Configuring Zowe with zwe init

Once you complete the installation of the Zowe runtime, begin configuration by initializing Zowe with proper security configurations. To simplify this configuration process, one option is to run the zwe init command. This step is common for installing and configuring Zowe from either a convenience build or from an SMP/E build.

Required roles: system programmer, security administrator

About the zwe init command

The zwe init command is a combination of the following subcommands. Each subcommand defines a configuration.

• mvs Copies the data sets provided with Zowe to custom data sets.
• security Creates the user IDs and security manager settings.
• apfauth APF authorizes the LOADLIB containing the modules that need to perform z/OS privileged security calls.
• certificate Configures Zowe to use TLS certificates.
• stc Configures the system to launch the Zowe started task.
• (Deprecated) vsam Configures the VSAM files needed if the Caching service is set to VSAM mode. This is not required nor the default, and exists for compatibility.

Recommendation:

We recommend you to run these sub commands one by one to clearly see the output of each step. To successfully run zwe init security, zwe init apfauth, and zwe init certificate, it is likely that your organization requires elevated permissions. We recommend you consult with your security administrator to run these commands. For more information about tasks for the security administrator, and details about the zwe init security command, see the section Configuring security in this configuration documentation

tip

Enter zwe init --help to learn more about the command or see the zwe init command reference for detailed explanation, examples, and parameters.

zwe init arguments

The following zwe init arguments can assist you with the initization process:

• --update-config
  This argument allows the init process to update your configuration file based on automatic detection and your zowe.setup settings. For example, if java.home and node.home are not defined, they can be updated based on the information that is collected on the system. zowe.certificate section can also be updated automatically based on your zowe.setup.certificate settings.
• --allow-overwrite
  This argument allows you to rerun the zwe init command repeatedly regardless of whether some data sets are already created.
• -v or --verbose
  This argument provides execution details of the zwe command. You can use it for troubleshooting purposes if the error message is not clear enough.
• -vv or --trace
  This argument provides you more execution details than the --verbose mode for troubleshooting purposes.

Zowe initilization command

The zwe init command runs the subcommands in sequence automatically. If you have the Zowe configuration file preparted and have security administrator privileges, or security and certificates setup was already completed on the system, you can run the following command:

zwe init --config /path/to/zowe.yaml

note

For more information about the individual zwe init subcommands, see zwe init subcommand overview.

Validate successful initialization

Output from the execution of this command indicates the command ran successfully. However, to determine if each of the subcommands ran successfully, check the full output log. Failed execution of some subcommands may be the result of insufficient user permissions. Consult with your security administrator to find out if elevated permissions are required to successfully execute some of the zwe init subcommands.

For more information about security administrator tasks, see:

• Addressing security requirements
• Configuring security
• Configuring certificates

Next steps

For detailed information about individual zwe init subcommands, see zwe init subcommand overview.