The installation of software service often requires the synchronization of service levels across multiple SMP/E zones. For example, service for software in the MVS™ zone may require related service for the JES2, CICS®, DB2®, and other zones to permit all software within the system image to operate properly. To help ensure proper synchronization across zones, you can tell SMP/E to automatically check for cross-zone requisites during APPLY, ACCEPT, and RESTORE command processing.

To enable automatic cross-zone requisite checking, you must tell SMP/E which zones contain software to be checked for requisites. The set of zones identified for cross-zone requisite checking is called the zone group. SMP/E provides two methods to identify the zones within the zone group:

1. Define a default zone group
2. Specify the zones directly on the APPLY, ACCEPT, or RESTORE command.