Job Control Language (JCL) 3.1 Series

The Introduction to JCL course discusses the organization's need to run batch processing, describing the people that utilize it, and the types of tasks performed with it. It explains where batch job JCL can be stored and the tools that can be used to access it. From there the course moves into the structure of JCL, explaining the basic syntax requirements and the types of accompanying parameters.

This course describes the purpose of commonly used JOB and EXEC JCL statements, and concentrates on the parameters encountered when working with these statements.

The DD statement is the most often used JCL statement, responsible for defining the input and output resources required when running a program. This course describes the parameters required when dealing with existing data sets, and if needing to create new ones.

The DD statement is the most often used JCL statement, responsible for defining the input and output resources required when running a program. This course looks at the coding for printed output and job SYSOUT.

The courses presented to date have concentrated on simple sequential and partitioned data sets. In this course you will look at other types of data that can reside on a mainframe, in particular VSAM data sets and z/OS UNIX files and how they can be accessed. You will also see the benefits of creating generation data sets and the JCL code used to create and reference them. The last module concentrates on placing data onto tape, providing some best practices when dealing with this medium.

While JCL is generally rigid in the way that it runs programs and related jobs, in recent years there have been several advancements in code that can be used to conditionally run steps, and schedule jobs. This course discusses the use of the traditional COND parameter to control step processing, and the use of the IF/THEN/ELSE/ENDIF construct as an alternative. New basic job scheduling capabilities are also discussed.

Previous courses have described many of the statements and parameters to build a basic job. This course looks at some advanced JCL capabilities including the storing of JCL code externally and calling it in the form of a procedure or an INCLUDE group. You will also see how symbols can be incorporated into JCL, and the benefits and flexibility they can provide.

In previous JCL courses you have been presented with many examples of the types of errors that can be produced when running your JCL. This course consolidates many of these and looks at general problem and resolution practices associated with batch job submission, resource allocation, and abends. JCL restarts are also discussed, identifying any processing clean-up that needs to be performed, and the methods used to rerun or restart your job.

This course contains many JCL-related tips, tricks, techniques, and best-practice items that you may find useful in your day-to-day activities. It covers a number of new areas of functionality associated with various z/OS releases, and provides details on statements and parameters that have evolved over the last few years.