Spool™ Plug-in for Zowe™ CLI

The Spool™ Plug-in for Zowe™ CLI lets users issue any Spool native command from a single command-line interface. This plug-in also enables automated administration of Spool and lets service providers that administer multiple Spool environments respond to client requests faster.

• Use Cases
• Software Requirements
• Install the Plug-in
• Configuration
• Migrating From Zowe CLI V1 to V2
• Get Command Help
• Use the Plug-in
• Update the Plug-in
• Uninstall the Plug-in

Use Cases

You can use the Spool™ Plug-in for Zowe™ CLI to perform the following tasks:

• Set up automated administration of the Spool environment.
• Issue any Spool native command from a single command-line interface instead of switching to the MVS terminal.
• Create scripts to automate processes that you currently perform manually.

Software Requirements

Before you install and use the plug-in:

• Install Zowe CLI.
• Ensure that a z/OSMF server is up and running.
• Ensure that a Spool™ 14.0 instance is installed and running in your mainframe environment. The instance must meet the following minimum requirements:
  • Release 14.0 with PTF SO12826 applied.
• See the Integrate with Zowe CLI topic in Spool documentation.

Install the Plug-in

Important: The Spool plug-in for Zowe CLI version zowe-v2-lts is compatible only with Zowe CLI V2.

To install the @latest version of the plug-in, issue the following command:

$ zowe plugins install @broadcom/om-spool-for-zowe-cli

Note: The latest npm tag installs an active development version of the plug-in, which accepts breaking changes. You can use different npm tags to install other versions of the product. For more information about tag usage, see NPM Tag Names.

Configuration

Configure Team Profiles

Team profiles improve the initial setup of the Zowe CLI. Team profiles let application developers store and manage service connection details in one location. Team profiles also improve the configuration experience for new users and let users share their configurations.

Initialize the Team Profile Configuration File

If you have not used any previous Zowe releases, have not set up the Zowe CLI V1 user profiles, or have not set up a Zowe CLI V2 team profile configuration file, you must create and initialize the team profile configuration file.

1. Issue the following command:

    $ zowe config init --global-config

• The CLI can respond with prompts for a host, username, and password.

2. Enter a host, username, and password for a mainframe service such as z/OSMF.

• The zowe config init command ensures that your credentials are stored securely on your computer by default.
• After you enter your credentials, the zowe.config.json team configuration file is added to your local .zowe directory. This directory is the primary location where your mainframe service connection details, such as host and port, are defined. You use this configuration file in the next section.

Important: After the configuration files are in place either using the zowe config init command or by manually creating the files, the zowe profiles commands that are deprecated and no longer function. The Zowe CLI returns errors if you attempt to use deprecated profile commands.

Populate the Global Profiles

To use the Spool plug-in for Zowe CLI, you must populate the global profiles. To do this, you set up z/OSMF and the Spool profile parameters in the team profile configuration file (zowe.config.json) that you created in the previous section.

The Spool profile parameters contain your TSO account information and the following information for the Spool instance:

• Spool installation high level qualifier (HLQ)
• Subsystem name
• Output response data set (must be unique for each Zowe CLI user that is interacting with Spool)
• Data set containing ESFZOWE REXX exec

Having these parameters already configured in a file lets you avoid entering that information in every command that you run. You can define multiple profiles in the zowe.config.json file and switch between profiles as needed.

Open the zowe.config.json file in a text editor or IDE and populate global profiles with connection details for your mainframe services as shown in the following example:

{
    "$schema": "./zowe.schema.json",
    "profiles": {
        "zosmf": {
            "type": "zosmf",
            "properties": {
                "port": 443
            },
            "secure": []
        },
        "omspool": {
            "type": "omspool",
            "properties": {
                "account": "123456789",
                "spoolhlq": "SPOOL.HLQ",
                "subsys": "ESF1",
                "outds": "OUTPUT.RESPONSE.DS",
                "clist": "USER.CLIST"
            },
            "secure": []
        },
        "base": {
            "type": "base",
            "properties": {
                "host": "host.company.com",
                "rejectUnauthorized": true
            },
            "secure": [
                "user",
                "password"
            ]
        }
    },
    "defaults": {
        "zosmf": "zosmf",
        "omspool": "omspool",
        "base": "base"
    },
    "autoStore": true
}

For more information about configuring team profiles, see the Zowe Documentation.

Migrating From Zowe CLI V1 to V2

After you upgrade Zowe CLI to V2, you must uninstall the Spool V1 plug-in to avoid conflicts. The Zowe CLI V1 user profiles are still supported in Zowe CLI V2. However, the Spool profile name was changed from caspool to omspool. Therefore, you must also migrate your existing Zowe CLI V1 user profiles to Zowe CLI V2.

Note: The Spool plug-in name was changed from @broadcom/caspool-for-zowe-cli to @broadcom/om-spool-for-zowe-cli for the zowe-v2-lts version of the Spool plug-in for Zowe CLI.

1. Uninstall the Spool V1 plug-in from Zowe CLI V1

$ zowe plugins uninstall @broadcom/caspool-for-zowe-cli

2. Install the Spool plug-in for Zowe CLI V2

$ zowe plugins install @broadcom/om-spool-for-zowe-cli

3. Migrate your existing user profiles to team profiles

1. Convert your Zowe V1 user profiles to a new zowe.config.json file.

$ zowe config convert

• For more information about configuring team profiles, see the Zowe Documentation.

2. Update the Spool profile type from caspool to omspool in the newly created zowe.config.json file. In this example, caspool_V1 is the converted profile name.

"profiles": {
        “caspool_V1": {
            "type": "omspool",       <== Update the type from caspool to omspool
            "properties": {
                "account": "123456789",
                "spoolhlq": "SPOOL.HLQ",
                "subsys": "ESF1",
                "outds": "OUTPUT.RESPONSE.DS",
                "clist": "USER.CLIST"
            },
            "secure": []
        },
        "defaults": {
            "omspool": "caspool_V1", <== Update this line from caspool to omspool
        },

Get Command Help

To get help for the available command groups, issue the following command:

$ zowe omspool --help

To obtain context sensitive help, append the --help argument to your command. For example, to get help with the issue command command, issue the following command:

$ zowe omspool issue command --help

Use the Plug-in

To issue a Spool native command, use the following format:

$ zowe omspool issue command "<spool-command>"

For example, to display the status of the ESF subsystem, issue the following command:

$ zowe omspool issue command "DS"

Update the Plug-in

To update the plug-in, issue the following command:

$ zowe plugins update @broadcom/om-spool-for-zowe-cli

Uninstall the Plug-in

To uninstall the plug-in, issue the following command:

$ zowe plugins uninstall @broadcom/om-spool-for-zowe-cli