Overview

The installation of Zowe™ consists of the following processes:

• Installation of the Zowe server-side components.

  You can install the components either on z/OS only or you can install the components both on z/OS and on Docker.

• Installation of Zowe client-side components.

  You can install Zowe CLI or Zowe Explorer, a Visual Studio Code extension powered by Zowe CLI.

The Zowe server components provide a web desktop that runs a number of applications such as API Mediation Layer that includes the Single Sign-on (SSO) capability, organization of the multiple Zowe servers under a single website, and other useful features for z/OS developers.

Because Zowe is a set of components, before installing Zowe, use this guide to determine which components you want to install and where you want to install them.

Consider the following scenarios:

• If you plan to use Zowe CLI on PC only, you may not need to install the Zowe server components.

  Note: Some CLI plug-ins require the installation of components on z/OS. If you plan to use core Zowe CLI groups from your PC, the z/OS you connect to does not require any components of Zowe to be installed on z/OS, unless you want to take advantage of advanced authentication methods such as single sign-on or multi-factor authentication.

• If you use the Docker technical preview to run the Linux parts of Zowe in a container, you only need to configure the Zowe z/OS component to start the ZSS server.