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IBM z/OS (Mainframe)

IBM z/OS Discovery Updates

Device42 has enhanced z/OS discovery with additional capabilities and device results.

  • Inventory data that includes: device name, IP address, hardware details, OS information, vendor/manufacturer, capacity, services (attached to service ports),
  • The number of zIIPs (IBM z Integrated Information Processors) and number of zAAPs (IBM z Application Assistance Processors) – come in as parts on the device record.
  • Disk Space – the number of drives, their capacity and space used (in TB) come in as mount points on the device. (Note that collecting disk information requires access to the STGADMIN.IDC.DCOLLECT profile.)
  • Current TSO Users / Current TN3270 Connections / GCP Processor Capacity in MIPS – come in as device extra fields.
  • DB Managers for DB2 and IMS/IBM MQ Managers – a list of MQ Managers currently executing. This data comes in as services.

IBM z/OS Discovery Job Prerequisites & Information

  • IBM z/OS discovery requires a license
  • IBM z/OS discovery works for almost all z/OS systems.
  • z/OS discovery jobs currently find: IP addresses (both v4/v6), machine information (serial, capacity, manufacturer, device name), version of OS, Hardware (CEC units), and service ports.
  • z/OS mainframe discovery happens via FTP, port 21. That said, FTP must be enabled and connections accepted for an IBM z/OS discovery to succeed.
  • Our FTP discovery expects to use the default IBM Translation tables – if you encounter an issue with this, please contact Device42 Support at https://support.device42.com/.
  • For Netstat communication, Device42 requires access to the TSO NETSTAT CONN command.
  • No files are created on the z/OS system.
  • No software is installed on the z/OS system.
  • No special security rights are required – a 'normal' TSO logon is required.
  • Collecting disk information requires access to the STGADMIN.IDC.DCOLLECT profile.
  • One discovery job must be created per job card. If more than one instance shares the same job card as configured, they can be discovered in the same job, but this is often not the case.

Creating an IBM z/OS Mainframe Discovery Job

As of v15+, Device42 can discover IBM mainframes running the z/OS operating system, and like most discovery jobs, z/OS discovery can be scheduled to run automatically. IBM z/OS is discovered via the main menu, Discovery > HyperVisors / *nix / Windows. Create a new discovery job, selecting IBM z/OS as your ‘Platform’: 

IBM z/OS Discovery Options Explained

Job name A name of your choosing to identify your IBM z/OS autodiscovery job.
Remote Collector: Optionally specify a remote collector from which to run discovery [instead of from the main appliance].
Job Debug level: Turn debug on/off.
Platform: Select “IBM z/OS” for mainframe discovery.
Server: Specify the FQDN or IP address of the IBM z/OS target to discover. If using FQDN, ensure Device42 is setup to resolve DNS (VM console, option 1).
Port: IBM z/OS discovery uses FTP port 21 by default. Only change this if your admin has configured a custom listening port.
Username & password: Specify a username with permissions on your z/OS mainframe — NOT case sensitive on z/OS.
ADM Sampling: Choose your ADM (Application Dependency Mapping) data collection interval.
Discover Using FTPS: Use FTPS for the discovery job.
Job Card: Input the Job Card specific to this discovery job – you might need to contact your administrator to get this information; one job card is required per job, and a new z/OS discovery job must be created for each additional job card.
Alternate zOS TCP Command: A parameter you can use to specify the TCP command used in discovery.
Autodiscovery Schedule: You can schedule z/OS discovery jobs to run automatically, as often as you’d like.
Job Status: Displays the status of the last discovery or task run.
Exclusions: Input any addresses/FQDNs to exclude from this discovery job.
Naming Options: Set device name per the job’s server field and add aliases as non-authoritative.
Host Discovery: Options for host OS name, serial number, UUID, etc.
Software and Applications: Options to discover software and services.
Miscellaneous: Select service level, service customer, device VRF group, and tags

For information on other jobs that can be run via this screen, see the dedicated Linux / Unix Discovery Docs page. Note that discovery jobs for the IBM mid-range AS/400 platform can also be created via this job screen!

Run Now or Schedule

Select Run Now from the list page to run the job right away.

Select Add another Auto Discovery Schedule when editing the job to create a run schedule for the job.

A note on autodiscovery scheduling behavior: newly created jobs will not run on the first day they are created, to prevent an unintended large amount of jobs from running initially. If you would like to run a job after its initial creation, simply select the "Run Now" button next to the job after creation.