Before you can create and deploy a platform, you must configure your platform home
directory in zFS. Create a dedicated file system, set up the file system security, and set up FTP
security for access from CICS Explorer®.
See Platform directory structure in z/OS UNIX for
an overview of the directories. In the platform home directory, a number of subdirectories hold the
different platform and application resources. These subdirectories are created when the platform is
exported from CICS Explorer.
- Create a z/OS
UNIX file system data set to use as the zFS platform home
directory.
This is a dedicated file system for use by all CICS regions in the platform. The default platform home directory is
/var/cicsts/CICSplex/platform1, where
CICSplex is the name of the CICSplex where the platform will
be installed, and
platform1 is the name of your platform.
As a best practice, keep this default.If you use a different
directory as the platform home directory, you must change the platform bundle to specify the
alternative directory name after you create the CICS Platform
project. You do this in the CICS Explorer
platform descriptor editor.
- If you use non-shared zFS, mount the data set onto /var as
/var/cicsts, as a read-write file system.
- If you use a shared file system in a multi-system (LPAR) environment, mount the data
set onto the root file system (/) as /cicsts, and then for
each system that requires access, create a symbolic link from /var/cicsts to
the shared /cicsts directory.
- If you have a multi-system or cross-sysplex environment
where file systems cannot be shared between all the systems, duplicate the structure that you set up
for the platform home directory in each of the zFS file systems. Make sure that the contents of the
platform home directory are duplicated to each of the zFS file systems whenever you export a
platform, application, or CICS bundle. You can repeat the
export process in CICS Explorer and select the
appropriate z/OS connection for each individual file system.
- If the directories do not exist, create the
/var/cicsts/CICSplex and
/var/cicsts/CICSplex/platform1
subdirectories.
If you use CICS Explorer, these
directories are created for you.
-
Set up file system security.
This file system security ensures that all CICS regions
in the platform, including the CICSPlex® SM
CMAS regions, can read the bundle files in the platform home directory.
-
Change the owner of the directories in /var/cicsts to the user ID that is
used to create the bundle files.
-
Change the group ownership of the directories in /var/cicsts to a group
that all the CICS regions in the platform belong to.
-
Give the owner of the directories read, write, and execute permissions, and give the group read
and execute permissions.
For example, rwxr-x---
.
- Optional:
If write access is required by multiple administrator user IDs, or read access is required by
different groups, you can use UNIX System Services (USS)
access control list (ACL) entries to add group or owner permissions. You can achieve this by
activating the FSSEC resource class and by using the setfacl
command.
- Set up FTP security.
This level of security ensures that bundles that are
exported from CICS Explorer can be written to the
platform home directory on zFS, and read by all the CICS
regions in the platform.
- Set the file mode creation mask for the z/OS
FTP daemon to ensure that the owner has write permissions and the group has read
permissions.
To configure this, use the UMASK statement in the
FTP.DATA configuration file.
- Optional: If you are also using ACL entries to control security, ensure
that the default ACLs are inherited from the zFS platform home directory, for example
/var/cicsts/CICSplex/platform1, where
CICSplex is the name of your CICSplex and platform1 is the
name of your platform.
Your zFS environment is now configured with the correct directories and permissions.
Additional directories are created when you export the platform from CICS Explorer to zFS as part of the deployment
process.
What to do next
You can now create a platform bundle by following the instructions in Creating a CICS platform.