Like Ed, I recently questioned the availability of automatic JES2 parm back-generation. Seems that I had catapulted a long-standing requirement into a fait accompli. Does not exist, sadly. JES2 is especially complicated, as others have noted, because a change edited into the init deck will not likely take effect until some time in the future--perhaps unexpectedly.
All parms, JES included, are even further complicated by the effect of defaults, which figure into pretty much all products from z/OS forward. There are historically two different attitudes toward defaults. IBM generally recommends taking available defaults (unless documentation recommends otherwise) in order to take advantage of developer updates. But many sysprogs prefer to hard code values to minimize poking around for effective values. So it can easily happen that a parm value can differ by whether it's hard coded on any or all systems and if not, what the default value is for any given release and APAR level. All in all, the prospect of automating parm back-generation is pretty dim. . . J.O.Skip Robinson Southern California Edison Company Electric Dragon Team Paddler SHARE MVS Program Co-Manager 323-715-0595 Mobile -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Seymour J Metz Sent: Monday, June 14, 2021 8:56 AM To: [email protected] Subject: (External):Re: How to compare parameters in one z/Os with parameters in another z/OS *** EXTERNAL EMAIL - Use caution when opening links or attachments *** A lot can be automated, but the task is not as simple as it seems. In addition to the issue of order, there's also the issue of symbols and the IPL parameters from the HMC. As others have mentioned, good configuration control processes will help to avoid the need to frequently compare parameters. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz http://mason.gmu.edu/~smetz3 ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [[email protected]] on behalf of Arthur [[email protected]] Sent: Monday, June 14, 2021 9:29 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: How to compare parameters in one z/Os with parameters in another z/OS On 13 Jun 2021 16:50:55 -0700, in bit.listserv.ibm-main (Message-ID:<[email protected]>) [email protected] (ibmmain) wrote: > We want to make sure two z/OS use the same >parameters(PARMLIB,VTAMLST,and so on) > > >Because there is some >parameter which is multiline in member, it isn't easy to compare them. > >Is there any way to compare parameters in one z/Os with parameters in >another z/OS Others have suggested a good start of display commands, IPLINFO, SHOWZOS, etc. This is a good way to compare running systems because the output will be in predictable order and format. BUT.... Most parms can be overridden by commands. If/when a system is IPLed, it will revert to the parms as specified in parmlib. If you have proper change control, those parms have been updated, too. But, if you had that level of change control, you probably would not be in the situation of trying to compare parms from one system to another. So it probably does make sense to start with the easy techniques, but you may still have to slog through checking the parmlibs against each other the hard way. But I have two thoughts on the above: Do you have a sandbox where you can IPL those systems in a test mode and compare the displays with the running systems? Are there (supported?) ways to generate parmlib members from what's actually in effect? (ISTR that JES2 does.) If so, they'll probably be in he same formats and orders, thus easy to compare. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
