IBM z/OS Cloud Broker release notes

2.2.8

The following new features and fixes are introduced in z/OS Cloud Broker 2.2.8:

• Ability to create a suboperator with a specific base image version.
• Security fixes.

Upgrade note: Upgrades are supported from z/OS Cloud Broker versions 2.2.3 and later. Upgrades are not supported from versions before z/OS Cloud Broker 2.2.3.

2.2.7

The following fixes are introduced in z/OS Cloud Broker 2.2.7:

• Security fixes.

Upgrade note: Upgrades are supported from z/OS Cloud Broker versions 2.2.3 and later. Upgrades are not supported from versions before z/OS Cloud Broker 2.2.3.

2.2.6

The following fixes are introduced in z/OS Cloud Broker 2.2.6:

• Security fixes.

Upgrade note: Upgrades are supported from z/OS Cloud Broker versions 2.2.3 and later. Upgrades are not supported from versions before z/OS Cloud Broker 2.2.3.

2.2.5

The following fixes are introduced in z/OS Cloud Broker 2.2.5:

• Security fixes.

Upgrade note: Upgrades are supported from z/OS Cloud Broker versions 2.2.3 or 2.2.4. Upgrades are not supported from versions before z/OS Cloud Broker 2.2.3.

2.2.4

The following fixes are introduced in z/OS Cloud Broker 2.2.4:

• Security fixes.

Upgrade note: Upgrades are supported from z/OS Cloud Broker 2.2.3. Upgrades are not supported from versions before z/OS Cloud Broker 2.2.3.

2.2.3

The following new features, enhancements, and fixes are introduced in z/OS Cloud Broker 2.2.3:

• Support for arrays and objects in operator configuration variables.
• Ability to specify custom Roles and ClusterRoles in the operator-config.yml file.
• Ability to execute operator collection migration playbooks in multiple namespaces.
• Ability to create credentials with custom properties by using the zoscb-encrypt CLI.
• Ability to retrieve and decrypt credentials by using the zoscb-encrypt CLI.
• Addition of dark mode and landing page to the z/OS Cloud Broker user interface.
• Security fixes and enhancements.

Upgrade note: Upgrades from previous versions are not supported due to breaking changes in z/OS Cloud Broker 2.2.3. For more information about upgrading to z/OS Cloud Broker 2.2.3, see Non-disruptive migration of the z/OS Cloud Broker Operator and installed suboperators.

2.2.2

The following fixes are introduced in z/OS Cloud Broker 2.2.2:

• Security fixes.

2.2.1

The following new features, enhancements, and fixes are introduced in z/OS Cloud Broker 2.2.1:

• Support for the open-source IBM Operator Collection SDK, enabling easy development of user-provided operator collections in the z/OS Cloud Broker. For more information, see Developing operator collections with the IBM Operator Collection SDK.
• Redesign of the"Import Operator Collections" page with the following enhancements:
  • New "Configuration panel" to allow the configuration of a custom Ansible Galaxy URL.
  • Ability to import multiple operator collections in parallel.
  • New view to allow the display of IBM and Community operator collections in the "Galaxy operator catalog".
• Support for the local z/OS endpoint type in addition to the remote z/OS endpoint type.
• Integration of the zoscb-encrypt CLI into the operator container for execution within Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.
• Security fixes and enhancements.

2.2.0

The following new features, enhancements, and fixes are introduced in z/OS Cloud Broker 2.2.0:

• Ability to deploy and manage suboperators across multiple namespaces.
• Support for specifying individual credentials per z/OS endpoint during operator collection configuration.
• Support for shared and personal SSH credentials to provide users with the flexibility of either uploading shared credentials across namespaces or requiring personal credentials to be specified during suboperator instance creation.
• A CLI tool to generate encrypted personal credentials in a namespace.
• Suboperator instance mapping to the z/OS endpoint resource to restrict z/OS endpoint removal when in use.
• UI enhancements, including Websocket enhancements to enable live updates, status indicators on z/OS endpoint tiles, and redesigns of the "z/OS Endpoint details" and "Configured collection details" pages.
• Native OpenShift® API support for creating OperatorCollection, SubOperatorConfig, and ZosEndpoint resources.
• New v2beta2 API Versions for OperatorCollections, ZosEndpoints, and SubOperatorConfigs.
• Security fixes and enhancements.

2.1.4

The following new enhancements and fixes are introduced in z/OS Cloud Broker 2.1.4:

• IBM License Service integration for license usage tracking and audit purposes. For more information, see Tracking z/OS Cloud Broker license usage.
• Suboperator image updates to support Operator SDK v1.22.2.
• Package updates and security fixes.

2.1.3

The following new enhancements and fixes are introduced in z/OS Cloud Broker 2.1.3:

• Enhancement to enable collection download count incrementing in the Ansible Galaxy user interface upon import of Ansible Galaxy operator collections through the z/OS® Cloud Broker user interface. The download counts in turn affect the order in which collections are displayed in the Galaxy section of the z/OS® Cloud Broker "Import operator collections" page, with the collections with the most downloads being shown at the beginning of the list.
• Removal of hardcoded ANSIBLE_REMOTE_TEMP environment variable to allow playbooks the ability to use the default remote directory.
• Fix to ensure that a custom documentation link specified in a suboperator's configuration is displayed in the Links field on the Details tab of the suboperator "Operator details" page. If no link is specified in the suboperator configuration, the value Not available will be displayed in the Links field.
• Security fixes/enhancements.

2.1.2

The following new features, fixes, and other changes are introduced in z/OS Cloud Broker 2.1.2:

• Optional operator collection validation during import via IBM provided public key and signature file.
• Enhancements to prevent operator collection tampering on the file system.
• Support for ReadWriteOnce volume mounts and removal of support for ReadWriteMany volume mounts.
• Ability to separately configure CPU, memory, and storage allocations for z/OS® Cloud Broker manager, user interface, and suboperator catalog resources during z/OS® Cloud Broker instance creation, through Advanced configuration section.
• Removal of horizontal scrolling bar from Galaxy operator selection panel on the "Import operator collections" page, so that users can more easily view available operator collections to select from.
• Ability to view configurations for operator collections, suboperators, and z/OS endpoints from the "Operator details" page and the Provided APIs column on the Installed Operators page in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform.
  Warning: Manual operator collection, suboperator, and z/OS endpoint instance creation through the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform user interface is not recommended.
• Modifications to hardware requirements for z/OS Cloud Broker, including the memory and CPU requests and limits for different components and the way those will be handled for Ansible operators going forward. See z/OS Cloud Broker hardware requirements for more information.
• Restriction added that prevents addition of more than one z/OS Cloud Broker instance in a single OpenShift® Container Platform namespace.
• Security fixes/enhancements.

2.1.1

The following fixes and new features are introduced in z/OS Cloud Broker 2.1.1:

• Security vulnerability fixes.
• Fix to prevent unintentional suboperator deletion during reconciliation.
• View documentation link in banner of z/OS® Cloud Broker user interface that links directly to z/OS® Cloud Broker section of the IBM Z and Cloud Modernization Stack documentation.
• Generic network policy to handle traffic to Oauth Proxy and SubOperator Registry.
• Text labels on z/OS endpoint tiles and operator collection tiles to indicate what action will be initiated when that tile is selected. Possible values include View details, Configure, and Import.
• Field validation for the z/OS Endpoint name field on the "z/OS Endpoint configuration" page.
• Support for multiple suboperator versions across namespaces.
• Support for SSH keys generated on Windows.
• Support for Golang v1.18.

2.1.0

Support for Red Hat® Ansible is introduced in z/OS Cloud Broker 2.1.0. This support allows you to implement a consistent, enterprise-wide automation strategy and a single control plane to manage your IBM Z hybrid environment.

For an overview of support for Ansible, see Red Hat Ansible for IBM z/OS Cloud Broker.

The following addtional new features are introduced in z/OS Cloud Broker 2.1.0:

• Ability to install and uninstall z/OS Package Manaer and z/OS native products, including C/C++, Golang, Java, Node.js, Python, and Z Open Automation Utilities (ZOAU).
• Ability to manually import or download Ansible collections directly from Github or Ansible Galaxy.
• Ability to view and delete instances provisioned with z/OS Cloud Broker.
• Ability to view Ansible logs for selected instances.
• Ability to monitor and manage z/OS endpoints and operator collections.
• Ability to manage access to individual suboperators via namespace mapping.
• Support for multiple z/OS endpoints for operator collections.
• Support for z/OS endpoint variables applied to all Ansible hosts.
• Support for multiple Ansible users per operator collection.
• Operator collection upgrade capabilities for future import/compatibility.

2.2.3

• When uninstalling a suboperator on the "Installed Operators" page in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, the suboperator might still appear in the Configured collections section on the "Configure operator collections" page in the z/OS Cloud Broker user interface. To prevent this, avoid uninstalling the suboperator in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. Instead, use the z/OS Cloud Broker user interface and follow steps 1–5 in Removing an operator collection to delete the suboperator mapping. The suboperator is uninstalled and removed from the "Installed Operators" page in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform when the suboperator mapping is deleted in the z/OS Cloud Broker user interface.

2.2.0

• When creating a suboperator instance in OpenShift, a list of z/OS endpoints is provided to the user, containing all of the z/OS endpoints that are available in the selected namespace. However, some z/OS endpoints in the list may not be suitable for creating a suboperator instance because they are either not mapped to the operator or mapped to another namespace for a different operator. If the user selects an unsuitable z/OS endpoint during suboperator instance creation, an error message "ZosEndpoint doesn't exist in the inventory" will appear. To avoid this, it is important to select a suitable z/OS endpoint when creating a suboperator instance.

2.1.0

• If you need to map an operator collection to more than one z/OS® endpoint, and you need to use a different SSH key for each endpoint, you must create a separate namespace and import a separate operator collection for each endpoint that requires its own SSH key. Each time you import an operator collection you can upload only one SSH key, even if you are mapping the operator collection to more than one z/OS endpoint.
• The z/OS Cloud Broker Operator and any installed suboperators only support the automatic update strategy in Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform.
• z/OS Cloud Broker is only supported for Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform on amd64 and s390x architectures.
• z/OS Cloud Broker does not support the AllNamespaces installation mode.