Time zone considerations

When you use the DFSMSrmm ISPF dialog, by default, you work in the local system's time. You can also use the built-in capabilities of the dialog to view resources and resource lists in any selected time zone offset. Using time zone within the DFSMSrmm ISPF dialog enables you to view the resources relative to another system in your RMMplex that runs on a different local time as your system, or perhaps volumes are used off the z/OS® platform and the other platform runs in a different time zone.

All displayed information is shown in your selected time zone. Any entered dates (through adding or changing) are assumed by DFSMSrmm to also be in the time zone you selected.

You can use the DFSMSrmm Dialog User Options panel to set the selected time zone. Figure 1 shows the DFSMSrmm Dialog User Options panel that DFSMSrmm displays. To save time after that, a fast path command allows you to select the time zone used for your dialog sessions without navigating to the DFSMSrmm Dialog User Options panel and using the Time Zone field. The format of the fast path command is:

TZ [standard {+/-}HH[:MM[:SS]]] where:

Standard is a specified character string to represent your current time zone to you. There are no rules other than it from 1 to 4 characters. Recommendation is to use the commonly used values such as BST, CET, PDT. DFSMSrmm uses the value only to display back to you when requested.
+ is used for offsets ahead (east of UT) and - is used for offsets behind (west of UT).
HH is hours
MM is minutes
SS is seconds
An optional colon (:) separates hours from optional minutes and optional seconds.

To revert to local time, issue the fastpath command:

TZ LOCAL

If TZ is issued with no operands, the current setting is displayed. For example, you could see 'TZ CET+01:00:00'. Also, only data retrieved after the fast path command is issued is returned using the requested time zone.

Figure 1 shows the DFSMSrmm Time Zone help panel that DFSMSrmm displays if you require additional help.

Figure 1. DFSMSrmm Time Zone Help panel

Panel  Help
EDGH@O19 ------------------------ TIME ZONE ------------------------------HELP
COMMAND ===>

   The current time zone is set to CET  +01:00:00
   The format is                   zone ohh:mm:ss or      LOCAL
      zone      - 1 to 4 character string to represent the time zone to you
      o
           +    - the offset is East, or ahead, of universal time
           -    - the offset is West, or behind, universal time
      hh:mm:ss
           hh   - The offset in hours
           mm   - Minutes are optional. Specify if required
           ss   - Seconds are optional. If specified also specify minutes
      LOCAL     - No selection is made. Local system time is used

   All dates and times displayed or entered in the DFSMSrmm dialog are values
   local to this time zone. To change the time zone you must specify an offset
   value and a text string to identify that zone to you. The offset value is a
   time that your selected time zone is ahead of or behind universal time
   (UTC/GMT). Changes you make only affect future dialog actions and displays.

   For example, to select MST you might enter ==>MST -07
  Use ENTER to continue, END to exit Help.