IBM z/OS Management Facility

Software Management

The Software Management task (previously called Software Deployment ¹) provides a simplified process for cloning z/OS® images and deploying z/OS software and maintenance. The Software Management task is a valuable addition to, or even possible replacement for, existing in-house software deployment tools. It can help reduce the incidence of errors during the installation of a deployment process and ultimately help reduce the skills needed for deploying z/OS software.

(Click image for full size view)

Central to Software Management is its checklist, which is the IBM® recommended route for z/OS software deployment codified. The checklist steps users through:

• Selecting the software to deploy (a software instance)
• Reporting missing requisites and possible regressions
• Selecting the deployment objective
• Configuring the target software instance
• Validating the configuration against the target system
• Summarizing the deployment actions
• Generating and executing the deployment jobs

(Click image for full size view)

With the Software Management task, you can also:

• Define your software to z/OSMF. A software instance can contain any software that is SMP/E packaged and installed. For example, a software instance can contain:
  • IBM software installed from ServerPac, CBPDO, or fee-based installation offerings
  • ISV software
  • z/OS operating system and related products
  • Subsystems and related products
  • User written software
  • Service upgrades for all of the above (via complete replacement)
    
    
• Create reports about your software and installed products. ² You can generate reports to:
  • Identify software products that are approaching or have reached end of service support.
  • Validate the SMP/E structure and content of a software instance.
  • Identify missing HIPER and PE fixes, and fixes associated with one or more fix categories.
  • Determine if individual fixes are installed and in which software instances.
  • Compare the service and functional content of two software instances to aid in debugging or migration planning.
    
    
• View a list of the products, features, FMIDs, and data sets included in your software
  instances. ²
  
  
• View details about your installed products such as a list of all the products contained in your software instances. ²

Footnotes:

1

With the installation of the small programming enhancement (SPE) provided through APAR PM73833, the name of the Software Deployment task was changed to Software Management and the task was enhanced to provide additional actions on instances of SMP/E installed software.

2

This capability is provided through APAR PM73833.