The goal of the DTS Educational Webinar Series is to educate engineers new to z/OS® on concepts and skills often unique to the z/OS environment and to serve as a refresher to seasoned engineers in need of reviewing skills they may have forgotten along the way. DTS CTO Steve Pryor’s virtual masterclass in storage management continued in July with An Introduction to JCL.

One of the many differences between the mainframe and open systems environments is the mainframe’s Job Control Language, or JCL. In z/OS systems, nothing takes place that doesn’t involve using JCL to define and allocate the datasets, memory, disks, tapes, subsystems, and other resources needed. JCL’s over 50-year history means it’s extraordinarily powerful, complex, and often incomprehensible to users new to the z/OS platform.

In our July webinar, Pryor discussed topics such as: what JCL is and isn’t, JCL’s purposes and importance, as well as the major JCL control statements and their use.

In the Beginning
JCL originated from the 80-character punch card and retains its format of 80-character records still today. JCL was the first facility that allowed an individual user to specify exactly what resources they would need for their work, and to allow the system to parcel out the resources according to what was needed and what was available.

The Basics of JCL
Once you grasp the basic purpose and components of JCL, it’s not difficult to understand. First, what is JCL supposed to do?

1. Identify a unit of work (typically a batch job)
2. Specify resources required:
   • Where the job is to run and its priority
   • What programs, procedures, and libraries are needed
   • What datasets are required and how they are used
   • What Disk and tape units are needed
   • SYSOUT and instream datasets and disposition

Next, what are JCL parameters? As Pryor explains in the webinar, there are two types of parameters when dealing with JCL:

1. Positional Parameters
   • Must occur first when required
   • How to code when the positional parameter is not required and can be omitted
2. Keyword Parameters
   • Are of the form “keyword=value”
   • Always follow any positional parameters
   • Can appear in any order

Important JCL Statements
While there are far too many JCL Statements to teach in one day, Pryor covers some of the more important ones, paying special attention to those that are either required or are the most utilized, including the Job Statement, Exec Statement, DD Statements, JES2 Control Statements, and JES2 Execution Control Statements. This portion of the webinar includes examples that are available in the PDF download of the presentation.

JCL Statement Reference Resources
One of the great things about Pryor’s approach is the sharing of his in-depth knowledge of where and how to find key reference materials should you need to dig deeper. In the webinar, he once again provides information on the go-to reference guides available that cover JCL.

Learn More in our Webinar Available On-Demand

Our July webinar is now available on-demand in the DTS webinar library. As with each of our webinars, “An Introduction to JCL” is a 60-minute informative and educational look at an important topic in the mainframe space. It includes numerous examples, how-to guides, and references on where to find more information should you need it.

If you weren’t able to attend or would like to review the material presented, you can view it on-demand and download a copy of the slide deck by using this link. Be sure to join us each month for our complimentary webinar series. Go to https://dtssoftware.com/webinars for the latest schedule.

We hope everyone is back home and settled into their normal routines after a fantastic week at SHARE Columbus 2022.

Our DTS team had a great time attending learning sessions, networking, and meeting with fellow conference attendees. After two years of online only events, it was a welcome change to be socializing in-person with our peers in the mainframe community.

As a vendor-sponsor, we were excited to see such a great turnout of attendees and other vendors, and know it signals good things to come for our industry.

IT modernization proved to be a hot topic at SHARE Columbus, and how the pandemic has accelerated the need for these initiatives. In many ways, the pandemic has made IT professionals’ jobs more demanding, yet with this increased demand comes the opportunity to welcome in new changes to improve mainframe systems industry-wide.

The SHARE Columbus expo floor was packed with vendors showcasing new and innovative products and services, and the continued excitement over the new z16 technology by IBM® made it obvious that not only is the mainframe here to stay, but that it is the platform of the future.

DTS CTO Steve Pryor had a busy conference as well with three speaking sessions throughout the week on z/OS® storage management topics. Steve’s monthly webinar series has been a big hit, and he thrives when given the opportunity to teach what he knows – and he certainly knows a lot.

Even better, at in-person speaking sessions there is the added opportunity to ask questions, ask for clarifications, and engage one-on-one after the presentation is over.

On the expo floor, our team had a great time mingling with other SHARE attendees and vendors, and helping give recommendations on how to improve ACS routine efficiency, reliability, and readability. DTS’s suite of mainframe storage optimization products are great tools for any company looking to modernize their mainframe infrastructure, without adding to IT teams’ workloads, and at an affordable cost. We valued the opportunity to exhibit our solutions to the folks in our target audience.

Furthermore, we valued the opportunity to nurture our client and partner relationships in person at SHARE Columbus, as well as form new ones. In such a tight-knit community, it’s vital to have a positive reputation and we’re lucky to enjoy an excellent relationship with our partners in the industry. We believe events like SHARE are great for expanding our positive reputation in the industry, and making personal connections between our peers, clients, and team members. Not only are our team members technically outstanding, but they are also great people, and we consider this a huge strength when it comes to our attendance at SHARE and other industry conferences.

For conference attendees who weren’t able to attend any of Steve’s presentations, presentation slides for Steve’s sessions, “Reporting with a Tool You Already Own – DCOLLECT”, “SLIP, ZAP, TERSE, XMIT – What’s it All About?”, and “Just What is a Storage Group, Anyway?” are available online via the SHARE Columbus online portal.

For anyone who wasn’t an attendee, but is interested in the slides, email us at support@dtssoftware.com, and we will be happy to send them over.

Thanks again to everyone at SHARE who stopped by our booth and said hi and attended any of Steve’s presentations. We can’t wait to see you in Atlanta for the next SHARE conference!

We hear the phrase “thought leader” bandied about a great deal, but what (or who) exactly is a legit thought leader? Business News Daily describes a thought leader “as a notable expert in a specific company, industry, or society. Someone who offers guidance and insight to those around them. In other words, a thought leader has a positive reputation of helping others with their knowledge and insight.”

Steve Pryor, DTS CTO since the early 2000s, is a prime example of a true thought leader. With a background spanning more than 30 years in z/OS software design, development, and support, Steve brings a wealth of experience and expertise to managing DTS’ development efforts. Over the course of his career, Steve has made important contributions to the mainframe software space, designing and implementing major products and components. Steve is a frequent speaker at many industry conferences and has lectured on z/OS storage management topics both domestically and internationally.

So, what do you do when someone of Steve’s stature makes themselves available to you? You tap into that resource as much as possible.

That’s exactly what’s happening at the upcoming SHARE 2022 conference in Columbus, OH, August 21-26. Over the course of the week, Pryor will be delivering three different presentations on z/OS storage management topics.

Reporting with a Tool You Already Own – DCOLLECT (8/23 @9:15am)
Administrators and analysts are often called on to answer ad-hoc questions such as, “How much disk space do certain applications use? What’s the utilization level of some volume(s) or storage group(s)? Where are the backups for these datasets?”

Collecting the necessary information from multiple different sources – disk and tape volumes, DFSMS constructs, DFSMShsm data, can be a challenge. But there’s an often-underutilized resource already available in every data center that can help. Simple IDCAMS DCOLLECT control statements and a few REXX execs or ICETOOL/SYNCTOOL jobs can provide quick, customizable reports on datasets, volumes, and more.

In this session we’ll take a look at DCOLLECT – how it’s used, its various types of output records, and how DCOLLECT output can be filtered and formatted to produce useful information.

SLIP, ZAP, TERSE, XMIT – What’s it All About? (8/24 @ 1:15pm)
New to the z/OS system programming game? Even experienced administrators in other platforms sometimes struggle to understand how some specialized z/OS systems utilities work, or even what they’re used for.

In this session, we’ll examine some of the most common z/OS debugging and maintenance tools, and their typical use in problem-solving and repair. We’ll step through the process of information gathering (SLIP and DUMP), transmitting data to support personnel (AMATERSE and TSO XMIT/RECEIVE), and examining files and applying fixes (AMASPZAP).

Just What is a Storage Group Anyway? – 8/25 @ 1:15pm
One of the four basic DFSMS constructs, SMS Storage Groups are at the junction of disk volumes, tape libraries, system allocation, and backup and migration functions. The way Storage Groups are defined affects the availability of space, the placement and management of datasets, and the reliability of the system as a whole.

This session will examine the types of Storage Groups, their most (and least) important attributes, their relationship to other z/OS components, and the commands and utilities that can be used to alert, display, report on, change, and manage them.

We’re looking forward to seeing everyone at SHARE Columbus and hope you can join us for any (or all) of our three presentations. Be sure to stop by booth #404 to say hello and talk z/OS storage management with the experts. While you’re there, receive a free analysis of your DFSMS ACS routines by expert storage management engineers, which will include suggestions on how to improve ACS routine efficiency, reliability, and readability.

For more information on SHARE Columbus visit https://www.share.org/Events/SHARE-Columbus-2022/Schedule-at-a-Glance.

When asked about the state of assembler-language coding, many z/OS developers (especially the younger ones) would say it’s a thing of the past. Nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is most independent software vendors (ISVs) do a significant amount of their coding in assembler.

Why? Writing in assembler language has been described as “the closest you can get to the ‘brain’ of the CPU.” Like any assembler, not just with z/OS, assemblers are one-to-one correspondence between the instructions you write and the instructions that are executed on the machine. Other reasons to use assembler include:

• • Code in great detail
  • Easily Access system functions
  • Reduce overhead and maximize performance
  • System programming as opposed to application programming

Like all other operating systems, z/OS executes instructions based on the underlying hardware. Modern tools and languages make it easy to design and create complex applications and systems, but they also add layers of abstraction between the program and the machine on which it’s executing.

It’s often assembler-language code that is called upon for the most critical low-level or sensitive system functions. Performance, reliability, and other considerations may dictate the use of assembler code, and both z/OS components and many ISV products make extensive use of assembler routines and macroinstructions.

An understanding of how assembler code works, its conventions, when it’s needed (often required to invoke system functions and for product exit routines), and how an assembler listing can be used is an important skill for z/OS application and system programmers alike.

In the June webinar, DTS CTO Steve Pryor examines what a typical assembler listing looks like, what its most important features are, and how to use it for insights into the debugging process.

Learn More in our Webinar Available On-Demand
Our June webinar is now available on-demand in the DTS webinar library. As with each of our webinars, “How to Read a z/OS Assembler Listing” is a 60-minute informative and educational look at an important topic in the mainframe space. It includes numerous examples, how-to guides, and references on where to find more information should you need it.

If you weren’t able to attend or would like to review the material presented, you can view it on-demand and download a copy of the slide deck by using this link. And be sure to join us each month for our complimentary webinar series.

Within the first few minutes of the DTS Software May 2022 webinar: Getting What You Need – With REXX Execs, presenter and DTS CTO Steve Pryor proclaimed, “I’m going to do this mostly by example.” What followed was a steady stream of how-to examples and demos as Pryor looked at the REXX (Restructured Extended Executor) language, facilities, and philosophy, and how to quickly write REXX execs that can solve problems for both applications and systems programmers.

REXX Execs to Quickly and Accurately Obtain the Information You Need
Despite the many programming languages, utilities, and report generators available in mainframe systems, a z/OS® programmer is often faced with the problem of how to obtain the specific information he or she needs, quickly and accurately, and present it in a format that is easily understandable. Often the user is under time pressure, and the standard utilities can be inadequate, difficult to use, or can’t provide the necessary detail. REXX execs provide a simple yet powerful means of obtaining detailed data and the ability to distill it into useful information.

REXX Execs to Write Programs and Reports
REXX is a universal, high-level language that enables you to write programs and reports to get ad hoc information quickly and easily. REXX can be run in a multitude of different environments, performing single or groups of tasks that can include reading from a file, writing to a file, and accessing the catalog.

In addition, REXX can pull information from many different places both within z/OS and from other system services to:

• Access locations in virtual storage to read information from the OS control blocks
• Access dataset information
• Access system information
• Access tape management

Learn More in our Webinar Available On-Demand
Our May webinar is now available on-demand in the DTS webinar library. In addition to reviewing the video presentation and downloading the slide presentation from the webinar, we’re including two files containing REXX examples and the JCL for download.

As with each of our webinars, “Getting What You Need – With REXX Execs” is a 60-minute informative and educational look at an important topic in the mainframe space. It includes numerous examples, how-to guides, and references on where to find more information should you need it.

If you weren’t able to attend or would like to review the material presented, you can view it on-demand, download a copy of the slide deck, and view the examples shared during the presentation by using this link. And be sure to join us each month for our complimentary webinar series.