Why doesn't ACF2 use different SMF type numbers like RACF does?

Products

• ACF2
• ACF2 - DB2 Option
• ACF2 - z/OS
• ACF2 - MISC

Issue/Introduction

IBM System Management Facility (SMF) is a component of IBM's z/OS for mainframe computers.  SMF provides data on the use of all baseline activities running on that mainframe operating system.  This can include I/O, security, errors, network activity and problems, CPU usage, etc., as well as subsystems like CICS, DB2, MQ and WebSphere, and various performance monitors, like RMF or Omegamon.

Why does ACF2 use only SMF record type 230?  Enabling Audit logging in WebSphere, on a RACF systems this gets written to SMF record 83 type 5. Why doesn't ACF2 use the same record type?

Environment

Release:
Component: ACF2MS

Resolution

 SMF Types 00-127 are reserved for IBM products
 SMF Types 128-255 are available for user records
► Within a record type there may be subtypes

Since ACF2 is not an IBM product, ACF2 has to use one of the user types. What number is used is defined in the ACFFDR under the @SMF macro. The number can be viewed by doing a SHOW SYSTEMS command. Older versions of ACF2 allowed for the specication of multiple SMF numbers in the ACFFDR for the different ACF2 reports, now all reports use the same "COMMON" SMF record as specified by ACF2=230 (230 is the default).   

To display your current SMF record number setting you can issue the TSO, ACF, SHOW SYSTEMS command. For example:

ACF 
show systems                                                      
                                                                      
-- SYSTEM PARAMETERS IN EFFECT --                                     
                                                                      
SVCS:                                                                 
ALTER SVC=233            VALIDATE SVC=232                             
                                                                      
SMF RECORD NUMBERS:                                                   
PASSWORD=220                DATASET VIO=221              LID JOURNAL=222     
RULE JOURNAL=223         LID TRACE=224                  TSO COMMAND=225     
INFO JOURNAL=226          RESOURCE VIO=227          ACF2 COMMON=230   

By default 230 is used.  

NOTE:  ACF2 no longer uses the other SMF record numbers that are in the SHOW output, just the ACF2 COMMON