Mvslogin command examples

Use the mvslogin command to log in to z/OS from your workstation. The mvslogin command can be issued multiple times and the last one overrides the previous ones. The mvslogin command is only required when accessing data on systems where the z/OS NFS server site security attribute is set to saf or safexp.

Table 1 shows examples of the mvslogin command where mvshost1 is the name of the z/OS host and smith is the user’s ID on z/OS.

Table 1. Examples of the mvslogin command for clients
Command Examples
mvslogin -p mvshost1 smith
mvslogin -P smithspw -g finance -a 5278 mvshost1 smith
mvslogin -P "Smith's password phrase" mvshost1 smith
mvslogin -n mvshost1 smith
mvslogin -pn -a 5278 mvshost1 smith
mvslogin mvshost1
mvslogin mvshost1 smith

In the example where the user enters mvslogin mvshost1, the current login client user ID is used as the z/OS user ID.

In the example where the user enters mvslogin mvshost1 smith, the system then prompts for Smith's z/OS password. If Smith logs in successfully, this message appears:

GFSA955I smith logged in ok.

Otherwise, an appropriate error message appears.

Note: Messages with the prefix of GFSA and GFSC apply to NFS requests. These messages are further explained in Network File System messages.

In the example where the user enters mvslogin -P "Smith's password phrase" mvshost1 smith, double-quotation marks are required around the password phrase because of the apostrophe within the phrase (smith's). Otherwise, only single-quotation marks are required around the password phrase. See z/OS Security Server RACF Command Language Reference for more information on syntax rules for password phrases.

When an z/OS UNIX UID or GID segment is defined with the user identification, an additional check is done to compare the z/OS UNIX UID or GID with the client UID or GID during the login processing. An informational message is returned when the server and the client UID or GID do not match. This informational message contains the z/OS UNIX UID and GID for the z/OS user identification.

Note: The authentication is considered successful even if the UID and GID do not match. The message is issued for the user's information only.

For the PCNFSD authentication request, the server UID and GID is returned to the client user if the UID and GID are defined. Otherwise, an arbitrary number is generated and returned to the client user.