Red Hat Ansible Certified Content for IBM z/OS core collection 2.0: A new chapter in enterprise automation
Authors: Amanda Stephens, Sebastian Torf and Ketan Kelkar
The Ansible for IBM Z team is pleased to announce z/OS core collection 2.0, which marks the introduction of the first new major release of this collection since its introduction, and highlights the maturity and feature richness of this version.
A journey defined by momentum
The evolution of Ansible for IBM Z has been driven by sustained investment, ecosystem collaboration, and growing adoption across the enterprise automation landscape. For customers, this evolution has translated into more consistent experiences, faster time‑to‑value, and a clear path to extending modern automation practices to their most critical systems. The milestones that follow trace how this journey has unfolded, year by year.
2020:
IBM announced the availability of Red Hat Ansible Certified Content for IBM Z, marking the first time z/OS automation was delivered through a fully supported, community aligned model for automating z/OS with Ansible and laying the foundation for standardized mainframe automation.
2021–2023:
Certified collections expanded across IBM z/OS, IBM Customer Information Control System (CICS), IBM Information Management System (IMS), IBM z/OS Management Facility (z/OSMF), the IBM Z Hardware Management Console (HMC), and IBM Z System Automation, broadening automation from infrastructure tasks to application and operational workflows and reinforcing Ansible as a common automation layer for IBM Z.
2023:
Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform became natively available on IBM Z and LinuxONE, enabling the same enterprise governance, automation controller, and execution environments used across cloud and distributed infrastructure.
2024–2025:
Focus shifted from breadth to maturity. Expanded mainframe specific modules, addressed core operational needs around data management, storage, and observability, while deeper integration with IBM Z Open Automation Utilities (ZOAU) enabled more advanced patterns such as fact-based automation, asynchronous execution and generation data group support.
2026:
Most recently, IBM deepened its collaboration with Red Hat through direct community contributions to ansible-core 2.19, reinforcing IBM Z’s role not only as a consumer of open-source automation, but as an active contributor to the Ansible ecosystem. This work strengthens IBM Z capabilities that depend on ZOAU prerequisites making IBM Z automation more seamless for the broader Ansible community.
Together, these milestones reflect a steady transition, from enabling automation on IBM Z to embedding IBM Z within the enterprise automation fabric.
What’s new in IBM z/OS core collection 2.0
Enterprise automation succeeds only when it scales with trust. IBM z/OS Core Collection 2.0 represents a deliberate step forward in making IBM Z a predictable, policy-governed automation platform—one that integrates cleanly into the broader enterprise automation lifecycle.
New zos_user module for RACF user and group management
Security and identity governance are essential to enterprise automation. With the introduction of the zos_user module, RACF user and group management can now be managed directly through Ansible workflows. This allows identity administration on z/OS via Ansible to follow the same governed, auditable processes used across the rest of the enterprise.
Versatility in backup and restore operations
The zos_backup_restore module received significant attention for both interface usability and added capabilities. Those new backup and restore capabilities now support even more advanced ADRDSSU use cases. Expanded class handling to ease interacting with SMS, broader admin restore functionality when dealing with UNIX files and directories, as well as an improved handling of VSAM data sets and their associated index clusters and paths via the SPHERE command provide users with greater flexibility without sacrificing control.
Operational excellence through reusable automation roles
New diagnostic, job status, and migration roles allow users to expedite operational practices via ready-to-use automation. These roles reduce time to value, lower operational risk, and promote consistency across teams and environments. With the diagnostic role, users can now reduce the number of steps needed to collect logging information when tracing problems while interacting with IBM support. With the new job status role, the effort needed to determine whether a job is currently running is greatly condensed and users can receive a simple boolean status message that can be leveraged to drive additional conditions in their playbooks. And the migration role allows users to readily assess which of their playbooks need to be modified to be compatible with the latest version of z/OS core collection.
Convenience and ease-of-use with filter plugins
New custom filter plugins have been introduced to simplify how users work with large data responses and generate z/OS–specific values within playbooks. These filters enable users to quickly refine and extract only the information they need, reducing complexity and improving readability. For example, when interacting with the zos_stat module, users can now easily parse responses and filter results based on the target resource type, allowing them to focus on relevant data without additional processing. In addition, a new filter simplifies the creation of temporary data set names during playbook execution. By specifying high-level and low-level qualifiers, users can generate valid z/OS data set names on the fly, streamlining workflows and reducing manual effort.
Cleaner, more governable automation
All modules have been re-evaluated to ensure consistency in terms of module options allowing for modernized interfaces. Please check the porting guide in the documentation for specific details on interface changes. This release also introduces dependency changes. Notably, IBM Z Open Automation Utilities 1.4 is now supported. The newly added dependency check capability now gives users certainty that the correct dependencies are in place on their endpoints. Notifications about any mismatches or version incompatibilities are displayed to the user during automation execution.
A modern foundation for future innovation
By using the major-version boundary to refine and retire legacy behaviors, IBM z/OS core collection 2.0 creates a clearer path for modernization for years to come.
IBM z/OS core collection 2.0 positions IBM Z as a predictable automation endpoint. Cleaner interfaces, standardized roles, and stronger dependency validation reduce ambiguity and risk, creating automation that behaves consistently across environments.
This matters because enterprise automation does not stop at task execution. Once IBM Z can be operated through trusted, repeatable workflows, it becomes possible to place it into a broader automation lifecycle—one that spans provisioning, configuration, operations, and continuous change.
The next chapter of enterprise automation on IBM Z
With Ansible for IBM z/OS core collection 2.0, the platform is no longer just automated; it is integrated. IBM Z becomes part of a holistic automation fabric spanning hybrid cloud, distributed infrastructure, and mission critical mainframe operations. As enterprises adopt agentic AI, Ansible provides the deterministic backbone essential for trust, governance, and audibility in an increasingly non-deterministic world.
You can find additional details about this release in the release notes.
Also check out the blog by Skyla Loomis, IBM Z Software's General Manager, that covers additional insights related to this release.
Getting Started
We recommend upgrading to IBM z/OS core collection 2.0.0 to take advantage of the latest features, improved tooling compatibility, and enhanced documentation resources. You can find the latest update in Ansible Galaxy and Ansible Automation Hub.
Resources
IBM z/OS core collection on Galaxy
IBM z/OS core collection Repository on GitHub
IBM z/OS core collection on Automation Hub
Red Hat® Ansible Certified Content for IBM Z documentation (Ansible for IBM Z)
Engage with us!
Ansible for IBM Z LinkedIn Group
Ansible for IBM Z IBM Community Page
System Z Enthusiasts Discord Server (#ansible)
Enhancements and Bug reports - git issue