Is there a way to override the limit of 16 @DDSN entries in the ACFFDR?

Products

• ACF2
• ACF2 - z/OS
• ACF2 - MISC

Issue/Introduction

How to add additional ACF2 database names to ACFFDR so that there is the option to switch from the production ACF2 database to alternate with the switch command? The maximum of 16 @DDSN entries in the ACFFDR has been reached and new databases need to be added. How can more @DDSN entries be added in order to be able to switch command for all production and alternate datasets?

Environment

Release:
Component: ACF2MS

Resolution

The ACFFDR is currently limited to 16 @DDSN definitions and there is no way to expand the number of definitions in the ACFFDR. A way to get around this limitation is to have multiple ACFFDRs with different assigned @DDSN definitions. If there is a logical break between the LPARS, each LPAR can utilize a different ACFFDR. This resolution allows for the use of the switch command for sites with more than 16 @DDSN sets. The limitation is that each LPAR would only be able to use the switch command to switch to a @DDSN database set defined in the ACFFDR, and there is overhead in managing multiple ACFFDRs being used by the various LPARs. For example, each ACFFDR must be named ACFFDR. To be able to tell the difference between multiple ACFFDRs, for each ACFFDR that is created there is a different assembly date that can be displayed from the ACF "SHOW STATE" command. Sites can also browse the load module and perform a find command for 'CA ACF2  REL 16.0' to see the assembly date that corresponds to the date from the SHOW STATE.