Defining the workspace data sets

You define the workspace data sets using the TARGET command when you define a target node. The WORKSPACE keyword defines the attributes of the workspace data sets, and the PREFIX keyword defines their prefix. See Defining RRSF nodes to RACF for more information.

You specify the volume on which the workspace data sets reside on the TARGET command. Select a volume that has sufficient room to allow for the expansion of the VSAM data sets.

Make sure that the RACF® subsystem user ID has the authority to create and access the workspace data sets. The suggested way to do this is to define the subsystem as trusted or privileged. For more information, see Assigning a user ID to the RACF subsystem .

There are two methods you can use to allocate the workspace data sets:

Let RACF allocate the VSAM data sets for you.
You define the workspace data sets using the TARGET command when you define a target node. The WORKSPACE keyword defines the attributes of the workspace data sets, and the PREFIX keyword defines their prefix. RACF uses this information to allocate the data sets. For more information, see Defining RRSF nodes to RACF.
Preallocate the VSAM data sets yourself.
If you choose to preallocate the VSAM data sets, SYS1.SAMPLIB member IRRSRRSF contains a sample member RRSFALOC with sample JCL to define the VSAM workspace data sets. Use the PREFIX keyword on the TARGET command to identify the prefix you use to RACF. Note that RACF might delete data sets that you have preallocated. See Deleting the workspace data sets.

Whenever a TARGET command is issued to make a node operative or dormant, RACF uses the information on the WORKSPACE and PREFIX keywords to derive the names of the workspace data sets. If data sets with those names do not exist, RACF allocates new data sets. If the data sets already exist, (because either you or RACF has already allocated them), RACF uses the existing data sets.

If a node is using a set of workspace data sets, and you edit the TARGET commands in the RACF parameter library so that RACF derives different data set names on the next IPL, RACF allocates workspace data sets with the new names. The old data sets are not deleted, but any requests queued in them are ignored. If you later change the TARGET commands to specify the old data sets again, the old requests are still there and RACF processes them.

If you issue a TARGET command with new values for the WORKSPACE and PREFIX keywords, and the workspace data sets already exist, RACF does not reallocate the data sets. If you issue a TARGET LIST command, it shows the new values you provided on the TARGET command, which are not the values actually in effect. For example, if you issue a TARGET DELETE command to delete a node, and there are still records in a workspace data set for that node, RACF does not delete the data set. If you later issue a TARGET command to that node to reconnect to it, and the workspace data set still exists and is cataloged, and its name matches the name RACF generates, RACF reuses the existing data set. If you changed the WORKSPACE keywords on the TARGET command you issued to reconnect, those values do not take effect, but they are shown if you do a TARGET LIST for the node. The new values take effect the next time RACF allocates a new workspace data set.