5 Modern Technologies for IBM Z ‘Optimization’
Kyndryl’s Pat Stanard and Brenno Oliveira explore the tools that are enhancing the mainframe’s capabilities and demonstrating the community’s commitment to innovation
As you know, we have never liked the term mainframe modernization—mainframes are already the most modern computing platform on the planet! We opt for “optimization” as the substitute term. That being said, there are several new technologies that are perfect for the mainframe today, and this article will explore exactly that.
In recent years, the platform has embraced numerous modern technologies, enhancing its capabilities and fostering the use of tools and technologies that are already common in the distributed world. This article explores five notable modern technologies and tools that have been added to the Z Platform, highlighting their features and benefits, and sharing useful references to start modernizing your work.
1. Containers on z/OS
The introduction of containers on z/OS has widened the view of how applications can be deployed on the Z platform, and from a DevOps point of view, it enables developers to build, test, and deploy applications in a more agile and flexible environment. By using containers, organizations can maximize resource utilization and streamline their development workflows.
There are two ways to leverage containerization on the Z Platform:
z/OS Container Extensions
IBM z/OS Container Extensions (zCX) is a feature from z/OS 2.4 and the z14 that allows clients to run Linux on Z applications as Docker containers on z/OS. Benefits include better performance for Linux applications interacting with native z/OS over TCP/IP and enhanced security through z/OS’s encryption capabilities.
zCX also has support for Red Hat OpenShift, allowing users to run a self-contained Red Hat OpenShift cluster and enabling enterprise-level container orchestration and management.
z/OS Container Platform
IBM z/OS Container Platform (zOSCP) is a feature from z/OS 2.5 and the z14 that allows clients to build, deploy, run and manage z/OS UNIX applications as containers natively on IBM z/OS, leveraging an open-source container runtime and Kubernetes Orchestration.
zOSCP is comprised of z/OS-compatible implementations of industry-standard tools used to work with containers, such as Podman for IBM z/OS (Podman), IBM z/OS for Skopeo (Skopeo), IBM z/OS for runC (runC) and many more.
Check out these past articles about Containers on Z:
The Power of Containers on the Mainframe | TechChannel
Red Hat OpenShift 4.7 on IBM Z | TechChannel
2. GitLab Runner on z/OS
GitLab is a DevSecOps platform that can host your source code, enable collaboration throughout the software development process and deliver full continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) capabilities.
A runner is an agent that usually runs as a service in a distributed server that will execute the steps defined in your CI/CD workflow when some condition is met, like when a new release of your application has been created on your source code repository. These usually do not have any requirements for inbound firewall permissions from the main repository, so it’s very secure to set one up.
In 2024, IBM partnered with GitLab and developed their GitLab Runner for z/OS, without any major requirements. All of this means that you can host your source code on GitLab and have a CI/CD pipeline that runs natively on your z/OS environment to build, test and deploy your updated applications. Installation is also as easy as it gets, due to the new zopen package manager (spoiler alert).
Check out the past and current proposals for this feature on the GitLab platform.
3. Managing z/OS With Ansible
Ansible is an open-source automation tool used for configuration management, application deployment, and task automation. It simplifies the process of managing and configuring multiple systems by using human-readable YAML syntax to define playbooks. Ansible works without an agent, meaning it does not require any additional software to be installed on the systems being managed, making it easy to set up and use.
Although z/OS cannot yet function as an Ansible control node (a system from which Ansible playbooks are triggered), significant efforts have been made to enable z/OS systems to be Ansible managed nodes (target systems to Ansible playbooks). These efforts include enabling Python to run natively on z/OS, providing a free package of z/OS-focused Python scripts and offering a catalog of ready-to-use Ansible modules and plugins for z/OS-related tasks, CICS-related tasks, IMS and more.
The possibilities truly are endless for what you can achieve with Ansible on z/OS today, all while leveraging well known open-source technologies and programming languages.
Check out more information on how to use Ansible to manage z/OS.
4. Unix CLI Tools on z/OS
Most Unix CLI tools that have been industry landmarks for quite some time in the distributed world have never been ported over by IBM and, although some of these have been provided by Rocket Software for quite some time, it is nice to see IBM finally investing in these technologies and providing free-of-charge support for them.
In May of 2024, IBM released IBM Open Enterprise Foundation for z/OS v1.1, which brings many popular Unix CLI tools to the z/OS-based Unix System Services environment. These are the tools present on the first release: Git, GNU Bash, Curl, GNU Make, Perl, Vim, Ncurses and Less.
Going a bit further, if you’re feeling adventurous and don’t mind community-supported, open-source versions of popular Unix CLI tools running on your z/OS LPARs, there is a very active open-source community sponsored by the Open Mainframe Project called the zopen community, and they have ports for dozens of widely used tools from the distributed world.
While all of this sounds great, it also begs the question: How can one download these open-source tools and start using them on z/OS? The answer is next…
5. The zopen Package Manager
We saved the best for last as this might be the most exciting recent development on the Z Platform for those who interact daily with Unix System Services, and it’s once again brought to you by the zopen community.
If you’ve ever used a Mac- or Unix-based OS such as Ubuntu, you probably have had some contact with a package manager utility (apt for Debian/Ubuntu, yum for CentOs/Fedora, Homebrew for Mac, etc.). It’s basically a CLI tool that you can use to install, update and remove software from your environment, sounds simple right?
While it is simple, the Unix subsystem that runs under z/OS has never had one with such a big community behind it and such an expansive backlog of tool ports being actively maintained to be used on the Z Platform. With the zopen package manager you can download your favorite community-supported CLI tool and use it freely on z/OS.
Continued Commitment From the Mainframe Community
The Z platform continues to evolve and become even more “optimized.” The addition of these modern technologies to the Z Platform demonstrates the mainframe community’s commitment toward innovation and modernization. These technologies enhance the platform’s capabilities, making it more agile, efficient and attractive to new hires. By embracing these advancements, organizations can modernize their mainframe environments and stay competitive in the evolving technology landscape.
To close out this article, we will leave you with a few more references on how you can stay up to date with the ever-changing landscape of the mainframe platform:
- Check out IBM’s Hot Topics.
- Keep a look out for IBM’s announcements and media.
- Join the zopen community on Linkedin.
- Browse the topics and read another article on TechChannel.