Sharing a CA-11 Restart and Tracking Database in Version 3.0

Products

• CA-11
• Datacom
• DATACOM - AD

Issue/Introduction

CA-11 Restart and Tracking Version 3.0 introduced a new database architecture for the CMT and JEHF. CA-Datacom/AD is a common component version of CA's Advantage CA-Datacom/DB products that is provided at no additional cost to  CA-11 customers. Using CA-Datacom/AD the database is not physically shared, using shared DASD, as it was in previous releases of  CA-11. Sharing a database using CA-Datacom uses IBM's XCF (cross-system communication facility) to access the data from a single CA-Datacom/AD Multi-User Facility (MUF) task. There can only be one MUF task in the shared environment.

 

 

Environment

Release:
Component: 11

Resolution

CA-11 Restart and Tracking Version 3.0 introduced a new database architecture for the CMT and JEHF. CA-Datacom/AD is a common component version of CA's Advantage CA-Datacom/DB products that is provided at no additional cost to  CA-11 customers. Using CA-Datacom/AD the database is not physically shared, using shared DASD, as it was in previous releases of  CA-11. Sharing a database using CA-Datacom uses IBM's XCF (cross-system communication facility) to access the data from a single CA-Datacom/AD Multi-User Facility (MUF) task. There can only be one MUF task in the shared environment.

 

The CA-Datacom/AD MUF task only runs on one system in a sysplex. All access to the data is through this task. In order to allow the MUF to be accessed from other systems in the sysplex, addition parameters must be specified in CA-Datacom/AD's start up parameters. These parameters allow for the XCF connections to be established. The MUF parameter provides a unique name that will be used to connect to the MUF using XCF. The XCFFROM parameter identifies the jobname of the task that will be connecting and a XCF group name that will be used. The jobname name should be specified as an asterisk (*) to allow any jobname to access the database through XCF. Since access by both the  CA-11 Tasks and TSO users may use XCF for database access, the jobname cannot be set to a fixed value. We recommend that you specify

XCFFROM *,groupname

Both the mufname and the groupname are arbitrary names but must be unique in the sysplex. CA11MUF and CA11GRP, respectively, would be good choices for names.

In addition, the TASKS parameter must be changed to allow for XCF connections. The statement format is TASKS(num,32K,0,0,xcf), where num is the maximum number of requestors to use the MUF and xcf is the number of those requestors that can access through XCF.  For CA-11 these values can be calculated using the DBTASKS parameter value from the CA-11 Init Deck as follows.

xcf = total of DBTASKS values from all systems without a MUF
num = DBTASKS from the system with a MUF + 1 + xcf + # of  CA-11 Online Users each  CA-11 DBAS address space uses a module, DBSIDPR, to access Advantage CA-Datacom. Changing the module is described in the CA-Datacom/DB Database and System Administrator Guide in the section entitled ' Modifying DBSIDPR Parameters'.  To utilize XCF two keywords must be added to the DBSIDPR module. The TOMUF= identifies the mufname of the MUF to be accessed and the TOGROUP= identifies the XCF GROUP that the communication belongs to. The mufname and groupname defined here must match the values added to the start up parameters for the MUF.

Once this is setup in CA-Datacom/AD, you can run CA-11's DBAS on any XCF connected system and access the database.