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zosmf_security_configuration_assistant

README.md

z/OSMF Security Configuration Assistant

This project provides sample playbooks which demonstrate how to validate and provision security requirements on target z/OS systems by leveraging z/OSMF Security Configuration Assistant (SCA). These playbooks leverage module zmf_sca, which is provided by IBM's z/OSMF collection included in the Red Hat Ansible Certified Content for IBM Z.

Review the playbook sample contents before you execute them. It will help you understand the requirements in terms of space, location, names, authority, and the artifacts that will be created and cleaned up. Although samples are written to operate without needing the user’s configuration, the samples are written to provide for flexibility as it is not easy to determine if a sample has access to the host’s resources. Review the playbook notes sections for additional details and configuration.

Playbook Summary

  • sca_security_validation.yml - Performing the security validation by using the module zmf_sca, which is provided with the IBM z/OSMF collection. The playbook will succeed if all requirements in the json format of the SCA security descriptor file are satisified, otherwise it will fail and return the requirements that have not been satisfied. The json format of SCA security descriptor file is flexible and can be used to describe security requirements based on your needs. For an example of an SCA secruity descriptor file, please refer to sca_sample_security_requirements_file.json.

  • sca_security_audit.yml - Performing the security audit using the module zmf_sca, which is provided with the IBM z/OSMF collection. The playbook will succeed if there is no access to any items described by the SCA security descriptor file, otherwise it will fail and return the items that are unqualified.

  • sca_security_provision.yml - Performing the security provision by using the module zmf_sca, which is provided with the IBM z/OSMF collection. The playbook will succeed if all requirements in the json format of the SCA security descriptor file are either already satisified or successfully provisioned, otherwise it will fail and return the requirements that are still not satisfied. The json format of SCA security descriptor file is flexible and can be used to describe security requirements based on your needs. For an example of an SCA secruity descriptor file, please refer to sca_sample_security_requirements_file.json.

Ansible Collection Requirement

IBM z/OSMF collection 1.2.0 or later

Getting Started

Make sure the z/OSMF SCA plugin is configured properly

The zmf_sca module depends on the z/OSMF SCA plugin with the APAR PH41248, PH39327 and PH47746(Available on V2R4 and above) applied. To run zmf_sca module, you need to ensure that the z/OSMF SCA plugin is configured properly on the target z/OS system or sysplex, depending on the sharing of the security configuration. For the configuration of z/OSMF SCA plugin, please refer to z/OSMF Configuration Guide.

Ansible Config

The Ansible configuration file ansible.cfg can override almost all ansible-playbook configurations. The configuration file includes a sample ansible.cfg that can supplement ansible-playbook with little modification.

You can modify collections_paths to refer to your own installation path for Ansible collections.

For example:

[defaults]
collections_paths = ~/.ansible/collections:/usr/share/ansible/collections

For more information about available configurations for ansible.cfg, read the Ansible documentation on Ansible configuration settings.

Inventory

Ansible works with multiple managed nodes (hosts) at the same time, using a list or group of lists known as an inventory. Once the inventory is defined, you can use patterns to select the hosts or groups that you want Ansible to run on.

The sample includes inventory.yml that can be used to manage your target z/OS systems with little modification. This inventory file should be included when you run the sample playbooks.

zos_systems:
  hosts:
    zos_host1:
      zmf_host: zosmf_host_name1
      zmf_port: zosmf_port_number1
    zos_host2:
      zmf_host: zosmf_host_name2
      zmf_port: zosmf_port_number2

Please take note whether using the same zosmf for "zos_host1" or "zos_host2" is dependent on whether zos_host1 and zos_host2 are sharing the same security data base (such as RACF DB).

  • zos_systems: Group name of the target z/OS systems.

  • zos_host1: Nickname for each target z/OS system on which the security validation is to be performed. You can modify it to refer to your own z/OS system. When the nickname is modified, make sure the host-specific variables file is defined, as described in Variables.

  • zmf_host: The value of this property identifies the hostname of the z/OS system on which the z/OSMF server is running. For example: zmf_host: "pev076.pok.ibm.com".

  • zmf_port: The value of this property identifies the port number of z/OSMF server.

Variables

Although you can store variables in the inventory file, storing them in separate configurations such as host_vars or group_vars files helps you organize your variable values. host_vars file name must match the host name used in the inventory file and sample playbooks.

The sample includes a host_vars file zos_host1.yml that can be easily customized.

# state: check or provisioned
# target_userid: target_userid
# location: local or remote
# path: /path/to/security/requirement/file
# zmf_user: zosmf_user_name
# zmf_password: zosmf_password

  • state: The desired final state.

  • target_userid: The value of this property identifies the target user/group id to be validated.

  • location: The value of this property identifies the location of the security requirement file, local or remote.

  • path: The value of this property identifies the path of the security requirement file.

  • zmf_user: The value of this property identifies the username to be used for authenticating with the z/OSMF server.

  • zmf_password: The value of this property identifies the password to be used for authenticating with the z/OSMF server.

Run the Playbook

Access the sample Ansible playbook and ensure that you are under the playbook directory where the sample files are included.

Use the Ansible command ansible-playbook to run the sample playbook. The command syntax is ansible-playbook -i <inventory> <playbook>.

For example:

ansible-playbook -i inventory.yml sca_security_validation.yml
ansible-playbook -i inventory.yml sca_security_audit.yml
ansible-playbook -i inventory.yml sca_security_provision.yml

Notes:

Before running the sample playbooks, please review and update the sample security requirements file sca_sample_security_requirements_file.json based on your need. The security requirements in sca_sample_security_requirements_file.json are just samples and for your reference only.

Debugging

Optionally, you can configure the console logging verbosity during playbook execution. This is helpful in situations where communication is failing and you want to obtain more details. To adjust the logging verbosity, append more letter v's. For example, -v, -vv, -vvv, or -vvvv. Each letter v increases logging verbosity similar to traditional logging levels INFO, WARN, ERROR, DEBUG.

Copyright

© Copyright IBM Corporation 2022

License

Licensed under Apache License, Version 2.0

Support

Please refer to the support section for more details.