Provisioning a z/OS software instance

IBM Cloud Provisioning and Management includes a set of templates that you can use to provision and deprovision z/OS systems. By selecting a z/OS provisioning template from the Cloud Provisioning software services catalog, you can provision a new instance of z/OS in a monoplex configuration in less than one hour.

The steps for provisioning a z/OS system are similar to the steps that you follow for provisioning other types of software instances. A key difference is that the z/OS system must be associated with a new type of dedicated resource pool that is called an LPAR resource pool.

During the provisioning process, an available LPAR entry is obtained from the LPAR resource pool automatically. The provisioning process uses properties that are associated with the selected LPAR entry, such as volume names, unit addresses, TCP/IP addresses, and OSA definitions to create and configure a new z/OS instance. Later, when you no longer require the instance, you can deprovision the instance. If so, the LPAR entry is returned to the pool, so that it can be reused when a new z/OS system is provisioned.

An LPAR resource pool can contain one or more LPAR entries. LPAR entries can be from the same CPC or a different CPC. If you have more than one LPAR resource pool, do not use duplicate LPAR entries.

Planning and setup

The z/OS system that you use to provision z/OS templates is known as the provisioning system. Some planning and setup is required to enable the provisioning system to drive the provisioning of z/OS templates. This work involves some host system customization and modification of the provisioning template's properties file, as described in the topic that follows.

You must plan for which logical partition (LPAR) to use for hosting the new z/OS image. You can use the Hardware Management Console (HMC) to locate an available LPAR, or use the HMC to create a new LPAR in your enterprise. If you use an existing LPAR, verify that the LPAR is not needed for any other systems at your installation.

This work might require the involvement of your system programmer, systems engineer, and network administrator.

IBM provides service for the z/OS provisioning templates in the form of program temporary fixes (PTFs). For a recommended approach to managing service updates, see Keep your z/OS provisioning templates up to date.