You can share a master catalog and share an IPL volume among multiple systems. The system data sets, SYS1.LOGREC and SYS1.STGINDEX are no longer fixed named and unable to be shared. They can now be shared and specified by the installation. In addition, a system symbolic, &SYSNAME, was introduced and can be used as part of data set name specifications for some parameters in PARMLIB. When you use &SYSNAME, the data set name specification becomes flexible and you do not need a separate parameter specification for each system in the sysplex.

For example, LOGREC=SYS1.LOGREC.&SYSNAME. The symbolic name, &SYSNAME, can also be used in other PARMLIB parameter specifications. You can use &SYSNAME for IEASYSxx parameters VIODSN=, PAGE=, SWAP=, DUPLEX=, and NONVIO=. You can use &SYSNAME for SMFPRMxx parameters DSNAME= and SID=.