On Sat, 18 Sep 2010 10:00:33 -0400, Michel Beaulieu 
<[email protected]> wrote:

>In Unix/Linux, we have the "su" command that let someone take another 

identification 
>for a while and when done, just exit and return to the normal userid. 

>Can we do something like that in z/VM?
> 
>Michel Beaulieu
>Montreal, Canada

Yes you can do something like "su" in z/VM.  I do it nearly every day. 
 
It's called "Set Alternate User ID - Diagnose D4".  We use Top Secret/VM 

for our VM Security product, (because we access MVS datasets from VM and 

Top Secret/VM allows us to protect access to them from VM), and it 
provides a "SUROGATE MODULE", (aka "su"), that allows an appropiately 
authorized userid to switch to an alternate userid, issue commands as tha
t 
ID, then switch back to your own ID.

SUROGATE SET * otherid
issue commands
SUROGATE RESET *

I don't know if any other VM Security products provide anything like this
, 
but Diag D4 is a native VM Diagnose code so it can be invoked without a 

Security product installed, (as shipped by IBM it requires Privilege Clas
s 
B).  You could write your own code to invoke Diag D4 and do your own 
authorization checks as well.  Your gun, your foot!  :-)>

-- 
Dale R. Smith    

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