z/OS JCL Workshop Part 1 - Foundation Skills

Objectives
On successful completion of this course, attendees will be able to:

• state the purpose of each z/OS job control statement
• code JCL statements to access disk and cartridge files
• describe and use the commonly used parameters
• correct syntax errors in JCL statements
• code in-stream procedures and override, nullify and add parameters
• appreciate the implications of SMS when using z/OS JCL.

Who Should Attend
Applications Programmers, Systems Programmers, Operations Analysts and Operators.

Duration
3 days

Course Code
TM
Contents
z/OS: its structure and components
Main memory and virtual storage; components of z/OS: batch, JCL, online.
This segment gives a brief overview of z/OS.

Introduction to z/OS JCL
Structure of a job; job processing; statement types; format & coding rules.
Describes jobs and job steps, introduces rules for coding JCL statements and explains the role that JES has in job submission and execution.

The JOB statement
Positional parameters; keyword parameters.
This segment distinguishes between positional and keyword parameters. It also explains the more common JOB statement parameters.

The EXEC statement
Format; positional parameters: PGM, PROC; keyword parameters: PARM, REGION, TIME, DYNAMNBR; SMS; COND parameter.
Covers the differences between executing a program and a procedure. Parameters used when a program is executed are explained.

Printing and in-stream data
SYSOUT, the OUTPUT statement and in-stream data.
JES's handling of print output (which output queue the print output will go to, etc), plus the use of in-stream data.

The DD statement
Rules and conventions; keyword parameters: DSN, DISP, UNIT, VOL; SMS considerations.
Describes the JCL needed for existing datasets. The importance of cataloguing datasets is emphasised

The DD statement - working with datasets
Dataset types: sequential, partitioned, VSAM; accessing existing datasets; creating new datasets; DCB parameter; SPACE parameters.; System Managed Storage: disk datasets, space allocation and DCB parameters with SMS, VSAM datasets; generation datasets; cartridges.
This segment describes the JCL needed to create new datasets, either on DASD, or cartridge. An explanation of generation datasets and the JCL needed to use them is included in this segment, along with details of the new parameters available if SMS is used.

Further DD considerations
Special DD names; concatenated datasets; temporary dataset names; virtual I/O; backward references; dummy datasets.
The remaining uses of the DD statement, with emphasis on DD names for libraries, dump, concatenated and temporary datasets.

Catalogued procedures
In-stream procedures; cataloguing; calling; symbolic, default, nullifying parameters; modifying EXEC and DD parameters; concatenated datasets; adding DD statements; substitution prefixes.
Catalogued procedures are widely used in z/OS. This segment deals with all aspects of them, including creating, testing and modification.

Conditional JCL
Construct: IF, THEN, ELSE, ENDIF; Test criteria: RC, ABEND, RUN, ABENDCC; Logical operations: AND, OR.
This is the IBM recommended way of coding conditional JCL. All aspects of the IF, THEN, ELSE construct are explained.