Can I run test and prod CA PDSMAN started tasks in parallel when production does not use PDSMMCPU?

Products

• PDSMAN

Issue/Introduction

The PDSMAN Cross-System Communication facility subtask (PDSMMCPU) communicates events, such as Resource State Messages and updates to LLA or Dynamic BLDL libraries, to other copies of PDSMAN running on other systems. This subtask is automatically started when the PDSMAN address space is initialized if a PDSMMCPU DD statement is present in the JCL.

Can I run test and prod PDSMAN started tasks in parallel when production does not use PDSMMCPU?

Environment

PDSMAN 7.7

Resolution

The only reason you would need to have a PDSMMCPU DD in both the test and prod versions is if you have $DYNBLDL statements in the production PDSMINIT member AND the data sets specified on $DYNBLDL will be updated by the test PDSMAN system. 

Therefore, with no PDSMMCPU in the production system you need to avoid updating any libraries that are specified on $DYNBLDL statements from the test system.

However, it should be considered a best practice to have the test and production images communicating using PDSMMCPU whenever possible.

Additional Information

PDSMAN comes up in "Test mode" when it is started from a STEPLIB. 

To start PDSMAN in Production mode the PDSMAN load library needs to be added to the LINKLST concatenation, STEPLIB must be removed from the procedure, JCLs, batch jobs, ISPF CLISTs, or logon procedures. 

Also note that using a test environment is only intended for temporary test purposes and that generally PDSMAN should be executed from the LINKLIST.