Prevention of scratching of Data Sets when DISP is not specified

[ARUN PRAMOD BUSINENI]

I understand that we have CA11 Exits to be used to exclude any datasets getting scratched by Ca11 when there is no DISP param is specified in the job.

We find it not practical to use Ca11 Exits (U11RDSEX / U11UCSEX) to over come datasets scratching by Ca11 when a DISP param is not specified or missed out.

Is there any other solution it? In a recent case one of our developer jobs caused an application SYSIN PDS getting deleted though it was just an input dataset but he had missed it to code DISP param. Luckily it was a test LPAR so the damage was insignificant. If it had been a Prod LPAR we can't imagine what would be the impact on that entire application batch processing. 

We understand that the possibility of this happening in PROD is very less as most of the JCLs go through JCLPREP and test thoroughly. However there is a chance for it to happen when a support person omits/removes DISP param inadvertently when rerunning a prod job or try to run an adhoc job to fix/address a overnight batch issue.

May be is it possible to stop Ca11 defaulting it to (NEW,DEL,DEL) or if that is unavoidable default it to SHR/OLD (may be other implications need to be looked at it)? Or stop Ca11 scratching a dataset when there is a JCL error detected/job expected to fail with JCL error? Or is that something we should go to IBM to find a solution to it?

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Regards,
Arun Pramod B.
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[Alisa Puckett]

When no  DISP is specified the IBM default  values are as follows:

• status : NEW is the default value.

• normal-disposition : If status is NEW, default normal-disposition is DELETE, else it is KEEP.

• abnormal-disposition : Same as normal disposition.

           

CA 11 does not override the IBM default .   CA 11 does not make changes to JCL and does not offer a feature to default the DISP to SHR/OLD if it has been omitted for the in JCL.  Currently the only means for bypassing dataset maintenance is by using either the U11RDSEX  or  U11UCSEX user exits. 

[ARUN PRAMOD BUSINENI]

​Thank you Alisa. We will check with IBM further to address this risk.