Automatic Step Restart

An automatic step restart occurs if all of the following are satisfied:

The step requests restart (RD=R or RD=RNC); and
The step is eligible for restart because it was terminated by an ABEND macro that returned an eligible completion code (specified by the SYS1.PARMLIB member SCHEDxx RESTART/NORESTART statement type at system initialization), or because system failure occurred; and
The operator authorizes the restart. This authority enables the operator to control the number of restarts of the same step or from the same checkpoint.

If a step fails and automatic step restart is requested, restart occurs automatically at the beginning of the step that failed.

Automatic step restart may be requested by coding the RD parameter (RD=R or RNC) on the JOB or EXEC statement in the originally submitted job. Checkpoint processing is suppressed if RD=RNC.

Figure 1 illustrates the JCL of a job requesting automatic step restart.

Figure 1. Requesting Automatic Step Restart

//MYJOB   JOB   MSGLEVEL=1¹,RD=R   Requests automatic
//*                                restart at the
//*                                beginning of any step
//*                                that terminates
//*                                abnormally
//STEP1   EXEC
//STEP2   EXEC PGM=MYPROG,RD=R²    Requests automatic
//*                                restart of STEP2 if it
//*                                terminates abnormally
//STEP3   EXEC

Figure 1 Notes:
¹: MSGLEVEL=1 is optional.
²: Note that if RD=R appears on the JOB statement, it is not required on the EXEC statement.