In our latest client case study, we give an overview of DTS’s ACC (Allocation Control Center) Monarch solution which helped this financial services client run more reliable jobs on IBM® z/OS® with fewer failures while enforcing SMS standards and preventing unwanted time and resource-consuming disk allocation and space errors.

This Fortune 500 client has been in business for nearly half a century and has a vast IT environment with a dozen production systems and many more test LPARs in several data centers across the US, along with hundreds of analysts and tens of thousands of end-users.

Freeing Up Resources for More Strategic Initiatives

They needed help implementing automation for their repeatable storage management tasks, which freed up human resources so they could focus on other more valuable modernization initiatives. With ACC Monarch, the financial services company was able to automate much of their workflow so that their programmers no longer had to manage dataset policy through a series of emails and memos.

As one of the largest financial services organizations in the world operating in a heavily regulated industry, disruptions, downtime, and noncompliance were unacceptable. The solution to help them automate their storage management tasks needed to be easy to learn, quick to deploy, and with a competitive total cost of ownership.

ACC Monarch was an ideal fit, as it is a system-level product that can examine each file selected for use to ensure consistent standards across the client’s vast computing landscape. Additionally, ACC Monarch gives users flexible control to easily examine, override and record JCL control statements and warn of incorrect usage, and manage datasets with easy-to-understand policy rules.

There’s no need for a complex ISPF interface to keep track of multiple sets of rules and policies, nor is there a need for hiring new personnel with JCL subject-matter expertise (an increasingly difficult specialty to hire for).

To learn more about how DTS’s superior customer service and expertise as a long-time z/OS solutions provider helped this Fortune 500 enterprise streamline their data storage and management and speed up IT modernization efforts, read our latest case study on DTS’s website.

In our April 2022 webinar, now available on-demand, DTS CTO Steve Pryor looks at the history of tape systems, the unique challenges of SMS and non-SMS managed tape, and discusses the similarities and differences among the major z/OS tape management systems.

The Evolution of Tape Management
Dating back to the 1960s, tape replaced punched cards and the sometimes acres of physical storage space required to house them. Tape also made it possible for applications to store and process far more data than could be held on the limited capacity of disk volumes. But as storage capacity needs continued to grow, so did the need for more efficient tape and a better way to manage it.

What was the impetus for tape management systems? Since tapes were mounted manually, human error was a real possibility. And bad things happened when the wrong tape was mounted by the operator, which happened far too often. The wrong tape volume might be mounted for input, leading to application errors, or worse, the wrong tape volume mounted for output, causing data to be destroyed.

The original tape management systems kept track of which tapes were in use and which were not, as well as which tapes held data and which were scratch tapes available for writing. But the “systems” consisted mostly of a set of three-ring binders.

Modern Day “Virtual Tape”
Robotic tape management emerged in the 1990s, giving way after a short time to hybrid virtual tape systems and eventually the all-disk virtual tape systems. But, especially in industries where regulations call for off-site storage with long shelf life, tape is still very much in use today.

Why call it “tape”? In order to reference both physical and virtual tape systems, the tape management system must make the virtual tape volumes, which are simply files on Linux boxes, appear as if they are stored on physical tape. And the difference must be indistinguishable to z/OS.

How-to Examples for Modern Tape Management Systems on z/OS
Virtual tape systems provide as many tape volumes and tape drives on which to mount them as-needed with much faster mounts. And while the requirements of the modern tape management systems are functionally the same, the process of handling the data is a bit different than that of DASD.

With this in mind, Pryor presents a number of how-to examples of modern tape management systems. He includes several illustrations and on-screen demos, giving attendees a first-hand look at what to expect when dealing with tape management systems.

Learn More in our Webinar Available On-Demand
As with each of our webinars, “Introduction to z/OS Tape Management Systems” 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.

Like so many things in life, there are three givens working in expansive IT environments. Problems will arise. Solutions will be implemented. The problems will be solved.

In our most recent Case Study, DTS Software steps into a sprawling IT environment with data housed in large data centers in the Pacific Northwest. The client, on the IBM® z/OS® platform, is one of the largest international communications companies in the world, supporting hundreds of thousands of users, and the data and applications those users consume.

Like many mainframe shops of today, this client lacked extensive knowledge of assembler and PL/1 languages. They had many obsolete, highly customized installation exits from decades past and were having a specific problem involving emergency logons to TSO.

After attending a DTS Software Monthly Educational Webinar Series event, the client was convinced we could provide the solution they’d been looking for, both in problem-solving assistance and upgrading legacy code without learning less-utilized coding languages. They needed a long-term solution that addressed the lack of expertise on assembler and PL/1 languages and were looking to avoid a costly mainframe hardware upgrade.

Solutions That Paid Off. Quickly.
When it comes to storage management tools and solutions expertise, you simply won’t find a more experienced, qualified staff of professionals than those of us at DTS Software. This proves out time and time again, as it did for this client.

The team of DTS engineers were able to formulate a quick, user-friendly solution to rewriting legacy exits, saving the client time, money, and frustration. What’s more, the client was able to continue operating within their existing z/OS environment, avoiding a costly mainframe hardware upgrade with services.

In most cases, the mainframe systems in place today have been the backbone of the client’s core business functions for more than 50 years. To try and replace or update all the poorly performing exits would be a massive endeavor. And even if large enterprises wanted to, the dearth of solutions expertise for these exits would be prohibitive.

Easy/Exit from DTS Software makes it – well – easy. And with a team of seasoned storage management experts behind it, you know Easy/Exit is built and backed by the best.

Best-in-Class Customer Service
We take the mainframe support for your business seriously and back it up with a customer service program that we believe is second to none. We consistently receive the highest marks in response time and quality of service from phones manned by actual humans with in-depth knowledge of our products. You won’t realize it until you need us, but that’s when we’ll shine!

The Proof is in the Performance
To read more about how this Fortune 1000 communications company benefitted from a DTS Software solution, read our case study here. And be sure to join us each month as we present complimentary educational webinars on topics of great interest and import to today’s mainframer community.

Judging by the consistently high attendance of the DTS Software monthly educational webinar series, CTO Steve Pryor continues to present topics of great interest and import to today’s mainframer community. Our March installment, Understanding IDCAMS, was no different.

In IBM® z/OS®, probably the most common utility for dealing with datasets and the system catalog is IDCAMS (Access Method Services). IDCAMS allows us to process or manipulate datasets, catalog entries, or catalogs.

Newcomers to the mainframe world are often at a loss as to how to go about tasks requiring the manipulation of z/OS datasets – creating, reading, writing, using, and deleting them, especially where “exotic” structures such as VSAM clusters, catalogs, and PDS/PDSEs are involved. An understanding of IDCAMS and its extraordinarily wide range of functions and features is an absolute necessity for mainframe analysts, whether for applications programmers or systems-admin gurus.

What are some of the most common uses for IDCAMS, its features and controls, and how can it best be used to get information and transform data? All this and more was covered in our March webinar.

What Can Be Done With IDCAMS?
IDCAMS has two main functions. First, we can get information (typically about datasets but also about catalog entries and the catalog in which the dataset resides). It also gives us the ability to do something with that information, such as change, copy, delete, or create a new dataset.

With its wide scope of possibilities, we can also merge master or user catalogs, create and operate on aliases, and manage tape tape volume and library entries using IDCAMS. Additionally, you can perform system programming tasks as well as day-to-day dataset access tasks with IDCAMS.

Consistency Across the Board
One of the nice things about IDCAMS is its consistency within z/OS. IDCAMS control statements use the same keywords for all the different commands, so a file parameter in one command means much the same thing as a file parameter in another command.

IDCAMS Control Statements – the How-To
As he does in each of his webinars, examples and how-to guides are where Pryor truly shines. Being a long-time ambassador for all things z/OS, it is important to pass along the knowledge gained over a truly successful career. Pryor spends much of this webinar presenting key information on metadata structures, invoking IDCAMS, control statements, flow of control, and more. He also provides a reference guide, listing several DFSMS manuals such as Access Methods Services Commands, Using Data Sets, Managing Catalogs, and Using New Functions.

Learn More in Our Webinar
“Understanding IDCAMS” 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, you can view it on-demand, download a copy of the slide deck, and view examples shared during the presentation by using this link.