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IBM z/OS Ansible Core v1.9.3 and support coverage explanation for v1.9.x

By Oscar Fernando Flores Garcia posted Mon October 28, 2024 05:23 PM

  
Image from Amanda Stephens

IBM z/OS Ansible Core v1.9.3 is here !

It’s been nearly a year since Z Open Automation Utilities (ZOAU) 1.3.0 was released. Alongside it, IBM z/OS Core version 1.10.0 marked a milestone with significant updates throughout the year, such as enhanced performance, GDG support, and other improvements. However, this release reflects our dedication to existing users might not have been able to upgrade to ZOAU 1.3.x, while also taking this opportunity to remind everyone of our support strategy.

With this in mind, we aim to be transparent about our support timelines, so you can make informed choices when using a collection version for your automation goals. You can now check the support matrix in the Ansible core support matrix to view support dates for each version.



Now lets talk about some user-reported bugs we’ve fixed.

What is fixed in this release

zos_job_query
  • Module was not returning values for system and subsystem. Fix now returns these values.

 

Interestingly enough, there was no documentation entry for these return values, but those were being returned by the module, now this is added into the documentation.

 

zos_mvs_raw
  • If a program failed with a non-zero return code and verbose was false, the module would succeed. Whereas, if the program failed and verbose was true, the module would fail. Now the fix has a consistent behavior and fails in both cases.
  • Module would obfuscate the return code from the program when failing returning 8 instead. Fix now returns the proper return code from the program.

 

These two fixes on zos_mvs_raw are a good representation on why reporting issues is important to us. The first one came through our community, one week before we started release 1.9.3, which originally would only contain one fix. We triaged this issue, and to our luck it was small enough to be tested and added in time !
While fixing it, we found that the module was obfuscating some return codes from the programs when it failed, so you should see the correct program return even in failures.

What is next and support coverage explanation

Currently, our team is focused on developing version 1.13.0-beta.1 of the collection. We do not have any pending bug fixes for version 1.9.3. Therefore, if you encounter any issues with this release and cannot migrate to ZOAU v1.3.x, please open a GitHub issue, and we'll review it.

Here’s how support works for the 1.9.3 release, and any other for that matter. Each release receives support for two years, or until a dependency reaches its end of life (EOL). For instance, version 1.9.x was released in February 2024, so it’s expected to be supported until February 2026. However, since the major dependency ZOAU 1.2.x reaches EOL in April 2025, support for version 1.9.x will end at that time.

Each release has two years of General Availability (GA) support, divided into lifecycle phases:

  • Full Support (Year 1): In this phase, we address critical and high-severity issues.

Critical issues are those that significantly impact production use, such as loss of data or non-functional production systems.
High-severity issues are issues that reduce software functionality in production environments, though it remains operational.

  • Maintenance Support (Year 2): During this phase, only critical issues are addressed.
Both years include critical security fixes as needed. Learn more at Releases and maintenance.



Here is a table to get a sense of the requirements, dependencies and support dates of version 1.9.x.

Thank you for using the IBM z/OS Core collection and reading this blog. Au revoir !

About the Author

Oscar Fernando Flores Garcia is an IBM z/OS Ansible Core software engineer designing and developing many of the collections modules and responsible for many of the product releases. 

Image from Amanda Stephens

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