In addition to the new job status types, the module was enhanced to detect jobs submitted with TYPRUN=SCAN, so that it will not result in a playbook task failure. When the module detects TYRUN=SCAN the complex type ret_code will have an updated response and populated accordingly, for example:

"ret_code":{
   "code":null,
   "msg":"TYPRUN=SCAN",
   "msg_code":null,
   "msg_txt":"The job JOB00283 was run with special job processing TYPRUN=SCAN. This will result in no completion, return code or job steps and changed will be false.",
   "steps":[]
}

While jobs submitted with TYPRUN equal to HOLD, JCLHOLD or COPY will deviate from the original execution path and be processed as a job that exceeds the modules execution time. This is an improvement over the previous execution path, full support for HOLD, JCLHOLD and COPY will come in a future release. The response complex type for TYPRUN equal to HOLD, JCLHOLD or COPY appears as:

...complete response intentionally removed.....
"ret_code":{
   "code":null,
   "msg":"AC",
   "msg_code":"?",
   "msg_txt":"The JCL submitted with job id JOB00554 but appears to be a long running job that exceeded its maximum wait time of 10 second(s). Consider using module zos_job_query to poll for a long running job or increase option 'wait_times_s' to a value greater than 12.",
   "steps":[]
},
"subsystem":"",
"svc_class":"ALLBATCH",
"system":""
}
],
"mode":"0600",
"msg":"The JCL submitted with job id JOB00554 but appears to be a long running job that exceeded its maximum wait time of 10 second(s). Consider using module zos_job_query to poll for a long running job or increase option 'wait_times_s' to a value greater than 12.",

1. When copying an aliased executable from a data set to a non-existent data set, the destination datasets primary and secondary extents would not match the source data set extent sizes.
2. When performing a copy operation to an existing file, the copied file resulted in having corrupted contents.

Module zos_job_submit fixes 4 issues:

1. When no location is set, the default is not correctly set to location=DATA_SET.
2. When a JCL ERROR is encountered, the complex type ret_code[msg_code] would include a multi-line marker used to coordinate errors.
3. When a response was returned, the complex type ret_code[msg_text] was incorrectly returned, now ret_code[msg_txt] is returned.
4. When option wait_time_s was used, the duration would be approximately 5 seconds longer than what was reported. Now the duration is from when the job is submitted to when the module reads the job output.

Module zos_job_output and zos_job_query fixed an issue that when using a job ID with less than 8 characters, would result in a traceback. The fix supports shorter job IDs as well as the use of wildcards.

Module zos_unarchive fixes 2 issues:

1. When using a local file with the USS format option, the module would fail to send the archive to the managed node.
2. When unarchiving USS files, the module would leave temporary files behind on the managed node.

The module utils libraries, which are generally internal to the collection were updated:

Module zos_mvs_raw has been updated with new examples demonstrating a YAML block indicator, often helpful when wanting to control the instream-data formatting.

1. A new example demonstrating how to explicitly execute a REXX script in a data set.
2. A new example demonstrating how to chain multiple TSO commands into one invocation using semicolons.

Other documentation updates include improved module and filter documentation. 

Important Notices

At the start of the blog, it was noted that this will be the last minor release that will support ZOAU 1.2.x, in other words, this release will continue to receive security and bug fixes as version 1.9.x. This release will continue to be supported until ZOAU 1.2.x reaches end of life on April 30th, 2025. 

On a similar note, it is advised that users adopt IBM Open Enterprise SDK for Python 3.11 as version 3.9.x will reach end of service on April 30th , 2024 and version 3.10.x will reach end of service on September 30th, 2024.

The certified content aligns to the Ansible Automation Platform (AAP) lifecycle, thus ansible-core 2.14 (AAP 2.3) will no longer be supported with this release. It is recommended to use either ansible-core 2.15 (AAP 2.4) or later.

For  z/OS 3.1, support is currently not available, it will come later this year. 

It came to our attention that some were using the undocumented option size in module zos_data_set , because the collection undergoes certification, the module could no longer continue to include this option. You should migrate playbooks to use space_primary, it will perform the same function as the previously undocumented size option.

In the past, choices could be defined in either lower or upper case. Now, only the case that is identified in the docs can be set, this is so that the collection can continue to maintain certified status.

Lastly, it worth mentioning this again, in this release the collection can now manage non-printable characters which previously resulted in a UnicodeDecodeError. The collection will manage the exception and adjust the DD with the non-printable character. If you would like to see the content with the non-printable chars, migrate to ZOAU 1.2.5.6 (APAR PH60060). 

The Development Team

Without the development team, this would not be possible. I would like to thank the amazing team who work with passion and perseverance on this project. 

• Rich Parker
• Ketan Kelkar
• Oscar Fernando Flores Garcia
• Ivan Alejandro Moreno Soto
• Andre Marcel Gutierrez Benitez

Resources

IBM Ansible z/OS core on Galaxy
IBM Ansible Core Collection Repository on GitHub
IBM Ansible Core Collection on Automation Hub
Red Hat® Ansible Certified Content for IBM Z documentation