Release 7.04

April 20, 2006 For a printable version of Release 7.04 highlights select this pdf.

USS Reference Tracking Performance Enhancement

The maintenance of the USS R/T data space has been re-written to increase the performance of initialization and updating.

Product Execution Control (PXC)

A new option "User Group allowed to execute" is added to PXC entry. If you provide a User Group name (full or masked), then only the users in the User Group(s) will be allowed to execute. Of course, the value provided for Mode (NOTIFY, WARN or FAIL) will apply.

NOTE: This feature is currently under Beta test and is subject to further change. Please notify Action Software International if you wish to test this feature, and provide feedback regarding the results of your testing.

new RTM

A batch utility is available for ‘new RTM’ to delete statistics for selected members. The following input parameters can be used:

MEM=member

Process selected members only. Member name can be masked.

DAYS=nnnn

Process the stats older than nnnn days.

Just simulate the process without physically deleting. This can be useful to see what will be deleted.

Check example in prefix.CNTL(RTMNEWDL).

Batch Compare Utility - Return Codes

The batch compare utility now has the ability to issue a return code according to whether or not there are changes found during analysis.

To use this feature, the control keyword CHGRETC must be set to YES; i.e. CHGRETC=YES. Otherwise, return codes remain as prior to this release. When CHGRETC is set to YES, then the return code can be set as follows:

RC = 0 No changes have been detected when comparing data sets, either within the data for sequential data sets or within the directory or member-level data for PDS data sets.
RC = 1 Only for PDS data sets, changes have been detected at the directory level; i.e. member names don't all match up or alias pointers don't match for one or more members.
RC = 2 Changes have been detected at the data level, either for one or more members in PDS data sets or within entire non-PDS data sets.

When comparing multiple data sets, the highest return code encountered for a pair of data sets will be set for the entire run.

Batch Compare Utility - Unknown Alias Pointers

With regards to differences in alias pointers, "INVALID ALIAS" in the member-level report has been changed to "UNKNOWN ALIAS" and is no longer assumed to be an error. This means that two matching alias names in two separate data sets may both point to a member that does not exist but they will now compare as the same. As a result, if you are displaying only changed members, they will no longer appear on this list; to see such a condition, you must display the entire list of members. This applies to both the online and batch versions of the compare utility.

Batch Compare Utility - Ignore Defined Record Tables

The batch compare utility now supports the use of a PDS containing members of the same name as the Ignore-Defined-Record tables that were defined via the online compare utility. The ignore record definitions are stored in ISPF tables and so are not accessible in batch mode; this is why up to now, control cards have been generated to provide this information in the batch compare process.

With this new facility, the control cards in the SYSIN input file are no longer required if you allocate a PDS containing the information to the ddname IGNTABLE. However, you may still use the SYSIN input file as always instead of the PDS. If you specify the info in both forms, then the SYSIN control cards override those of the PDS. Regardless of the input method used, the parameters IGRECS and IGTABLE are still required in the SYSIN control file to indicate whether an Ignore table is to be used and which one.

In order to create this PDS for use in batch mode, you need to allocate a PDS with RECFM=FB and LRECL=80. Then use the online compare utility to unload the Ignore tables to this new PDS by using the primary command IGNORE from the main Compare Utility panel. On the list of tables panel, fill in the "Unload Dataset" field with the dsname of the new PDS and then enter the command UNLOAD. The UNLOAD command can be used at any time to reload the members of the PDS with the current data from the ISPF tables.

Customizing Startup Options

You can customize the set of eventACTION and ussACTION components that are started when you start the MZCA address space.

Various optional components can be started by providing parameters on the operator START command, or by coding the parameters on the PARM of the EXEC statement of the MZCA cataloged procedure. These same options, plus some additional ones, can also be specified in a parmlib member.

Refer to the eventACTION Planning & Installation Guide for details.

Program Execution Tracking (PET)

PET has been re-written to support new functions:

1. Tracking data is kept by SMFid.

2. The Excludes feature has been replaced with a Filter feature. The Filter allows full masking of module names to either include or exclude modules from being tracked.

3. PET can now be started/stopped/suspended/resumed on individual systems independent of the other systems that share the database. This ability can be done with line commands on the Options panel or through operator modify commands.

Dataset Change Statistics (DSC) Selection Template

An exclude feature has been added to the dataset/member selection list.

Batch Job Email Options (for Batch and Reports)

A new field (Message) has been added to allow the user to input their own messages in the email body.