Deciding which customization method to use

You must also realize that the internal default values that are supplied with the utility were selected to be adequate for most customers. After looking through the list of default values, you might choose to use these defaults all of the time and explicitly specify exceptions on the function control statements.

After you have become familiar with the methods described in this section, refer to Understanding-customization-processing to learn how the utility obtains the values that is uses during processing.

Global options modules

You can set up global options modules to specify the values you want to use for most databases most of the time. The utility uses this module, when it is available, instead of the internal defaults. This module becomes your own personal copy of the internal defaults.

You can create several global options modules, each with a different name, a different set of values, and a different purpose. You can create one for your production system and another for your test system. If you have several IMS systems, you can have different sets of values for each system.

ICPPARMS

Create a module named ICPPARMS to contain your installation’s personal default values.

In the ICPPARMS module, change any values that your entire installation will use all of the time. Many BMC customers find that creating this module is all the customization they need.

Using the example in the Overview (Customizing the Image Copy utility), change the default installation name to reflect your company name. Also, if you are going to activate database compression for all databases in your installation, change the default to COMP(Y).

ICPPARMS is very important when creating database-specific options modules. The utility initializes the ISPF panels with the values you specify in ICPPARMS. When ICPPARMS is not available, the utility initializes the panels with its internal default values.

ICP@imsi

Create modules named ICP@imsi (where imsi reflects different IMSIDs) when you want each of your IMS systems to have different default values.

You might create two ICP@imsi modules: the first one could be named ICP@TEST for your test system, and the other could be named ICP@PROD for your production system.

ICP@xxxx

Create modules named ICP@xxxx (where xxxx is any four-character identifier) when you want to create other modules for other purposes, such as testing various utility functions.

Database-specific options modules

You can set up database-specific options modules.

The utility uses this module when you are performing an image copy or recovery process on the database associated with the module. This type of options module is actually a member of the PDX. A PDX is a special data set used by the BMC Image Copy utility, Change Accumulation utility, and Recovery utility and by selected other BMC Database Utilities products for storing customization options and reports. Details about the PDX can be found in Database Products for IMS Customization Guide.

You can create a different database-specific module for each database in your installation. You can also make these modules IMSID-specific or create one module for each database that will be used regardless of the IMSID. This allows you more control over the processing of each database.

Control statement keywords

For certain jobs, you may want to use a new set of values, so you could specify keywords on any of the ICPSYSIN control statements.

The values for these keywords override the internal defaults and any values specified in the options modules.