z/OS Boot Camp

What you will learn

On successful completion of this course you will be able to:

• identify the principal components of IBM z Systems
• describe how data is stored, the different data codes and types, and the devices used
• explain the concepts of operating systems
• use basic TSO commands
• use and customise ISPF panel structures
• browse and edit datasets
• customise ISPF edit profiles
• use advanced edit functions
• submit and manage batch jobs
• use the ISPF utilities such as copy and list
• use search facilities
• 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
• create PDSE, and HFS files
• create VSAM datasets directly, without IDCAMS
• use DFP utilities
• understand and use the terminology associated with UNIX
• describe basic UNIX concepts
• issue UNIX shell commands
• identify and utilise key shell commands such as 'find', 'grep', etc.
• explain the changes that have been made to the MVS platform in order to support applications created for a UNIX environment
• identify the facilities and functions provided within USS
• utilise ISHELL
• describe the architectural principles governing CPU, Storage and I/O
• explain the reasons for the introduction of the parallel sysplex concept
• explain the business implications of the parallel sysplex
• explain the function of the Coupling Facility (CF)
• describe the different types of multi-system data-sharing
• explain the reason for z/OSMF
• describe the use of ZIIPs
• understand the need for RACF
• understand how RACF works
• explain how z/OS SAF, especially RACF, is used to protect your network and communications.

Who Should Attend

Trainees and new joiners who will be working in the production side of z/OS environments.

Prerequisites

None.

Duration

10 days

Fee (per attendee)

P.O.A.

This includes free online 24/7 access to course notes.

Hard copy course notes are available on request from rsmshop@rsm.co.uk

at £50.00 plus carriage per set.

Course Code

ZOSB

Contents

The IBM Z Systems Technical Environment

Origins; Types of computers; General purpose; Scientific; Scientific AND general purpose?; The PC; The Graphical User Interface (GUI); The application development backlog; The Local Area Network (LAN); Who runs the distributed data centre?; Total Cost of Ownership (TCO); Today's real world; What is a mainframe?; What can it do?; Hardware and software; Types of computing; Batch; Batch processing today; Interactive; On-line; Real time.

Enterprise Computing Hardware

Enterprise computing hardware; An IBM Z Systems data centre and its contents; The processor complex; Parallel sysplex; Channels; Controllers; I/O units; Addressing; Local and remote; Disk storage; Old technology; Storing data on a traditional disk; The cylinder concept; Sectors; Cache storage; RAID - a newer technology; Disk Mirroring (RAID-1); Data Striping (RAID 5/6); Remote Disk copy; Virtual disks; Optical disks; Why magnetic tape?; Reel to reel tape; Cartridges; High performance tapes; Automated Tape Libraries; Virtual Tape Server; Other Input/output peripherals; Terminals, Laser printers, Line printers, Micro film and microfiche; Magnetic Ink Character Recognition; Optical Character Recognition; Bar codes; Communications equipment.

Z Systems Software and Programs

What is software?; Types of software; System software; Exits; Application software; What does a program comprise?; Main module; Subroutines and procedures; Functions; Data; EBCDIC; ASCII; Building a program; Programming languages; Executing a program.

Practical Operations

Who runs the IT environment?: Operators, Help Desk Operatives, Security Administrators, Systems Programmers, Storage Administrators, Network Analysts, Application Developers/Support' Database Administrators.

z/OS Operating System

The z/OS operating system - MVS; Some important definitions; Address spaces; Common area; Private area; Main components of MVS; MVS processing environments; On-line; TSO; z/OS communications server; VTAM; TCP/IP; JES: JES2, Transaction Servers: CICS, IMS; Databases: Db2, IMS; UNIX System Services; WebSphere Application Server.

Introduction to TSO

What is TSO; main uses of TSO; using TSO; when the TSO screen fills; logging on to TSO; logging off.

Basic TSO Commands

SEND, LISTBC, LISTALC, HELP and PROFILE commands; command prompting; aborting a TSO command.

Introduction to ISPF

What is ISPF?; the ISPF panels; the pull-down menus; the Primary Option Menu; changing ISPF settings, function settings and log/list defaults; identifying error messages, entering TSO commands from ISPF, exiting from ISPF.

Browsing datasets in ISPF

Dataset naming rules and conventions; DASD dataset organisation; Partitioned Datasets; Partitioned Dataset Extended; specifying dataset names, PDS member list panel and shortcuts; browsing the data; scrolling; FIND command; finding picture strings; the LOCATE command; splitting the screen.

Basic Edit via ISPF

The editing process; the edit entry panel; member or dataset edit panel; scrolling during edit; edit line commands; manipulating lines; ending an edit session.

The ISPF Edit profile

Function of the Edit profile; displaying the Edit profile; profile options; creating new members; the insert and delete keys; CHANGE command; UNDO command; when you get locked up.

Advanced Edit with ISPF

Excluding and re-displaying lines; RESET command; switching between upper and lower case; column boundaries; text entry facilities; tab settings; manipulating data; submitting a batch job; nested edit sessions; saving data; cancelling an edit session.

Basic ISPF utilities

Utility selection menu; library utility; data set utility; move/copy utility; hardcopy utility; outlist utility.

ISPF Data Set List Utility

Dataset list; wildcard characters; dataset list and member list line commands; using a TSO command; SHOWCMD command; VTOC list and information; freeing unused space; repeating commands.

SuperC and Search-For

SuperC utility; SuperCE utility; Search-For utility; Search-ForE utility.

z/OS: Structure and Components

MVS background and history; MVS main memory and virtual storage; MVS versions; Address space layout; Common area; Private area; Main components of MVS; MVS processing environments: On-line, TSO, ISPF, Batch; MVS spooling; Other program products and their functions.

Introduction to z/OS JCL

Basic job structure; Job stream processing; JCL output; JCL statement types; JCL statement format and coding rules; JES2 control statements; JES3 control statements; JCL error points.

The JOB Statement

The JOB statement overview; Accounting information - positional; Programmer's name - positional; Keyword parameters; Other keyword parameters; Example JOB statements.

The EXEC Statement

The EXEC statement; EXEC format - program; EXEC format - procedure; EXEC keyword parameters; Other EXEC keyword parameters; COND parameter; EVEN or ONLY; Example EXEC statements; EXEC statement summary.

Printing and In-stream Data

Print files & In-stream data; Printing: Examples, DEST, COPIES, DCB; Output statement; OUTPUT statement: Implicit, Explicit, Multiple output; Output statement parameters; Examples; OUTDISP parameter; In-stream data.

The DD Statement

The DD statement; DD parameters: DSN, DISP, UNIT and VOL; SMS considerations; DD statement summary: Existing catalogued dataset, Existing non-catalogued dataset.

The DD Statement - Working with Datasets

Dataset types; Sequential datasets; Partitioned Data Sets; VSAM datasets; BUFNO; Accessing existing datasets; Creating new non-VSAM datasets; Data Control Block parameters; SPACE parameter; Space allocation DSCBs; System Managed Storage: Disk datasets with SMS, Space allocation with SMS. DCB parameters with SMS; Creating VSAM datasets in JCL; Generation datasets; SMS GDG considerations; Stages in creating a generation dataset; Tape datasets; . LABEL parameter; DD statement summary; Creating a new dataset on disk - non-SMS; Creating a new tape dataset.

Further DD Considerations

Special ddnames; JOBLIB; STEPLIB; Dump datasets; Concatenated datasets; Temporary dataset names; Dummy datasets.

Catalogued Procedures

JCL procedures; In-stream procedures; What a catalogued procedure cannot contain; Cataloguing a procedure; INCLUDE statement; Calling a procedure; Symbolic parameters; Examples of symbolic translation; Default parameters; Resolving symbolic parameters; SET statement; Modifying EXEC statement parameters; Modifying DD parameters; Concatenated datasets; Adding DD statements; Substitution prefixes; Using a standard COBOL compile/link/go procedure.

Conditional JCL Statements

The general construct; Name field; Relational-expression field; Relational-expression keywords; Comparison operators; Logical operators; NOT operator; Order of priority of operators; Parentheses; THEN and ELSE clauses; Contents of THEN and ELSE clauses; IF/THEN/ELSE/ENDIF and COND.

Common MVS Abend Codes

Problem handling; Program abends; Common MVS completion codes.

Partitioned Data Set Extended (PDSE)

Introduction; 6.2 What is a PDS?; PDS disadvantages; What is a PDSE?; What are the advantages of a PDSE?; Types of PDSE; PDSE and BLKSIZE; PDSE concatenation; PDSE processing restrictions; Allocating a PDSE - IDCAMS; Allocating a PDSE via JCL; Migrating load modules to program objects.

z/OS DFP Utilities

What is a utility program?; Data Facility Product (DFP); DFP Utilities; DFP - system utilities; General overview; Standard DD statements; IEHINITT; IEHINITT control statement; IEHLIST; IEHMOVE; IEHPROGM; IFHSTATR; DFP - Data Set Utilities; General overview; Standard DD statements; IEBCOMPR; IEBCOPY; COPY operation; Partial copy; IEBDG; DSD statement; FD statement; REPEAT statement; CREATE statement; IEBEDIT; IEBGENER and ICEGENER; IEBIMAGE; IEBISAM; IEBPTPCH; IEBUPDTE; Access Method Services - IDCAMS.

z/OS DFSMSdss

Introduction; Positioning DFSMSdss; Dataset compression; Defragmentation; Full volume dumping; Partial volume dumping; Restoring; Migrating program objects.

Introduction to UNIX & Open Systems

Where did UNIX come from?; Modern UNIX history; The UNIX 'culture'; Commercial UNIX systems; What is 'Open Systems'?; Some 'official' definitions; Open platforms; Portable Operating System Interface - POSIX; The POSIX standards; Open Group branding; What is DCE?

UNIX System Overview

UNIX internals overview; The Kernel; System calls; Processes and programs; The shell; Tools; UNIX shells; The UNIX file system; The system files - /etc, /dev, /bin and others; UNIX security basics; UNIX User ids (uids); User attributes; Access control in UNIX; File access control attributes; Meaning of permissions; Changing user and file attributes; Changing user information; Changing file information; File permission and user mask; Additional permission bits; User account information; User-determined information; The root username - the superuser.

The Kernel & the Shell

The Kernel; The Shell; Main shell functions; Basic command syntax; Input and Output redirection; Examples of redirecting Input and Output; Piping input between commands; Environment variables; Special shell variables; Shell variables; Local and environment variables; Special keyboard operations; Online help; UNIX multitasking; Placing a command in background; Monitoring background commands;; Controlling background commands; Moving processes between foreground and background; File wild card searches; Shell programming; Shell programming commands and features; Passing arguments to shell programs; Shells and shell commands; Overview of commands; Command history.

The UNIX File System Concept

UNIX file types; Directory structure; Paths and file names; zFS and HFS; Recommended file structure; Lengths of path and file names; Specifying UNIX files in z/OS; Creating, listing and viewing files; Positioning current work directory; Path and file name lengths; Working with directories; File system protection; Assigning file attributes; Permission attributes (r, w, x); Assigning permission attributes to a file; Setting file permissions - chmod; File attributes; Default file permissions - umask; Links - file name 'alias'; Hard links; Hard links and i-node numbers; Hard link - listing; Symbolic links; Additional list options; Listing files - pattern matching; Locating files - find; The find command; Additional search qualifiers; Copying files - cp; Moving and removing files; Controlling Input and Output; Passing files between programs - pipes; Regular expressions; Searching for strings in files - grep; grep - a science in its own right; grep and regular expressions; Sorting text files - sort; Formatting files with pr; Printing to hardcopy - lp; Example of files and directories.

Interactive USS

Invoking USS; Running USS interactively; Login to USS; TSO terminal support - Pseudo TTY; TSO or asynchronous, OCS or direct?; 1003.1 Compliant communication functions; The shell; The OMVS command; Default PF keys in OMVS; OMVS subcommands; Shell commands; TSO/E commands and ISPF panels; ISPF panel for file management - ISHELL; Directory list; File - drop down menu; The ISPF edit panel; Directory - drop down menu; OEDIT and OBROWSE.

z/OS Architecture

Component overview; Executing instructions; The Program Status Word (PSW);The control bits of the PSW; z/Architecture PSW; Pipelining; CPU components; Timing facilities; Registers in a z/Architecture machine; 64-bit registers and instructions; Using the registers; Updating the PSW; Instruction Length Code (ILC); Multiprogramming; The Load PSW (LPSWE) instruction; Interrupts; Interrupt types; SVC interrupt; I/O interrupt; External interrupt; Program interrupt; Machine check interrupt; Error handling philosophy; Restart interrupt; Interrupt action; The current PSW is saved; Interrupt considerations; System states; System state and the PSW; How the system runs; Real Storage; Addressing mode; Tri-modal addressing mode; Memory boundaries; Storage keys; Key operation; The PSW key fields; Fetch Protect; Multiprocessing; Prefixing; Address types; I/O components; Serial channels; Multiple paths; Real configurations; Hardware Configuration Definition (HCD); Dynamic Reconfiguration Management (DRM); Subchannels; Unit Address; Device Number; Subchannel Numbers; Logical Control Units (LCUs); Channel Command Words (CCWs); Starting an I/O operation; When an I/O interrupt occurs; Obtaining I/O status; The Subchannel Status Word (SCSW); An architectural summary; Review questions; Exercises.

Parallel Sysplex Introduction

What is sysplex?; Not a new concept; So what's new?; 'Before' and 'after' sysplex; XCF sysplex requirements; Components of the XCF sysplex; Server Time Protocol; Clock synchronization techniques; XCF sysplex definitions; XCF sysplex services; The parallel sysplex; The parallel sysplex concept; Signalling and Status Monitoring services; Group services; Couple Data Sets; XES availability with SFM.

Data Sharing

The Coupling Facility (CF); What parallel sysplex adds to the picture; Cross-system Extended Services (XES); Different types of multi-system data sharing; Parallel sysplex data sharing; The PLEXCFG parameter; Program-to-program communication with parallel sysplex.

Understanding the z/OS Management Facility

Objectives; The reason for z/OSMF; z/OSMF user interface; z/OSMF as a Server/Client application; z/OSMF - other interfaces; The use of ZIIPs; z/OSMF available tasks; z/OSMF tasks in detail Logging on to z/OSMF; Desktop vs Classic Style; Cloud provisioning and management.

Understanding RACF Network Security

Why secure the TCP/IP network; What is required of a security system?; IBM's Resource Access Control Facility (RACF); Main RACF - z/OS components; How does RACF work?; RACF profiles: Group profiles, User profiles, Dataset profiles, General resource profiles; Resource classes; RACF commands.