference¶

Supported by IBM Z Open Automation Utilities: 1.0.1 PTF UI66957 through 1.0.3 PTF UI70435

Version 0.0.4¶

Notes¶

Update recommended
Includes fixes to modules zos_job_output and zos_job_submit
Improved buffer utilization
Optimized JSON response
Functional test cases for all modules
Updated document references

Availability¶

Galaxy
GitHub

Reference¶

Supported by IBM Z Open Automation Utilities: 1.0.1 PTF UI66957 through 1.0.3 PTF UI70435

Version 0.0.3¶

Notes¶

Update recommended
Includes updates to README.md for a malformed URL and product direction
Includes fixes for zos_data_set module

Availability¶

Galaxy
GitHub

Reference¶

Supported by IBM Z Open Automation Utilities: 1.0.1 PTF UI66957 through 1.0.3 PTF UI70435

Version 0.0.2¶

Notes¶

Update not required
Updates to the README and included docs

Availability¶

Galaxy
GitHub

Reference¶

Supported by IBM Z Open Automation Utilities: 1.0.1 PTF UI66957 through 1.0.3 PTF UI70435

Version 0.0.1¶

Notes¶

Initial beta release of IBM Z core collection, referred to as ibm_zos_core which is part of the broader offering Red Hat® Ansible Certified Content for IBM Z.

Availability¶

Galaxy
GitHub

Reference¶

Supported by IBM Z Open Automation Utilities: 1.0.1 PTF UI66957 through 1.0.3 PTF UI70435