DFSMS catalog enhancements for z/OS V2R2

The catalog component of DFSMS provides the following enhancements:

• DUMPON support for catalog front end modules: When you request CAS dynamic dumping with the MODIFY CATALOG,DUMPON command, you can now specify modules involved in catalog front end processing. For more information, refer to MODIFY CATALOG in z/OS DFSMS Managing Catalogs.
• GDGSCRATCH parmlib variable: The new GDGSCRATCH(YES|NO) parmlib variable provides the ability to specify whether the default should be SCRATCH or NOSCRATCH when defining a base GDG. See "DEFINE GENERATIONDATAGROUP" in z/OS DFSMS Access Method Services Commands.

  The MODIFY CATALOG,REPORT command is enhanced to indicate whether the GDGSCRATCH feature is enabled or disabled.

  
• Extended format for generation data groups (GDGs): The new EXTENDED parameter of the IDCAMS DEFINE GDG command allows a new GDG to contain up to 999 generation data sets (GDSes). The previous GDS limit of 255 GDSes still applies for existing GDGs, and for new GDGs that do not specify the new extended format. For extended format GDGs, the LIMIT parameter of the IDCAMS DEFINE GDG command and the IDCAMS ALTER LIMIT command are enhanced to let you set a new GDS limit of up to 999. See "DEFINE GENERATIONDATAGROUP" and "ALTER" in z/OS DFSMS Access Method Services Commands.
• Restore a user catalog to any volume: You can now logically restore a user catalog to any volume with the same device type as the volume from which it was dumped. Previously, you could restore only to the same volume. Physically restoring a user catalog is not changed — it must be done to the same volume as the volume from which the user catalog was dumped. For more information, refer to Restoring integrated catalog facility catalogs in z/OS DFSMSdss Storage Administration.
• Catalog attributes health check: This enhancement is designed to inspect all the catalogs currently defined in the user's environment for shareoptions and DASD status and report any inconsistencies between the two. The CATALOG_ATTRIBUTE_CHECK will notify the system programmer of any inconsistent catalog(s) in their environment. The notification will be done in the form of a report in the message buffer using SDSF. The system programmer can decide to redefine or alter the inconsistent catalog(s) with the correct shareoptions at a convenient time. For more information, refer to z/OS MVS System Messages, Vol 9 (IGF-IWM) and IBM Health Checker for z/OS User's Guide.
• IDCAMS VERIFY RECOVER ENHANCEMENT: This enhancement will now allow for 3 ways to run the VERIFY command:
  • IDCAMS VERIFY: Original way as it is now where IDCAMS opens the data set for output and then issues the VERIFY macro with no options and then closes the data set.
  • IDCAMS VERIFY RECOVER: Currently the RECOVER option causes VSAM Record Management VERIFY to back out or complete any interrupted CA reclaim in addition to regular IDCAMS VERIFY functions. There will be no change to this way of running VERIFY.
  • EXAMINE/IDCAMS VERIFY RECOVER: This will be a new enhancement that is functional only when EXAMINE and VERIFY RECOVER are run in the same IDCAMS job step. EXAMINE has been enhanced to pass the error information that it finds (such as index CI#, data CI#, error type, and so forth) to VERIFY. As long as there is no concurent access on the data set, VERIFY will attempt to repair any errors that it can.
  
• IDCAMS small enhancements: There are multiple small enhancements in IDCAMS:
  • A new parameter has been introduced to allow the user to control adding the TSO user id as a prefix when running LISTCAT as a TSO command. This new parameter is PREFIX/NOPREFIX.
  • A new option "CIMODE" has been introduced in the PRINT command and REPRO command to process data sets using CI level processing. This will allow the PRINT and REPRO commands to be able to read a broken VSAM ESDS dataset and extract the good records from it.
  
• IDCAMS RAS enhancements: There are multiple RAS enhancements in IDCAMS:
  • IDCAMSPARM(TEST) enhancement: AMS commands use system adapters UGPOOL, UGSPACE, UGSPC16 to obtain core storage for command processing. Some of the commands such as PARM(TEST) have 31 bit support but still perform below the line, because those system adapters use a macro version of getmain/freemain (MF) that does not actually obtain the storage above the line as expected even though "LOC=ANY" is specified on the call of getmain.
  • REPROMERGECAT output enhancement: IDCAMS will provide new optional keywords, MESSAGELEVE(ALL|SHORT) for REPRO MERGECAT. These options will provide existing or condensed output listings. ALL is the default.
  
• CSI Enhancements: This enhancement includes new CSI fields. For more information, refer to Sample Z Entry Request Output in z/OS DFSMS Managing Catalogs.
• Catalog modify command security enhancements: This enhancement will allow the MODIFY command for Catalog to separate authorization for those sub-commands which provide reporting capabilities from those sub-commands which alter the catalog environment. This is achieved by defining a new RACF Resource for the OPERCMDS class and permitting selected users with READ or UPDATE access.
• New option for GDG management - PURGE: This enhancement adds a new PURGE option to the DEFINE and ALTER commands. Additionally, it adds a new LISTCST field to print the PURGE option. The PURGE option is valid only when the SCRATCH option is specified. It will override expiration dates when deleting generation data sets (GDSes). If not specified, the default is NOPURGE, but this can be overridden by the new GDGPURGE parmlib variable.