If a catalog is causing jobs to fail and you cannot trace the failure to unsynchronized entries in the catalog, the catalog might be structurally unsound. Structural problems affect BCS characteristics as a VSAM key-sequenced data set, not as a catalog.

You must have READ authority for the RACF® STGADMIN.IDC.xxx profile, if it is defined. For more information about STGADMIN RACF profiles, see Storage Administration (STGADMIN) Profiles in the FACILITY Class.

To test the structure of a BCS, perform the following steps:

1. Execute the access method services VERIFY command to verify that the VSAM information for the catalog is current. If the catalog is currently open in the catalog address space and the EXAMINE command is executed, the data that is contained in the catalog may not be current.
2. Execute the access method services ALTER command to lock the catalog and prevent updates to the catalog while you are inspecting its structure.
3. Execute the access method services EXAMINE command. With this command, you can test both the index and data components of a BCS.
4. If the BCS has structural errors, recover the catalog with the most recent structurally sound backup copy.

For more information on using EXAMINE, see z/OS DFSMS Access Method Services Commandsz/OS DFSMS Access Method Services Commands and z/OS DFSMS Using Data Sets.