Beginner’s Guide: How to access mainframe via Zowe in 10 easy steps
“What is mainframe? and how can I get access to practice?” “How does mainframe work?” “Is there a web GUI or a better emulator for mainframe?”
These are some of the questions that I heard from young developers when I attended the Open Source Summit in Lyon, France and Guide Share Europe in United Kingdom (GSE UK).
Open Source Summit is an annual conference organised by the Linux Foundation. It is a platform for Open Source thought leaders, influencers, hiring managers, professionals, and developers to talk about their plans for the technological landscape and announce major news.
I attended this conference as a representative for Open Mainframe Project. My task is to showcase the beauty of Zowe and other Open Mainframe Projects to Open Source enthusiasts.
Guide Share Europe is a non-profit association of companies, organizations and individuals who are involved in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions. It is a platform for Mainframe professionals and developers to share their stories and give guidance to one another. I attended this conference as a speaker where I, and my colleague, talked about Adopting Zowe as a Modern Mainframe Developer.
In both of these conferences, I was given the opportunity to talk to young developers, who we call today "the Gen Z developers". They are enthusiastic young fellows who are very keen to learn about mainframe. We discussed about its history, the things that they like about developing in the environment and as well as the things that they don't like. They are looking for solutions that can help them get started in this industry.
Mainframe is still alive!
It is still alive and kicking and there are young developers out there who are interested in pursuing a career in Mainframe. I am proud to have seen it with my own eyes but, sadly, I also heard that they are struggling.
Their struggle revolves around the fact that they want to learn about it as fast as they could while, at the same time, proving themselves that they worthy of their position.
In hearing this, I am reminded of my younger years when I was starting my career. This motivated me to write this blog.
Disclaimer: I am a Broadcom Software Engineer and I am part of the Zowe Development team. This is my personal point-of-view and my own personal preference.
Mainframe can be scary
I remember being very stressed out when I was a new mainframe developer. Purging or Cancelling a job can make me panic even if it is just in the test environment. Promoting my COBOL programs can lead to sleepless nights because of worry that it can cause abends in production. Basically, not knowing what I am doing or how things work scared me… a lot.
But now, through years of experience, I know better. I fell in love with mainframe and I worked hard to learn as much as I could.
If you are one of these struggling new developers, this blog is for you. I want to share my experiences with you so that you will learn to love mainframe too, see its beauty and embrace the challenge it brings.
Modern Mainframe
Mainframe in the past is very different from what it is today. There are a lot of improvements that have been added through the years. Believe it or not, it has evolved and has kept up with the times.
What is Zowe?
Zowe is an open source project that offers modern interfaces to interact with z/OS and allows you to work with z/OS in a way that is similar to what you experience on cloud platforms today. It helps young developers today to interact and work with mainframe using the development tools that they know and love. It is a modern solution for modern mainframe developers 😉
So let’s get started. How can you get access to Zowe? Here are 10 easy steps.
10 easy steps to access Mainframe via Zowe
- Obtain Mainframe Credentials. There are 2 ways to achieve this:
- Access through your company’s mainframe test environment that uses z/OSMF or
- Fill-out the registration form in the Open Source Development Trial. This will allow you to have access the Open Source Development Trial environment without the use of VPN so you can practice even if you are at home.
- If you are following the Open Mainframe COBOL Programming Course, fill out the registration here. You will receive an email stating your username and password and the links that you can use for Zowe Explorer, TN3270 and SSH.
2. Install the Zowe Explorer extension in VSCode. This is the Visual Studio Code extension that helps you to access your Datasets, USS files or Jobs Spool.
3. Create your own profile. In this example, I will use the credentials I obtained in the Open Source Development Trial.
Profile Name: zTrial
z/OSMF URL: https://192.86.32.67:10443
User Name: <my username>
Password: <my password>
Reject Unauthorized: False
4. You now have access in mainframe! Let’s try and play with it. 💞
5. Let us create a new PDS dataset.
6. Let us add a member.
7. Modify the new member and let’s try to run a Hello World JCL sample.
//NEWMEMBR JOB (NEWPDSTEST),'HELLO WORLD',CLASS=A,
// MSGCLASS=X,MSGLEVEL=0,NOTIFY=&SYSUID
//*
//* PRINT "HELLO WORLD" ON JOB OUTPUT
//*
//* NOTE THAT THE EXCLAMATION POINT IS INVALID EBCDIC FOR JCL
//* AND WILL CAUSE A JCL ERROR
//*
//STEP0001 EXEC PGM=IEBGENER
//SYSIN DD DUMMY
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSUT1 DD *
HELLO, WORLD
/*
//SYSUT2 DD SYSOUT=*
//
After modifying, Hit Ctrl+S to save it. An informational message should appear telling you that the Dataset is uploaded successfully.
8. Right Click then submit the job
An information message should appear informing about the Job Number of the submitted JCL.
9. Go to Jobs Panel and search for your job
10. There we go! You’ve submitted your first JCL via Zowe Explorer! 🎉
Easy, isn’t it? And this is just the beginning as there is so much more that you can do. Somebody once said “The only limit to your success is your imagination” and I think it is applicable here.
I hope this helps you get started in your mainframe journey!
If you want to know more, I have included below the links about Zowe and Open Mainframe Project.
- Zowe Articles: https://medium.com/zowe
- Zowe Learning Paths: https://broadcom.com/zowe
- 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
