IBM Mainframe Forum

Hi everyone, first sorry for my English. I have a few question about z/os and mainframes, maybe its stupid questions but nothing in my country want help me


What classes of devices are in architecture z?
What is volumen label, when system can get into disk without label?
What is batch processing in mainframes?
What is ISPF panel? – I know what is it  but I don’t know clear definition.
What is ICF? - I know only one sentence about icf , could you write deeper about this technology.
Where I can see system log in z/os? - I only know SDSF, what more?
What element of system z/os are used by administrator?

Please help me to answer this question. I read a lot of ibms books but don’t find clear answer
Thanks

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it-administration.blogspot.com

Hello and welcome to the forum,

What classes of devices are in architecture z?

Do you mean tape/disk/printer or something else?

What is volumen label, when system can get into disk without label?

A volume label is an identifier for that particular physical volume. I don't understand what this is asking when system can get into disk without label?

What is batch processing in mainframes?

Typically a job run via jcl. Can also be other processes not attached to a terminal/screen.

What is ISPF panel? – I know what is it  but I don’t know clear definition.

For your question, i suspect there are 2. Panels that are part of the ISPF product and panels a developer has created for use within ispf.

What is ICF?

If you post what you know and your doubt, someone should be able to clarify.

Where I can see system log in z/os? - I only know SDSF, what more?

Unless one is looking at a backup of syslog information, it is usually viewed thru sdsf.

What element of system z/os are used by administrator?

One answer is "all of them" but i suspect that is not what you are looking for. If you clarify what you want to learn, someone should be able to help.

Device classes are usually considered disk, tape, etc.

Volume label applies to tapes usually; disks have volume table of contents (VTOC) not a label. As far as I k now, the only time a z/OS system accesses a disk without referencing the VTOC is during the IPL process when the load address is used to access the device as part of the bootstrap load.

ICF -- Integrated Catalog Facility?

System log is usually on the console (and the HCD) but most sites restrict physical access to the machine room.

Generally, administrators don't use z/OS -- system programmers manage and maintain z/OS.

1.But disk and tapes isn`t in one class?
2. Disk have a label, i read this

The system programmer or storage administrator uses ICKDSF to format tracks, write a volume label, and create a volume table of contents (VTOC).

In book DFSMS: Using Data Sets in apendix A I found some picture that volume labe was illustrated as VTOC but in the next sub-chapter volume label is some 80-byte physical record after two ipl record who also have pointer to VTOC, i dont understand this. What channel system do no use vtoc to get access to disk?
3. Batch processing is that only one process have access to machine resource? it is opposite to time sharing?
4.Integrated Catalog Facility - i know only that is system catalog+user catalog+vsam catalog but i dont know for what is needed in z/os?
5. I have to write multiple ways getting to syslog. I use sdsf in school, but i`m wondering that can I view syslog in TSO?
6. excepting ispf,tso,jcl,sdsf whats component is to manage resource, security in system, network, backups dasd, something programs to manage tape etc.

Hello,

1.But disk and tapes isn`t in one class?

Not usually, but this may depend on your definition of "class". How was "class" defined in your studies?

2. While dasd has a "label" it is not something to be concerned with. Understanding what is in the vtoc will be of far more value (imho).

3. Batch processing is that only one process have access to machine resource? it is opposite to time sharing?

No. Usually many different batch jobs are run concurrently. B atch typically indicates there is no interaction with a terminal.

5. I have to write multiple ways getting to syslog. I use sdsf in school, but i`m wondering that can I view syslog in TSO?

Typically one looks at log info using sdsf which is run from within tso/ispf. Most people do not have access to the Operator Console or the "hard copy".

6. excepting ispf,tso,jcl,sdsf whats component is to manage resource, security in system, network, backups dasd, something programs to manage tape etc.

More than can be covered in this forum. . . If you have something more specific, someone may be able to provide clarification.

Disk and tape are pretty much always considered separate data classes due to their different nature.

Disks have a volume label (such as SYSRES or HR0001). Tapes also have a volume label. Neither is used to access the data on the device. They just provide a name for the volume.

Batch processing means data is handled in batches rather than one record at a time (as is typical in online systems). A typical z/OS system is usually capable of running 100 (and more -- possibly many more) batch jobs simultaneously. Since the largest z systems are hundreds of times larger than the smallest ones, it is difficult to say much about them in general. Time sharing (aka TSO these days) is not the only way to interact with a mainframe -- online teleprocessing monitors such as CICS are quite frequently used as well.

Discussing the z/OS bootstrap process and how the system reads data from disk during the load is extremely advanced material and probably all you need to know at this point is that it can be done. If you need details, Google is your friend.

z/OS has a Master Catalog that generally has pointers to User Catalogs, which are based on the high level qualifiers of data sets. User Catalogs have information about data sets that have been cataloged (such as whether it is a disk or tape file, which volume it is on, and so forth). VSAM files are cataloged in the appropriate catalog. Most of the time only system programmers (and some storage administrators) spend a lot of time with the catalogs. Application programmers don't care which catalog is used for their new data set, they just want it cataloged and the batch job to finish normally.

SDSF has a TSO interface which may or may not be installed at a given site. There are other packages, such as (E)JES, which can be used to access the spool as well -- SDSF is not the only way.

Workload Manager (WLM) is the IBM package that manages resources. RACF (or an independent software vendor product such as Top Secret or ACF2) is used to manage security. SNA, VTAM, NETVIEW and TCP/IP are all used with networks and network management, depending on what you mean by the term. Back ups can be handled through DF/DSS or many independent software vendor products. There are multiple products, again from IBM and independent software vendors, that manage tapes and tape libraries. Most of the time the specific tools being used depend upon the site and learning Zeke for scheduling, for example, is not much help when the site you work for has CA-7 installed.

Thanks for replay

ISPF: Is a Interactive System Productivity and Facility. It's a Menu driven panel and Graphical User Interface....... If you wanna create dataset by using JCL you have to write the program... But in ISPF there you can get options what type of dataset you need... Like that there are many features you can expect....

ICF: Is a Integrated Catalog Facility. It's nothing but combination of System Datasets and DASD datasets. In simple word all the datasets information can be available in ICF.



Thanks,
RamS

Hello,

If you wanna create dataset by using JCL you have to write the program...

Not true. . .

Files may be allocated in a job stream (jcl) without writing some program. . . .

Ok Thank you....