Navigating through a local firewall using either the RECEIVE FROMNETWORK or RECEIVE ORDER command and the GIMGTPKG service routine

In SMP/E V3R3, the RECEIVE FROMNETWORK command was enhanced to use the z/OS® Communications Server FTP client. Due to how the FTP client and local firewalls prompt for a user ID and password, this enhancement requires changes to the <FIRECMD> tags used to navigate through a local firewall. The <FIRECMD> tags are specified in the CLIENT data set for the RECEIVE FROMNETWORK and RECEIVE ORDER commands and the SMPCLNT data set for the GIMGTPKG Service Routine.

Prior to SMP/E V3R3, you may have specified the following <FIRECMD> tags:

<FIRECMD>USER &USER;</FIRECMD>
<FIRECMD>PASS &PW;</FIRECMD>

With SMP/E V3R3 and later, if your local firewall or the FTP client prompts for the user ID, then do not specify the USER subcommand on the <FIRECMD> tag. Only specify the user ID or the appropriate substitution variable on the <FIRECMD> tag as shown here:

<FIRECMD>&USER;</FIRECMD>

Similarly, if your local firewall or the FTP client prompts for the password, then do not specify the PASS subcommand on the <FIRECMD> tag. Only specify the password or the appropriate substitution variable on the <FIRECMD> tag as shown here:

<FIRECMD>&PW;</FIRECMD>

With SMP/E V3R3 and later, you may need to add two additional <FIRECMD> tags if once connected to your local firewall, you are not yet connected to the remote server. To connect to the remote server, add the following <FIRECMD> tags:

<FIRECMD>USER &REMOTE_USER;</FIRECMD>
<FIRECMD>&REMOTE_PW;</FIRECMD>

In the end, the commands you specify in the <FIRECMD> tags should be the same as those you use with the z/OS Communications Server FTP client. Since the behavior of various firewalls differ, the best way to determine the necessary <FIRECMD> tags is to perform an FTP operation using the FTP client in a JCL job and then specify the same commands that were needed in that operation in the <FIRECMD> tags in the CLIENT and/or SMPCLNT data set.

Figure 1. Example FTP JCL job:

//job      JOB job parameters...
//FTP      EXEC PGM=FTP
//OUTPUT   DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=*
//INPUT DD *
firewall_host
firewall_userid
firewall_password
SITE remote_host
; This is a comment line
; USER remote_userid ; uncomment if needed
; remote_password ; uncomment if needed
DIR
QUIT