Installing smf2db

This is a CLI application that does upload SMF JSON files to database, summarization and printing reports on the fly without loading to database management system (DBMS). This section covers how to install it.

Requirements for Installing smf2db

This section describes the steps to follow before installing smf2db.

  • Ensure you can run Python from the command line

    Before you go any further, make sure you have Python and that the expected version is available from your command line. You can check this by running:

    python3 --version

    python3 --version

    py --version

    You should get some output like Python 3.13.0. If you do not have Python, please refer to Install Python on z/OS to download and install on z/OS platform. For other platforms, please install the latest 3.x version from python.org.

  • Creating Virtual Environments

    It is recommended smf2db to be installed in a virtual environment, rather than being installed globally. This section discusses the basic of how to create and activate a virtual environment using the standard library’s virtual environment tool venv and install pre-requisite packages and smf2db. You can use other virtual environment tools if you prefer.

    To create a virtual environment, go to your project’s directory and run the following command. This will create a new virtual environment in a local folder named myvenv:

    python3 -m venv myvenv

    python3 -m venv myvenv

    py -m venv myvenv

    The second argument is the location to create the virtual environment. Generally, you can just create this in your project and call it myvenv.

    venv will create a virtual Python installation in the myvenv folder.

  • Activate a virtual environment

    Before you can start installing or using packages in your virtual environment you’ll need to activate it. Activating a virtual environment will put the virtual environment-specific python and pip executables into your shell’s PATH.

    source myenv/bin/activate

    source myvenv/bin/activate

    myvenv\Scripts\activate

    While a virtual environment is activated, pip will install packages into that specific environment. This enables you to use packages in this Python application.

    • Deactivate a virtual environment

      If you want to switch projects or leave your virtual environment, deactivate the environment:

      deactivate

      Note

      Closing your shell will deactivate the virtual environment. If you open a new shell window and want to use the virtual environment, reactivate it.

    • Reactivate a virtual environment

      If you want to reactivate an existing virtual environment, follow the same instructions about activating a virtual environment. There’s no need to create a new virtual environment.

Prepare pip

pip is the reference Python package manager. It’s used to install and update packages into a virtual environment.

The Python libraries for z/OS should include pip. You can check the pip version by running:

python -m pip --version

The Python installers for macOS include pip. On Linux, you may have to install an additional package such as python3-pip. You can make sure that pip is up-to-date by running:

python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
python3 -m pip --version

The Python installers for Windows include pip. You can make sure that pip is up-to-date by running:

py -m pip install --upgrade pip
py -m pip --version

Use pip for Installing smf2db

pip is the recommended installer. smf2db currently is published on PyPI, which included source archive file format and pre-built wheel format. Below, we’ll cover the most common usage scenarios.

If you install smf2db on z/OS, it is required to install the pre-requisite packages before installing smf2db.

Following the instructions below to install the pre-requistie packages:

The following packages are required to follow Install Packages from IBM Python AI Toolkit for z/OS to install to your z/OS environment:

click
numpy
pandas
SQLALchemy
packaging
jsonschema
pyyaml

For the other packages as shown below, you can download the .whl (wheel) files published on the Python Package Index (PyPI) to your local machine and upload the wheel files to z/OS:

rich >= 14.3.2
tabulate == 0.9.0

Then, you run the following comand

pip install <some-package.whl>

Or if you can access the Python Package Index (PyPI) directly on z/OS, you can create another requirements2.txt and run the following command:

pip install -r requirements2.txt

The dependencies listed below will be automatically pulled from Python Package Index (PyPI) or your corporate site:

click >= 8.1.3
numpy >= 1.23.4
pandas >= 1.5.1
SQLALchemy >= 2.0.12
packaging >= 25.0
jsonschema >= 4.17.3
pyyaml >= 6.0.3
rich >= 14.3.2
tabulate == 0.9.0

Otherwise, you can download the .whl (wheel) files using a machine which has access to PyPI and transfer the files to your local machine and run the following command one by one for each .whl file:

pip install <some-package.whl>

The dependencies listed below will be automatically pulled from Python Package Index (PyPI) or your corporate site:

click >= 8.1.3
numpy >= 1.23.4
pandas >= 1.5.1
SQLALchemy >= 2.0.12
packaging >= 25.0
jsonschema >= 4.17.3
pyyaml >= 6.0.3
rich >= 14.3.2
tabulate == 0.9.0

Otherwise, you can download the .whl (wheel) files using a machine which has access to PyPI and transfer the files to your local machine and run the following command one by one for each .whl file:

pip install <some-package.whl>

After installation of pre-requiste python packages, smf2db can be installed in one of the ways described below:

Installation from wheel

Following the instructions below to install the smf2db in wheel format:

Upload the wheel files to z/OS and run the following comand

pip install <smf2db.whl>

Run the following command:

pip install <smf2db.whl>

Run the following command:

pip install <smf2db.whl>

Installing from PyPI

In the future, smf2db package will be published on the Python Package Index (PyPI). The preferred tool for installing packages from PyPI is pip, which is included in all modern versions of Python.

Run the following command if your machine can access PyPI directly:

$ pip install -U smf2db

Installation from local archives

Install source archive file downloaded from PyPI.

Upload the archive file to target virtual environment on z/OS and run the following comand

python3 -m pip install install <smf2db-0.1.0.tar.gz>

python3 -m pip install <smf2db-0.1.0.tar.gz>

py -m pip install <smf2db-0.1.0.tar.gz>

After installation, you can check that smf2db is available by running

$ smf2db --version

This should print out the smf2db version number.