An XCF note pad is shared storage that can be accessed by programs throughout the sysplex. Each note pad is hosted in a list structure in a coupling facility, and an additional structure is used to host the note pad catalog. To use the XCF Note Pad Services, the installation needs to define these structures in the Coupling Facility Resource Management (CFRM) policy.

The XCF Note Pad interface supports both authorized and unauthorized callers. The security administrator might have to define System Authorization Facility (SAF) profiles for certain note pads to grant access to the unauthorized callers. For authorized callers, XCF will honor the SAF profile if one is defined. If SAF is not installed, or the installation has not defined a SAF profile for the note pad, XCF rejects the request made by an unauthorized caller and permits the request to go forward for an authorized caller.

In addition, the installation might consider defining SAF profiles for the XCF catalog and note pad structures to prevent anyone but XCF from establishing XES connections to these structures. The data stored in the XCF catalog and note pad structures is managed solely by XCF, and allowing other programs to access the data directly through established XES connections could cause data integrity issues.

See z/OS MVS Programming: Sysplex Services Guide for more information on the XCF Note Pad Services.