[Announcement] IBM z/OS Core v1.4.0 has released

[ddimatos]

Version 1.4.0

New

• zos_mount

  • can manage mount operations for a z/OS UNIX System Services (USS) file
    system data set.

Bug fixes and enhancements

• zos_copy

  • enhanced the force option when force=true and the remote file or
    data set dest is NOT empty, the dest will be deleted and recreated
    with the src data set attributes, otherwise it will be recreated
    with the dest data set attributes.
  • enhanced to optimize how it captures the permission bits state for
    the dest. This change now reviews the source files instead of
    traversing the entire dest path.
  • enhanced to support creating a parent directory when it does not exist
    in the dest path. Prior to this change, if a parent directory
    anywhere in the path did not exist the task would fail as it was
    stated in documentation.
  • enhanced to support system symbols in PARMLIB. System symbols are
    elements that allow different z/OS® systems to share PARMLIB definitions
    while retaining unique values in those definitions. This was fixed in a
    future release through the use of one of the ZOAU dependency but this
    version of ibm_zos_core does not support that dependency version so
    this support was added.
  • fixes a bug that when a directory is copied from the controller to the
    managed node and a mode is set, the mode is applied to the directory
    on the managed node. If the directory being copied contains files and
    mode is set, mode will only be applied to the files being copied not
    the pre-existing files.
  • fixes a bug where options were not defined in the module argument spec
    that will result in error when running ansible-core v2.11 and using
    options force or mode.
  • introduced an updated creation policy referred to as precedence rules
    such that if dest_data_set is set, this will take precedence.
    If dest is an empty data set, the empty data set will be written with
    the expectation its attributes satisfy the copy. If no precedent rule
    has been exercised, dest will be created with the same attributes of src.
  • introduced new computation capabilities such that if dest is a
    nonexistent data set, the attributes assigned will depend on the type
    of src. If src is a USS file, dest will have a Fixed Block (FB)
    record format and the remaining attributes will be computed. If src
    is binary, dest will have a Fixed Block (FB) record format with a
    record length of 80, block size of 32760, and the remaining attributes
    will be computed.
  • was enhanced for when src is a directory and ends with "/", the
    contents of it will be copied into the root of dest. It it doesn't
    end with /, the directory itself will be copied.
  • was updated to support the ansible.builtin.ssh connection options; for
    further reference refer to the SSH plugin documentation.
  • was updated to take into account the record length when the source is
    a USS file and the destination is a data set with a record length.
    This is done by inspecting the destination data set attributes and
    using these attributes to create a new data set.
  • was updated with the capabilities to define destination data sets
    from within the module. In the case where you are copying to
    a data set destination that does not exist, you can now do so using
    the new module option dest_data_set.
  • fixes a bug that did not create a data set on the specified volume.
  • fixes a bug where a number of attributes were not an option when
    using dest_data_set.

• zos_fetch

  • was updated to support the ansible.builtin.ssh connection options;
    for further reference refer to the SSH plugin documentation.

• zos_job_output

  • was updated to to include the completion code (CC) for each individual
    job step as part of the ret_code response.
  • fixes a bug that returned all ddname's when a specific ddname was
    provided. Now a specific ddname can be returned and all others ignored.
  • was updated to correct possible truncated responses for the ddname
    content. This would occur for jobs with very large amounts of content
    from a ddname.

• zos_job_query

  • was updated to handle when an invalid job ID or job name is used with
    the module and returns a proper response.
  • was updated to support a 7 digit job number ID for when there are
    greater than 99,999 jobs in the history.

• zos_job_submit

  • was enhanced to check for 'JCL ERROR' when jobs are submitted and
    result in a proper module response.
  • was updated to fail fast when a submitted job fails instead of
    waiting a predetermined time.

• zos_operator_action_query

  • response messages were improved with more diagnostic information in
    the event an error is encountered.

• zos_ping

  • was updated to remove the need for the zos_ssh connection plugin
    dependency.

• zos_mount

  • fixed option tag_ccsid to correctly allow for type int.

• zos_operator

  • enhanced to allow for MVS operator SET command, SET is equivalent
    to the abbreviated T command.

Deprecated Features

• zos_copy

  • option sftp_port has been deprecated. To set the SFTP port, use the
    supported options in the ansible.builtin.ssh plugin. Refer to
    the SSH port <https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/builtin/ssh_connection.html#parameter-port>__
    option to configure the port used during the modules SFTP transport.
  • module option model_ds has been removed. The model_ds logic is now
    automatically managed and data sets are either created based on the
    src data set or overridden by the new option destination_dataset.
  • option dest_dataset has been deprecated and removed in favor of the
    new option dest_data_set.

• zos_fetch

  • option sftp_port has been deprecated. To set the SFTP port, use the
    supported options in the ansible.builtin.ssh plugin. Refer to
    the SSH port <https://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/collections/ansible/builtin/ssh_connection.html#parameter-port>__
    option to configure the port used during the modules SFTP transport.

• zos_ssh

  • connection plugin has been removed, it is no longer required. You must
    remove all playbook references to connection ibm.ibm_zos_core.zos_ssh.

---

This discussion was created from the release release-v1.4.0.

[couckearthur]

@ddimatos is there any news on the release date of the v1.5.0 ? We are running on (E)JES, so we would be happy to see the SDSF dependencies finally gone (ZOAU 1.2.x).

[ddimatos]

Hi @couckearthur, that tentative date is February 13th, 2023 , which marks our 3rd Anniversary 🤣, we may try to push it out sooner, that has not been decided yet. To clarify it would be version 1.5.0-beta.1 and released to Galaxy and eligible for promotion to Automation Hub towards the end of the quarter as 1.5.0.

If you are interested you could build the release branch and give it a try sooner, happy to provide instructions, let me know it's fairly straightforward.

[ddimatos]

@couckearthur - you can track the progress for 1.5.0-beta.1 in git issue #433

[couckearthur]

Hello Demetri,
I would be happy to build and test out. So please give me instructions. If you are interested I would also like to share what we are testing out with the Ansible collections at our company. Can I maybe send you an email for that?

[ddimatos]

Hello @couckearthur,
Here is our general doc and instructions on how to build any of our collections.

Here is the commands I used to build it:

git clone git@github.com:ansible-collections/ibm_zos_core.git
cd ibm_zos_core/
git checkout release-v1.5.0-beta.1
ansible-galaxy collection build

I am attaching the build as well. If you find any issues, I suggest a new git issue or even discussion is fine. We do have a couple of issues we are looking into for 1.4.0 zos_copy, surely we will forward port if we find they need to be fixed.

ibm-ibm_zos_core-1.5.0-beta.1.tar.gz

Here is my checksum:
MD5 (ibm-ibm_zos_core-1.5.0-beta.1.tar.gz) = ec271cb270cb5db21368ebe79fc43c47

Installation of the above archive can be managed with:
ansible-galaxy collection install -f ibm-ibm_zos_core-1.5.0-beta.1.tar.gz