Define the BCPii community name on the support element

BCPii uses an SNMP community name to provide a level of security between the z/OS image that is executing the BCPii service and the support element itself.

An SNMP community is a logical relationship between an SNMP agent and an SNMP manager. The community has a name, and all members of a community have the same access privileges: they are either read-only (members can view configuration and performance information) or read-write (members can view configuration and performance information, and also change the configuration).

To add the BCPii community name definition to the SE configuration, perform the following steps on the HMC:

Select the CPC that is required.
Open Single Object Operations.
Select the Console Actions view.
Select Support Element Settings.
Open the Customize API Settings.
Check the Enable SNMP APIs checkbox.
Consider checking the "Allow capacity change API requests" checkbox on a z10 or higher operation system if the installation is to allow a BCPii application to perform temporary capacity upgrades.
Make sure that the SNMP agent parameters are blank.
Add a BCPii community name. Click on Add. When a window is prompted, fill in the following fields:
Name

The actual SNMP community name. This value is a 1– to 16–character alphanumeric field. Only uppercase letters and numbers are allowed. Because of restrictions with the security products on z/OS, the BCPii SNMP community name must not contain any lowercase characters. See Community name defined in the security product for each CPC for more information about the SNMP community name.

Address

For BCPii, this address (sometimes referred to as a loop-back address) must be 127.0.0.1.

Network mask/Prefix

255.255.255.255.

Access Type

Read/write
Save the changes.

See System z9 Support Element Operations Guide and System z10 Support Element Operations Guide for more information regarding changing the support element settings.

Failure to set this properly on the local SE associated with the image of z/OS that is running BCPii results in a severe BCPii failure and you cannot start the address space. Message HWI022I might be issued if the community name defined on the support element for the local CPC does not match the definition in the security product for the local CPC. See Community name defined in the security product for each CPC for more information.

Note: Make the same updates to all CPCs that you want BCPii to communicate with.