Why does ZCERQUTL fail with garbage in the REQUEST file DSN? (Error ZCERQU07E)

Products

• Alchemist
• TPX - Session Management
• Vman Session Management for z/OS

Issue/Introduction

Why does ZCERQUTL fail with garbage in the REQUEST file DSN? (Error ZCERQU07E)

Environment

Release:
Component: ALCMST

Resolution

If executing ZCERQUTL while the Alchemist started task is not running, the PREFIX parm is required.

PREFIX specifies the Request data-set prefix. This parm is required if the utility is run while the Alchemist started task is not active. If the started task is active and no PREFIX parm is specified, the utility will attempt to communicate with the started task to identify the Request DSN. If the Alchemist started task is running and PREFIX is specified, the value specified by PREFIX will be used.

Without PTF SU00712 applied, execution of ZCERQUTL without a PREFIX parm while the Alchemist started task is not running will result in the following errors including the garbage REQUEST DSN because communication with the started task was unsuccessful:

IKJ56231I UTILITY DATA SET NOT ALLOCATED, SYSTEM OR INSTALLATION ERROR+
IKJ56231I TEXT UNIT X'0002' CONTAINS INVALID PARAMETER
ZCERQU07E- UNABLE TO ALLOCATE REQUEST DATASET, DYNAMIC ERROR dynalloc-error-code 

With PTF SU00712 applied, this situation is captured and a more appropriate error is provided:

 ZCERQU08E- PREFIX MUST BE SPECIFIED WHEN BASE DOWN

This Frequently Asked Question applies to all supported releases of ESP Alchemist beginning with 5.1.