I am excited to share with you that earlier this month we have delivered the first SPE (small program enhancement) release for IBM Z Workload Scheduler 10.1:
V10.1.0.1 - APAR PH45777.
In addition to important fixes, this SPE introduces some cool new and enhanced functionality!
Here are the highlights:
Orchestrate your cloud workload from IBM Z Workload Scheduler
View this video on IBM MediaCenter to get an overview on how to use IBM Z Workload Scheduler to orchestrate cloud workload running as containers in a Kubernetes cluster.
A cloud deployment ensures access anytime anywhere and is a fast and efficient way to get up and running quickly. It also simplifies maintenance, lowers costs, provides rapid upscale and downscale, minimizes IT requirements and physical on-premises data storage.
Kubernetes is the leading platform to manage containers across private, hybrid or public cloud. But what if you need to orchestrate Kubernetes jobs in a logical sequence, with jobs that depend on other jobs – maybe even z/OS-based jobs? With IBM Z Workload Scheduler, you can orchestrate your Kubernetes workload while maintaining a high-performance and secure single point of control on your IBM zSystem.
A new version of the Kubernetes Plugin for IBM Z Workload Scheduler is available on the Automation Hub:
Link to Kubernetes batch jobs integration plugin
With this Kubernetes plugin you can submit, orchestrate, and monitor application containers on a Kubernetes cluster directly from IBM Z Workload Scheduler. Each application will run it is own container, only when needed and with automatic workload balancing based on cluster and system performance.
To ensure a fast and responsive experience when using IBM Z Workload Scheduler, you can now deploy z-centric and dynamic agents on a Kubernetes cluster. With the sample Helm Chart provided, you install and configure the agent with a single yaml file.
Orchestrating your Kubernetes workload from a containerized agent optimizes allocations of resources in your cluster and reduces the chance of human errors.
Deployment of the containerized z-centric agent is supported on the major Kubernetes platforms:
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)
- Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
- Google Kubernetes Engine
- Red Hat OpenShift
Check out this link to learn how to download and install the containerized z-centric agent on Kubernetes.
Self-Service Catalog enhancements
A new and improved version of the Self-Service Catalog is available.
Self-Service Catalog is a solution to automate routine business tasks and run them from mobile devices without having to install and learn about the whole IBM Workload Scheduler product.
By using the Self-Service Catalog you can use your mobile device to submit service requests to IBM Workload Scheduler without knowing anything about engines, jobs, or job streams.
Even though the Self-Service Catalog has been primarily envisioned to be used from a mobile device, you can efficiently use it also from your computer connected to a web browser.
The IBM Workload Scheduler scheduler or application designer creates annotations in the Dynamic Workload Console and marks them as services, so that they are available for managing from the Self-Service Catalog interface.