z/OS JCL options ‘AE’ or ‘JCL1’ causes Job card error at execution and Job fails

Products

• CA Automic Workload Automation - Automation Engine

Issue/Introduction

Error Message :
IEFC618I OPERAND FIELD DOES NOT TERMINATE IN COMMA OR BLANK

If a z/OS agent submits a job with the option JCL on the Host, it generates a 'job card is longer than 72 characters' error causing a JCL error and the job fails.

z/OS Jobs have the following 3 types of JCL generation, which can be chosen in the z/OS tab of the Job object:

• Automaton Engine (AE)
• z/OS JCL (JCL1)
• JCL incl. z/OS Job card (JCL2)

When the first or second option is used (AE or JCL1), the job card may cause a JCL error.  This is a result of the concatenation of the job card which is incorrectly built.  The job fails and the following JCL error is issued:
 

IEFC618I OPERAND FIELD DOES NOT TERMINATE IN COMMA OR BLANK

Investigation

Example:
The job card is divided 1 byte too late. In this case the parameter MSGCLASS should be in the second line:
 

14.28.34 J0036104 IEFC452I JCLONLY - JOB NOT RUN - JCL ERROR 775…1 //JCLONLY JOB ('XMM/APPL'),'''ESTPROGRAMMMMMMMMM''',CLASS=A,MSGCLASS=1,J0036104// MSGLEVEL=(1,1),USER=UC4JOE,PASSWORD=1 IEFC618I OPERAND FIELD DOES NOT TERMINATE IN COMMA OR BLANK…IEFC618I OPERAND FIELD DOES NOT TERMINATE IN COMMA OR BLANK

There should be at least one blank between the last comma and the JobID and It should look as follows:
 

1 //IEFBR14 JOB ('XMM/APPL'),'''ESTPROGRAMMMMMMMMM''',CLASS=A, J0036100// MSGCLASS=1,MSGLEVEL=(1,1),USER=UC4JOE,PASSWORD=

Environment

OS: MVS

Cause

Cause type:
Defect
Root Cause: A z/OS agent submits a job with option JCL on Host and the generated job card is longer than 72 characters causing a JCL error.

Resolution

Update to a fix version listed below or a newer version if available.

Fix Status: Released

Fix Version(s):
Component(s): Agent MVS

Automation Engine 12.1.0 - Available
Automation Engine 12.0.1 - Available
Automation Engine 11.2.4 - Available

Additional Information

Workaround :
N/A