JSF-Job and Syslog Facility

Q:

Is there a way to concatenate temp history files?

A:

No, you can only have one Temporary Job History file per JSF 'system'. Concatenation is not allowed.

Q:

How can you tell if an archived job or syslog has been deleted by a JSF ISPF user?  

A:  

Use JSF ISPF option 3 (jobs) or 4 (syslogs).  Enter job name and date range.   Deleted items are in the Restore List.  When selected, the Purge History last line is this: Backup dsname       ====> DELETED BY AUTHORIZED JSF TSO USER-tso_id.

Q:

What job-related fields can be used as selection criteria in JSF's ISPF panels?

A:

Job name, run date, start time, and exception code (highest condition code for the job). 

Q:

What job-related fields can be used as sort criteria in JSF's ISPF panels?

A:

Job name, run date, start time, total lines and exception code (highest condition code for the job).

Q:

Is there any way to create customized or ad hoc reports in JSF?

A:

Yes, by using JSF's supplied batch Generalized Report Writer (GRW). Any field(s) defined to JSF (see above) can be used by JSF's GRW for selection, sorting, and/or printing. For example, you could create a report of jobs that abended this week, another report of jobs that used the greatest amount of CPU for the past month, etc.. 

Q:

How many days will JSF retain archived output?
The only parameter I see related to this is KEEPDAYS, max = 99.
Does this mean we can keep output for 99 days? Or 99 days on the database?
Is there another parameter that indicates how many days output is kept on backup tape? 

A:

KEEPDAYS indicates the number of days on the ISPF database. There is not another parameter as such that indicates how many days output is kept on backup tapes. That is determined by how long your JSF backup tapes are cataloged and available on your z/OS and tape management systems. As long as a backup tape is still cataloged and exists, it can be used by JSF to restore job(s) it contains back onto JSF ISPF, via the JSF ISPF Restore function.

Q:

What job-related fields can be seen in JSF's ISPF panels?

A:

Job name, job number, run date, total lines, output class, start time, run time, CPU time and exception code (highest condition code for the job).   

Q:

How long are jobs kept on backup GDG files before deleted?

A:

For as long as the backup GDG file is cataloged to the z/OS system. In other words, they are never actually deleted from the backups. They remain there as restorable jobs until the backup GDG file is deleted or uncataloged from the z/OS and/or disk or tape management systems.

Q:

How long do jobs stay in the ISPF JSF online database before purged to a backup file?

A:

That is determined by the KEEPDAYS parameter in your JSFIOP options module, and by how often your purge job is run.  When the purge job runs, it archives jobs that are more than KEEPDAYS old from the online JSF Job History PDS or PDSE to a backup GDG file.

Q:

How do you prevent SYSLOG from being deleted by users?   

A:

The following line in JSFSEC01 allows all users to view, copy, and print Syslogs, and prevent from deleting Syslogs:     
JSFMSEC TYPE=ENTRY,CLASS=*,JOBNAME=SYSLOG**,USERID=********,OPTIONS=Y

Q:

Is there a way to purge just a set of jobs starting with MQ as part of the normal maintenance process?

A:

Customize the sample Purge user program, JSFB0031, found in your Source library.

Q:

How do you restore a job from a backup file back into the JSF ISPF environment?

A:

Use JSF ISPF option 3 to select the job(s) to be restored. It submits a batch job that restores the job(s) to a "temporary" file that is used by JSF ISPF. Restored jobs stay in this temporary file for use by JSF ISPF until the next time the purge job runs, when they are moved back to the backup file.

Q:

How do you fix S0C7 abend in program JSFB0041 at offset=31A when running the JSF 4.2 Purge job JSFDPURG or JSFDPRG2 (in step B0041)?

A:

Make sure KEEPDAYS in the 4.2 JSFIOP01 options module is numeric. JSF 4.2 expanded KEEPDAYS from 2 to 3 bytes, so the 4.2 JSFIOP01 source must be changed and assembled with the 4.2 JSFMOPNN macro.

Q:

Is there a way to search on a multiline message?

A:

No, the search utility only searches for the string on one JSF line (record).

Q:

Is there any type of security in JSF to prevent some users from browsing or deleting certain jobs?

A:

Yes, there are two types of security that are available to JSF---JSF's own security table and/or your external security manager's JESSPOOL class security rules.

Q:

How do you synchronize the GDG backup files with the list of restorable jobs?

A:

By periodically running job JSFDPVSM. It deletes records from the VSAM History file, which is the basis for the list of restorable jobs. It deletes records based on your number of days parm, so set this parm to the approximate number of days that the backup GDGs remain on the system.