The following earlier form of the syntax for SEPARATIONGROUP is tolerated by z/OS® V1R11. It supports separation at the PCU level only.

SEPARATIONGROUP|SEP
FAILLEVEL|FAIL ({PCU|NONE})
DSNLIST|DSNS|DSN (data-set-name[,data-set-name,...])

You specify either required or preferred data set separation by using one of the values for the FAILLEVEL keyword:

FAILLEVEL(PCU)

Indicates that separation on the PCU level is required. SMS fails the allocation if the requested data set cannot be separated on the PCU level from other data sets that are listed in the SEPARATIONGROUP. An allocation failure message is issued that indicates the number of volumes that were rejected by the data set separation profile.

For the current syntax, see TYPE(REQUIRED).

FAILLEVEL(NONE)

Indicates that separation on the PCU level is preferred. SMS allows the allocation if the requested data set cannot be separated on the PCU level from other data sets that are listed in the SEPARATIONGROUP. SMS allocates the data sets on the same PCU and issues an allocation message that indicates that separation was not honored for a successful allocation. During volume selection, SMS treats all volumes on the same PCU level as less-preferred.

For the current syntax, see TYPE(PREFERRED).