General considerations

The following considerations apply when the RACF® database is inactive (failsoft processing occurs):

If RACF enters failsoft during initialization, you must re-IPL.
If RACF is not enabled for sysplex communication, a RACF database that is shared by two systems is deactivated only for the system from which you enter the RVARY command. You should deactivate a database from all systems that share it, or results might be unpredictable.
When RACF is enabled for sysplex communication, certain RVARY commands (SWITCH, ACTIVE, INACTIVE, DATASHARE, NODATASHARE) are propagated from the system on which the command is entered to each of the other RACF members of the data sharing group.
If failsoft processing is in effect, whenever a user attempts to access a data set RACF sends a message to the operator to request access. The operator then decides whether to allow access to that data set and sends a response to RACF. Before you deactivate the RACF database, ensure that the operator is prepared for the large number of prompts that will result.
The operator's ability to allow user access to data sets when failsoft processing is in effect will probably not be sufficient to keep the system running error-free. You might experience failures in many system functions, such as TSO user logons, CICS® user signons, and batch jobs and started tasks that need data contained in the database.
The RACROUTE REQUEST=AUTH and RACROUTE REQUEST=DEFINE postprocessing exit routines do not gain control when RACF failsoft processing is active.
Attempts to define resources to RACF with RACROUTE REQUEST=DEFINE processing cause an operator information message. The DEFINE request terminates with a return code of zero. After RACF is reactivated, examine the information in the operator messages and use the ADDSD or RDEFINE command or both to define appropriate profiles.

The following considerations apply when a subset of the data sets in the RACF database are inactive (failsoft processing does not occur):

Batch and TSO users whose profiles are on a deactivated data set can enter the system as if RACF were not installed, assuming the TSO users have entries in the SYS1.UADS data set.
You cannot enter RACF commands to make changes to profiles on a deactivated data set.
If you have more than one data set in your primary database, you must enter RVARY INACTIVE for all of your primary data sets for failsoft processing to be in effect. If you enter RVARY INACTIVE for only one of the primary data sets, failsoft processing will not be in effect; therefore, any RACF activities involving that data set will fail.
You can use exit routines to examine the data set descriptor table created during RACF initialization and determine if a data set in the RACF database has been deactivated by the RVARY command.