Using the Zowe components

Accessing a Mainframe

The Mainframe you are accessing must be setup to allow Zowe to connect to it.

This is typically done with Z/OSMF.

Then RACF permissions need to be granted to your userid to access Z/OSMF.

Talk to the Mainframe System Administrator to find out if this is setup and if you have permission.

Installing Zowe components

As a "base", there are two components that should be installed:

• Zowe Explorer extension for VSCodium (or VSCode)
• Zowe CLI

Zowe Explorer extension for VSCodium (or VSCode)

This is a two for one deal.

Chose either IBM Z Open Editor or Code4Z (but do not have both enabled at the same time. It might be "safer" to only have one installed.)

When you install your choice, it will also install Zowe Explorer.

For either choice, a Java JDK will also need to be installed.

For Pop!_OS:

sudo apt install default-jdk

Zowe CLI

You must have NodeJS and NPM installed.

There are numerous ways to install this. Search the Web.

Within this VM, I installed NVM, then used that to install the latest LTS:

nvm install --lts

To install Zowe CLI, follow the Installing Zowe CLI instructions.

shortcut

For Pop!_OS:

npm install -g prebuild-install
npm install -g @zowe/cli@zowe-v2-lts

Setup a Profile

You will need information from the System Administrator for the parameters you need to connect to the Mainframe.

These include:

• IP Address and Port
• Accept or Reject self-signed certificates
• protocol used
• and maybe other parameters

The Profile can be created either through the Zowe Explorer interface or through the Zowe CLI interface. The information you get from the System Administrator should contain the instructions on how to do this.