z/OS Job Control Language

This course provides an introduction to z/OS JCL and the impact of SMS.

This course is for programmers, systems analysts, systems programmers, operations support and others who need to understand and code JCL within a z/OS environment. It is especially useful for operations and support staff who are required to analyse job failures and restart them with minimal supervision.

Delegates should have a basic understanding of the operating environment and operating system functions (covered in our z/OS for Beginners course), and be familiar with TSO/ISPF (taught in our z/OS TSO/ISPF Workshop course).

On completion of this course, delegates will be able to:

• Code JCL to perform general tasks within the z/OS system.
• Understand the Job listings and associated messages.
• Diagnose and resolve JCL problems.
• Analyse Job failures, correct and restart jobs.
• Code JOB, EXEC, and DD statements.
• Create data sets of different types.
• Improve programmer efficiency and reduce program test time.
• Decrease the number of job failures.

Introduction to JCL
Evolution of JCL.
JCL syntax.
Statement types.
Operand types.
JCL Error points.
Comprehension quiz.
6 JCL error comprehension exercises.

JOB Statement
Influences on the JOB statement.
CLASS and its role in JOB selection.
GROUP.
JOBRC.
MSGCLASS and output affected.
MSGLEVEL.
NOTIFY.
PASSWORD.
REGION.
MEMLIMIT.
TIME.
TYPRUN.
USER.
Mentioned but not discussed in detail are: Accounting Information, BYTES, CARDS, LINES, PAGES, PERFORM Programmers Name, PRTY.
Comprehension quiz.
3 practical exercises.

EXEC Statement
Influences on the EXEC statement.
PGM / PROC.
COND.
PARM.
REGION.
TIME.
Comprehension quiz.
4-5 practical exercises.

DD Statement Basics
Influences on the DD statement.
DDNAMES sources:
• User programs.
• Utilities.
Reserved DDNAMES:
• z/OS.
• JES2.
In-stream data sets:
• *.
• DATA.
• DLM.
Spooled data sets (SYSOUT).
DSN:
• Permanent data sets.
• Temporary data sets.
DISP.
Comprehension quiz.
3 practical exercises.

Using Data Sets
Data set organisations (DSORG):
• Non-VSAM types.
• VSAM types.
Defining a new permanent data set:
• LRECL.
• RECFM.
• BLKSIZE.
• SPACE.
• UNIT.
• VOL.
Defining a new cartridge data set:
• EXPDT.
• RETPD.
• LABEL.
Defining a temporary data set for this step.
Defining a temporary data set for another step.
Referencing a previous temporary data set.
Comprehension quiz.
5 practical exercises.

Impact of SMS
DATACLAS.
MGMTCLAS.
STORCLAS.
AVGREC.
LIKE.
REFDD.
Comprehension quiz.
2 practical exercises.

JCL Miscellany
RESTART.
RD.
Concatenated data sets.
Deferred data sets.
DUMMY data sets:
• DUMMY.
• DSN=NULLFILE.
Backward references.
OUTPUT statement.
Comprehension quiz.
3 practical exercises.