Option 1: Use the IBM Configuration Assistant for z/OS Communications Server

The IBM® Configuration Assistant for z/OS® Communications Server, an optional GUI-based tool, provides a guided interface for configuring TCP/IP policy-based networking functions. You can use the Configuration Assistant to generate the Policy Agent files.

The Configuration Assistant is a z/OS Management Facility (z/OSMF) task. z/OSMF provides a web browser interface for a variety of z/OS system management functions. When you invoke the Configuration Assistant in z/OSMF, the Configuration Assistant runs natively in the z/OS system and you can access it through a web browser. To use the Configuration Assistant in z/OSMF, your system must be z/OS V1R11 or later.

Tip: If you have backing store files from V1R13 or an earlier release that were created on a Windows desktop version of Configuration Assistant, you can transfer them to the z/OSMF environment. For information about transferring Configuration Assistant data to z/OSMF, see IBM z/OS Management Facility Configuration Guide.

Through a series of wizards and online help panels, you can use the Configuration Assistant to create QoS configuration files for any number of z/OS images with any number of TCP/IP stacks per image. Using the Configuration Assistant, there are four types of reusable objects:

Traffic descriptors that define the local application by describing the TCP traffic with ports or identifying the application using its job name.
Priority levels that define the level of network priority or type of service (ToS).
Traffic shaping levels that define settings to enforce specific traffic thresholds.
Requirement maps that map traffic descriptors to priority levels and traffic shaping levels. A single requirement map should contain a complete set of QoS requirements that will govern the level of service for multiple IP traffic types.

For each TCP/IP stack, you select a requirement map that provides QoS for the stack.

The Configuration Assistant comes with a number of IBM-supplied traffic descriptors, priority levels, traffic shaping levels and requirement maps that are easily applied, or you can use the IBM-supplied definitions as the basis for your own set of reusable objects.

The Configuration Assistant can dramatically reduce the amount of time that is required to create QoS policy files, contributing to ease of configuration and maintenance. Because of the inherently complex nature of z/OS, using the GUI can help you ensure that you have a consistent and easily manageable interface for implementing QoS.

This information primarily describes option 2, manual configuration. However, if you are using the Configuration Assistant, reading this information will help you understand security concepts and the relationship between Policy Agent and QoS function.