IBM Mainframe Forum

Problem(Abstract)

You are in the process of setting up REXX for CICS. When you enter transaction REXX followed by 'FILEPOOL FORMAT POOL1' you receive a return code of -4 or a return code of 1836.
Cause

The return code of -4 is an authorization failure. The return code of 1836 indicates 'Could not format file pool' and is occurring because the FILEPOOL command was entered twice. The first time a record was written to the filepool but the second time it failed because it was trying to write a duplicate record.
Diagnosing the problem

CICS aux trace of the 'FILEPOOL FORMAT POOL1' that returned RC=1836 contains the following trace entry:

AP 04E1 FCFR EXIT - FUNCTION(WRITE) RESPONSE(EXCEPTION) REASON(DUPLICATE_RECORD)'

This indicates that the FILEPOOL command was entered twice.

Resolving the problem

To get around the return code -4, sign on to CICS with an authorized user id. You can define an authorized user id by adding an AUTHUSER statement with a user id to CICSTART. You should also change the SIT parameter SEC to YES. See Identifying special USER ids and their usage in the CICS Transaction Server for z/OS Installation Guide for more details.

There is no action required for the return code 1836. Although, you can do the following to verify that the record is written successfully to the filepool:

Delete and redefine your RFS files using job CICVSAM.

Enter 'FILEPOOL FORMAT POOL1' to format the RFS filepool. If successful, the FILEPOOL command does not return anything.

Enter say rc to display the return code that is the result of the FILEPOOL command. It should be 0.

Do steps 2 and 3 for each filepool replacing the 1 with the additional filepool numbers.


If you enter the same FILEPOOL command a second time, it will return 'Subcommand return code = 1836'.

Robert Sample wrote:I Googled filepool format and one of the first results returned has

Problem(Abstract)