Zowe high availability installation roadmap (Technical Preview)

Technical Preview Zowe™ high availability is a technical preview. Technical previews are for testing only and not ready for production. Any feedback that you can provide is highly appreciated.

To install Zowe on a Sysplex, there are two parts:

1. The Zowe runtime, which consists of the following components. An advanced launcher is used to perform the initialization and shutdown of these components.

   • Zowe Application Framework
   • z/OS Explorer Services
   • Zowe API Mediation Layer
   • ZSS

2. The Zowe Cross Memory Server, which is an authorized server application that provides privileged services to Zowe in a secure manner.

Review the installation diagram and the high-level instructions in this topic to see the general installation sequence and the most important tasks that are to be performed during installation and configuration of Zowe high availability. You can click each step on the diagram for detailed instructions.

Stage 1: Plan and prepare

Before you start the installation, review the information on hardware and software requirements and other considerations. See Planning the installation for details.

Stage 2: Install the Zowe runtime

1. Ensure that the software requirements are met. The prerequisites are described in Zowe high availability requirements (host).

2. Choose the method of installing Zowe high availability instances on a Sysplex.

   The Zowe z/OS binaries are distributed in the following formats. They contain the same contents but you install them by using different methods. You can choose which method to use depending on your needs.

   • Convenience build

     The Zowe z/OS binaries are packaged as a PAX file. You install this build by running shell script within a UNIX System Services (USS) shell. Convenience builds are full product installs.

   • SMP/E build

     The Zowe z/OS binaries are packaged as the following files that you can download. You install this build through SMP/E.

     • A pax.Z file, which contains an archive (compressed copy) of the FMIDs to be installed.
     • A readme file, which contains a sample job to decompress the pax.Z file, transform it into a format that SMP/E can process, and invoke SMP/E to extract and expand the compressed SMP/E input data sets.

   While the procedure to obtain and install the convenience build or SMP/E build are different, the procedure to configure a Zowe runtime are the same irrespective of how the build is obtained and installed.

3. Obtain and install the Zowe build.

   • For how to obtain the convenience build and install it, see Installing Zowe runtime from a convenience build.
   • For how to obtain the SMP/E build and install it, see Installing Zowe SMP/E.

Note: To allow all LPARs in a Sysplex to access the installation and configuration of Zowe high availability instances, you must install and configure Zowe in a shared file system (zFS directory).

After successful installation of either a convenience build or an SMP/E build, there will be a shared zFS directory that contains the unconfigured Zowe runtime <RUNTIME_DIR>, a SAMPLIB library SZWESAMP that contains sample members, and a load library SZWEAUTH that contains load modules.

Stage 3: Configure the Zowe high availability runtime

You can configure the Zowe high availability runtime by using JCL and shell scripts.

Tip: It's recommended that you open the links in the following configuration procedure in new tabs.

1. Configure the z/OS security manager to prepare for launching the Zowe started tasks. For instructions, see Configuring the z/OS system for Zowe.

   A SAMPLIB JCL member ZWESECUR is provided to assist with the configuration. You can submit the ZWESECUR JCL member as-is or customize it depending on site preferences.

   If you already have this security step configured from a previous release of Version 1.8 or later, you only need to define Zowe launcher started task security configuration with the following commands.

   • If you use RACF, issue the following commands:

   RDEFINE STARTED &ZLNCHSTC..*   STDATA(USER(&ZOWEUSER.) GROUP(&STCGRP.) TRUSTED(NO))   DATA('ZOWE LAUNCHER')
   SETROPTS RACLIST(STARTED) REFRESH

   • If you use CA ACF2, issue the following commands:

   SET CONTROL(GSO)INSERT STC.&ZLNCHSTC. LOGONID(&ZOWEUSER.) +GROUP(&STCGRP.) +STCID(&ZLNCHSTC.)
   F ACF2,REFRESH(STC)  

   • If you use CA Top Secret, issue the following commands:

   TSS ADD(STC) PROCNAME(&ZLNCHSTC.) ACID(&ZOWEUSER.)
   TSS ADD(&ZOWEUSER.) FAC(STC)   
   

   Where,

   • ZLNCHSTC is the Zowe launcher task name. Default should be ZWESLSTC.
   • STCGRP is the group for Zowe started tasks. Default should be ZWEADMIN.
   • ZOWEUSER is the user ID for the Zowe started task. Default should be ZWESVUSR.

2. Create a VSAM data set which is used by the Caching Service feature of API Mediation Layer. For instructions, see Configuring Caching Service for HA.

   A SAMPLIB JCL member ZWECSVSM is provided to assist with the creation of this VSAM data set. You need to customize the ZWECSVSM JCL member depending on your site preferences and then submit the JCL.

3. Configure the Zowe TLS. For instructions, see Configuring Zowe certificates.

   The Zowe keystore directory must be created in a shared file system (zFS directory), so that it can be shared between all Zowe high availability instances running in a Sysplex.

   The Zowe keystore directory contains the key used by the Zowe desktop and the Zowe API mediation layer to secure its TLS communication with clients (such as web browsers or REST AI clients). The keystore directory also has a truststore where public keys of any servers that Zowe communicates to (such as z/OSMF) are held.

4. Configure and start the ZWESISTC cross memory server and install the load libraries. For instructions, see Installing and configuring the Zowe cross memory server (ZWESISTC).

5. Create and customize an instance directory that contains the configuration data required to launch a Zowe runtime and is where log files and Zowe yaml configuration are stored. For instructions, see Creating and configuring the Zowe instance directory.

   One instance directory must be created on a shared file system (zFS directory). A single Zowe runtime can be launched multiple times from a shared instance directory.

6. Create and customize the <INSTANCE_DIR>/zowe.yaml configuration file. To learn more about how to create zowe.yaml, see the Creation of zowe.yaml file section.

   Notes:

   • To learn more about zowe.yaml, see the Updating the zowe.yaml configuration file section.
   • For more information about Gateway and Discovery Service parameters that can be set during the Zowe runtime configuration, see API Gateway runtime configuration parameters and Discovery Service runtime configuration parameters.

7. Configure and start the ZWESLSTC started task. For instructions, see Installing and starting the Zowe high availability started task (ZWESLSTC).

   Zowe in high availability mode has two high-level started tasks: ZWESLSTC that launches the Zowe high availability instances, and ZWESISTC that is a cross memory server that runs all of the APF-authorized code. The JCLs for the tasks are included in the PDS SAMPLIB SZWESAMP installed by Zowe and the load modules for the cross memory server are included in the PDS load library SZWEAUTH.

Stage 4: Verify the installation

Verify that Zowe is installed correctly on z/OS. See Verifying Zowe installation on z/OS.

Looking for troubleshooting help?

If you encounter unexpected behavior when installing or verifying the Zowe runtime on z/OS, see the Troubleshooting section for tips.