Limited supportBMC provides limited support for this version of the product. As a result, BMC no longer accepts comments in this space. If you encounter problems with the product version or the space, contact BMC Support.BMC recommends upgrading to the latest version of the product. To see documentation for that version, see BMC AMI Datastream for z/OS 7.1.

Instances of BMC AMI Datastream

Consider the following information when configuring an instance of BMC AMI Defender:

  • Run BMC AMI Defender on the relevant LPAR when you call BMC AMI Defender. Calling the API does not start BMC AMI Defender automatically. 
  • Configure the calling program to specify which instance of BMC AMI Defender to use. You can run up to eight instances (invocations, or separate started tasks) of BMC AMI Defender simultaneously on a single LPAR. If a calling program needs to send a data record to more than one instance, the program must call the API multiple times. 
  • Use an external parameter for your calling program to specify the instance or instances that you want to use. Most organizations run only a single instance (instance zero) and the calling program might be able to safely assume that particular instance.

Named instances

All instances of BMC AMI Defender are represented by a number from 0 through 7. Starting with version 5.7.1, an instance can have a name that is unique among all running instances in the given LPAR. Use the INSTName parameter in the OPTIONS-statement to specify an instance. If you omit this parameter, the default is to use the member name of the parameter file as the instance name. You can display the names of all running instances using the Display(INSTances) specification on the MODIFY-command.

You call the API using instance numbers. APIs can support user-specified instance numbers only or they can support a name lookup to convert a specified name to an instance number. You can distinguish an instance name from an instance number because instance names never begin with digits. Refer to the sample assembler program for examples of the code to use for instance numbers and names.

Instance names must have the following characteristics:

  • Are 1 to 16 characters long
  • Do not begin with a digit, quotation mark, or apostrophe
  • Do not contain parentheses, or leading or embedded spaces
  • Generally consist of printable EBCDIC characters
  • Are not case-sensitive
  • Are unique within an LPAR for running instances of BMC AMI Defender

The name lookup is also not case sensitive but you can configure your name lookup to function as you choose.

Related topic

Overview-of-the-API


 

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