z/OS: VSAM Management

Course Overview

A highly practical course that shows how to define and manage VSAM datasets. Many practical exercises are included.

Audience

Technical support, operations and programming personnel.

Skills Gained

By The End Of This Course You Will Have Learned

To identify the types and capabilities of VSAM datasets. How to calculate and monitor disk space usage. How to correctly define ESDS, RRDS and KSDS clusters. How to define and build AIX datasets and create matching PATH definitions. How to use LISTCAT, ALTER, PRINT and REPRO.

Prerequisites

Experience of using a mainframe editor.

Course Outline

Course Synopsis

VSAM File Structures

How VSAM maps records into Control Intervals and Control Areas. Structure of the main types of Cluster - ESDS, RRDS and KSDS.

VSAM Space Management

Principles of Master and User Catalogs and disk space management. How to calculate and then check disk space usage for a VSAM dataset.

Cluster Definition

How to correctly define VSAM clusters - which operands can default, and which ones need to be specified? How to read LISTCAT output.

Alternate Index

The structure of an AIX and how it relates to the base cluster. Calculating disk space for and defining the AIX . Define PATH. Using BIX to build the AIX, and how to interpret LISTCAT to check the results.

VSAM Utility Functions

Introduction to ALTER, PRINT and REPRO.