User Control Facility

UCF can force a job step to execute on a particular image or to execute in the Job Entry Subsystem (JES) initiator. For example, the UCF can be used to perform such tasks as targeting all FOCUS programs to a specific image.

Job Optimizer cannot share virtual input/output (VIO) data sets. VIO data sets are temporary data sets that reside within the MVS paging space but appear to reside on a real direct access storage device. If a step uses VIO and that data set is passed to another step, all steps that are involved with the VIO data set must run in the JES initiator. However, UCF can be used to redirect VIO data sets to DASD. The redirection to DASD allows Job Optimizer to split the steps.

Sometimes Job Optimizer needs to know if an esoteric unit name is disk or tape. Job Optimizer usually recognizes esoteric names that are defined during system initialization. However, if your site uses products that allow dynamic definition of esoteric names, you might need to add UCF entries so that Job Optimizer recognizes the unit name.

This section provides the following topics:

• UCF policy definitions
• commands member - UCF Job Optimizer