Job Control Language (JCL) Course

This course is a combination of lecture, discussion and hands-on lab sessions.
First, an overview of JCL is given which describes the purpose of JCL, its relationship to the operating system, and the format / rules for coding.

Then, the JOB, EXEC and DD statements are covered extensively.

The purpose and use of each statement is described in detail; along with many parameters available to provide information to the operating system.  Procedures and several commonly used IBM utilities are covered in detail. Recognize, analyze & correct typical ABENDs “caused” by JCL “errors”.

Upon completion of this course, the participant will be able to:

> Describe MVS operating system functions
> Describe Job Control Language statement syntax and format
> Create and use the JOB statement and its parameters
> Create and use EXEC statements and its parameters
> Create and use DD statements and its parameters
> Describe the need for and use JCL procedures
> Create and use JCL procedures
> Analyze and correct typical JCL ABENDs
> Use the Sort utility and several other IBM utilities
> Describe the function of JES

Job Control language (JCL) Overview
Introduction to Job Control Language (JCL)
Operating Systems - overall functions, I/O functions, data management functions
The function of JCL
How JCL is interpreted
Job Entry Subsystem (JES) functions
JCL Statement Coding Format
JCL identifier
Name field
Operation field
Operand field - Keyword and Positional parameters
Suggested standards
JCL Statement Types
JOB statement
EXEC statement
DD statement
Comment statement
Delimiter statement
JCL Procedures

JCL Statements
JOB statement
Definition of a “job’
Accounting information
JOB statement Parameters – CLASS, COND, MSGCLASS, MSGLEVEL, NOTIFY
Other parameters
EXEC statement
Definition of JOB “steps”
Step name
What is being executed? - Program, Procedure
EXEC statement Parameters – PARM, COND, TIME,
DD statement
Definition of a “file”
DD Statement parameters - DDNAME, DSNAME, DCB, DISP, UNIT, VOLUME,
SPACE, SYSOUT, DUMMY
Comments
Debugging System & User Errors

JCL Procedures
Introduction to JCL procedures
Definition of JCL procedures
When to use JCL procedures
In-stream procedures
Catalogued procedures
IBM-provided and vendor-provided procedures
PROC statement
Procedure name
Definition of symbolic parameters and their defaults
PEND statement
Using procedures - in-stream and catalogued
Overriding procedures

Utilities
SORT/MERGE
IDCAMS
IEBGENER
IEBPRPCH
IEBCOMPR

Handling ABENDs
Analyze ABENDs
Correcting the causes of ABENDs
JCL Case Study – Building & Running a Multi-Step Job

Appendices
Appendix A – JCL Summary
Appendix B – JES Listing COBOLCLG
Appendix C – JCL Assessment
Appendix D – Model JCL Statements
Appendix E – JCL Exercises
Appendix F – Utility Exercises
Appendix G – PROC Exercises