Failures during RACF manager processing

The RACF® manager performs operations on the RACF database at the request of the RACF commands, RACF utility programs, and RACF SVC processing routines. Failures that occur during RACF manager processing can cause serious problems in the index entries and other records in the RACF database.

If RACF is enabled for sysplex communication, a system experiencing a problem with one or more RACF cache structures might enter read-only mode, with RACF issuing message IRRX004A. Except for statistics updates during logon and job initiation, and other statistics updates made with ICHEINTY ALTERI requests, the RACF manager rejects requests to update the RACF database with return code X'50'.

For messages IRR402I, IRR403I, and IRR404I, see z/OS Security Server RACF Messages and Codes for the error recovery procedures listed with each message under the heading “Problem Determination.”

For messages other than IRR402I, IRR403I, and IRR404I that indicate a failure has occurred during RACF manager processing, the system programmer or security administrator performs the following steps:

Reenter the RACF command or RACF utility, or perform the system operation again.
If the failure occurs again, it is likely that you have a problem with an index entry or profile entry in your RACF database. Because the index structure is required to locate profile data, it is essential to have a valid index structure. Therefore, you should perform the following steps in order during problem determination to find the failing profile.
1. Run the RACF database verification utility program (IRRUT200) with the INDEX and MAP ALL options to identify problems with the RACF database. For a description of the types of problems the utility finds, see the description of IRRUT200 in RACF database utilities.
  If IRRUT200 does not detect any problems in the RACF database structure (it verifies the index structure down to the profile level), try running the RACF database unload utility (IRRDBU00). The IRRDBU00 utility must read every profile in the database and thereby might (implicitly) identify profiles with errors. If IRRDBU00 encounters a profile in error, it might issue message IRR67092. This message contains an ICHEINTY return and reason code and also the entry name of the profile being processed.
  
  If you do not receive this message, but rather abend or terminate in another fashion, you might also be able to determine the profile in error. To do this, look in the output data set (OUTDD) and find the last profile (at the bottom) that was unloaded. It is likely that this profile is correct. However, the next profile in the database (in the same class) could possibly be in error, if indeed a bad profile is causing the utility to terminate.
  
  You can find the next profile in the database by examining the output of an IRRUT200 utility run (specifying INDEX FORMAT), or by using the BLKUPD command to examine an online database.
2. Attempt to correct the problem using RACF commands. If this does not work, use BLKUPD to correct the problem in the RACF database.
3. Rerun the IRRUT200 utility program to determine if there are any additional problems. If so, use BLKUPD to correct the additional problems.

For messages IRR402I, IRR403I, and IRR404I, the system programmer or security administrator should perform steps 2a and 2b.