Before you begin

You should prepare at least one service policy and your classification rules to be ready to start using the ISPF application. Your service policies and classification rules make up a service definition. You can store a service definition in the following kinds of data sets:
WLM couple data set
In order for all systems in a sysplex to process with an active service policy, they must all be able to access a service policy. They all access the policy from a WLM couple data set. To use workload management, you must allocate a WLM couple data set, define it to the sysplex, and install your service definition onto it. You can allocate the WLM couple data set from the application. Only one service definition can be installed on the WLM couple data set.
MVS™ partitioned data set (PDS)
You do not need to preallocate the data sets. You specify a data set name, and the application allocates it for you. You can save one service definition per MVS PDS.
Notes:
  1. If you use customized data sets in your installation, or if you use DFSMS, you can use WLM application exits IWMAREX1 and IWMAREX2 to specify those changes. See Customizing the WLM ISPF application for how to code the exits.
  2. The data set userid.WLM.SAVExx (where userid is the TSO ID running the application and xx is some numeric value such as SAVE01) is allocated by the WLM application for recovery and is deleted by WLM upon exiting the application. This naming convention should therefore not be used for a new service definition.
MVS sequential data set (PS)
You can store a service definition in XML format in a sequential data set. You need not preallocate the sequential data sets. Specify a data set name, then the application allocates it for you.
Notes:
  1. If you use customized data sets in your installation, or if you use DFSMS, you can use WLM application exits IWMAREX1 and IWMAREX2 to specify those changes. See Customizing the WLM ISPF application for how to code the exits.
  2. The data set userid.VDEF.TEMP.Ddddddd.Ttttttt (where userid is the TSO ID running the application, dddddd is the current date and tttttt is the current time) is allocated by the WLM application to temporarily save the XML service definition as ISPF tables during editing. The data set is deleted by WLM upon exiting the application. The naming convention should therefore not be used for a new service definition.