Exploit the new commands available for the WA plugin for Zowe CLI V1.1.0
Zowe and its major components Web UI, API Mediation Layer, and CLI, are likely to become the new interface for the next generation of mainframes.
The Zowe framework is the bridge that connects modern applications with the mainframe by providing easier interoperability and scalability among products and solutions offered by multiple vendors.
Developers, testers, operators, and any other professional in the mainframe realm can easily create their tools to automate those tasks that usually would be done manually or through mainframe-native tools. They can build, modify, and debug z/OS applications even with limited z/OS expertise.
Zowe’s simple, fast, and familiar interfaces make all of this is possible with minimal effort, maximum results.
Where we left?
Workload Automation on Z is already integrated with two Zowe components through:
- Zowe API Mediation Layer, which exposes a complete set of WA Rest APIs
- WA Plug-in for Zowe CLI, which enables you to quickly and easily access the Workload Automation on Z services
To continue our journey with Zowe and mainframe modernization, a new version of the WA plugin for Zowe CLI is now available on Automation Hub.
What’s new in WA Plug-in for Zowe CLI V1.1.0
Version 1.1.0 provides you with three new commands to perform the following actions on the jobs in the current plan:
get jobinplan provides you with a full list of properties about the job that you are monitoring. You can, for example, retrieve the job ID, jclname, jobclass, status, priority, workstation, jesJobId, jobstream, parallel servers, time information, or time restrictions.
set-status jobinplan enables you to perform a fast change on the status of the jobs that you are monitoring (started, zosready, interrupted, zoserror, complete).
update jobinplan provides you with the possibility to modify the job properties. For this command, you have more than 30 available options; for example, you can act on the jobname, description, workstation, parallel servers, jobclass, or even update some time restrictions such as start-time, deadline, or alert-date.
These new three commands increase the possible scenarios that you can cover through the usage of the WA Plug-in for Zowe CLI.
Use Cases:
The Zowe CLI is what you need if you aim at increasing productivity by making one-off quick fixes to address issues or correct errors.
In a previous blog we have explored how you can automatize a ticket resolution by exploiting the WA commands in a simple script.
Now let’s see how the usage of the plug-in from the CLI can help you to manage in few seconds some one-off quick fixes on jobs in the plan, even if the job has already run or before it is started.
- Complete a job to unlock successors
You often need to make changes on statuses of jobs in the plan to resolve a problem. For example, you might want to set to complete a job that is blocking its successors and would cause delay on the daily plan .
Use the list jobinplan command to see all the jobs within a specific application; in this way you find that the first operation has ended in Error and its internal successors are in Waiting status.
To resolve this issue, use the set-status jobinplan command to set the first operation to complete and consequently unlock the submission of the waiting jobs. Then check that the submission was successful by issuing the list jobinplan command again.
2. Restarting a job to refresh a batch procedure
Another quick action that you might require is a job restart, either because the batch procedure that the job runs had some fixes applied or because the input data set that the job elaborates was modified and need to be updated.
To address this requirement use the set-status jobinplan command to change the status of the job to zosready so that the job is restarted.
3.Quick changes on jobs
You can find useful to update the jobclass to create a category of jobs to be managed in a certain way. Or you might want to apply some time restrictions, for example by changing the deadline of a job within a specific jobstream.
For both situations you can use the update jobinplan command. You first identify the properties of the job with the get jobinplan command:
After you have learnt the current values for jobclass and deadline, update both properties simultaneously with the update jobinplan and quickly check the result with the get jobinplan command.
Author’s Bio
Eva Anahi Berrio, Software Engineer
With an important background as Mainframe Application Programmer (COBOL, CICS, and DB2) she has joined the IZWS team in 2019 at HCL Products and Platforms in Rome software development laboratory.
Links:
WA Plugin for Zowe CLI download: https://www.yourautomationhub.io/detail/zowe
Workload Automation on Z : https://www.hcltechsw.com/wps/portal/products/workload-automation/offerings/hwaz
IBM Z Workload Scheduler: https://www.ibm.com/us-en/marketplace/tivoli-workload-scheduler-for-z-systems
IBM + HCL Transparent Devolpment Program: https://www.workloadautomation-community.com/blogs/ibm-hcl-workload-automation-transparent-development-program
Workload Automation Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_R7b8BDt_qaRdzuxczBM1Q
Zowe Conformance Program: https://www.openmainframeproject.org/projects/zowe/conformance
Zowe Official Website: https://www.zowe.org/
Zowe Github Repo: https://github.com/zowe
Open Mainframe Project Official Website: https://www.openmainframeproject.org/
Open Mainframe Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-WTXQQtz2m5iTflJLK59aw
Open Mainframe Project Slack Channel: https://openmainframeproject.slack.com
