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This Week's iTip!

VSAM RRDS:  All Relatives Are Not Equal

VSAM provides three major types of physical file organizations:

          - KSDS (Key–sequenced data set)

          - ESDS (Entry-sequenced data set)

          - RRDS (Relative record data set)

There is fourth, lesser known relative:

          - VRDS (Variable-length relative-record data set)

The VRDS file organization is sometimes referred to as VRRDS.

The following statements define a RRDS:

  DEFINE CLUSTER ( -                                  

         NAME (ZIPMON.RRDS.FILE  ) -           

         CYLINDERS(1 0) -                                   

         SHAREOPTIONS (2) -                                 

         RECORDSIZE (140   140  ) -                         

         VOLUMES (SYSWK3 ) -                                

         REUSE -                                            

         NUMBERED -                                         

         NOCOMPRESSED -                                     

         TO (99366  )) -                                    

         DATA (NAME (ZIPMON.RRDS.FILE.DATA    ) -           

         CONTROLINTERVALSIZE (32768 )) -                    

         CATALOG (ISI.CLASS.USER.CATALOG)

In order to define the file as VRDS organization, simply change the RECORDSIZE to:

              RECORDSIZE (140   14000  ) -  

The VRDS organization gives you all the ease of a RRDS but with  variable length records which facilitates efficient space utilization.

If you want variable length records, why not KSDS? KSDS requires that you define a Relative Key Position (RKP) wherein each KEY must be unique; whereas VRDS does not require a key, you simply access the records sequentially or by a record number.   If your application needs records larger than 32768, you can specify

           SPANNED

as a part of your DEFINE CLUSTER for the VRDS; RRDS does NOT support SPANNED records.

VRDS gives you the flexibility of a KSDS (i.e. variable length records) with the simplicity of a RRDS (i.e., no record key to manage).

Lastly -  to determine if a VSAM file is already open:

              TESTCB ACB=MYACB,                                             +    

                       OFLAGS=OPEN,                                          +    

                       ERET=TSTOFLGE                                                

          JNE   NOTOPEN

- to get the number of records in a VSAM file:

          SHOWCB ACB=MYACB,                                        +  

                          AREA=NUMRECS,                                  +  

                         FIELDS=(NLOGR),                                  +  

                         LENGTH=L'NUMRECS    

          NUMRECS    DS     F                                       

                    Do you have something to add to this tip? Add it to the VSEWiki page!

z/IPMon^® - Now with New Advisor™ Facility!

Experience a Live VSE System Running z/IPMon Today!

Your wishes have been granted, TCP/IP users! z/IPMon, the only full function performance and problem manager for your critical VSE TCP/IP systems, can now tell you when something is wrong in your TCP/IP environment. The new z/IPMon Advisor feature takes the guesswork out of managing your VSE TCP/IP System. Advisor processes your Retrospect data according to a range of time you specify, and then will automatically suggest and set Alerts based on changes in your system. Using mathematically and statistically sound principles, Advisor will determine what type of change is significant enough to create an Alert. What this means is z/IPMon determines what is important automatically, watches your network performance and then TELLS you that you potentially have an issue, all without you having to do anything at all.

What's more, the Release 2.0 of z/IPMon now ships with a complete Report Writer capability called z/IPUtil™. You can select any of the fields of data that are captured and create a report with any of the fields, in any order, complete with subtotal and sorting abilities. Rather than create "canned" reports which may be too limiting, we gave you the ability to report on whatever you need, with simple, easy to understand "select"  type statements in the JCL.

Log On to a Live VSE System with z/IPMon to SEE What You've Been Missing!

View our Video Demo today to get a feel for how it works!

Download a FREE - yes, we said FREE - trial of z/IPMon

Understanding Your TCP/IP System - A White Paper

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