Modifying and disposing held data sets

A data set remains in held status until either the TSO/E user releases it on a time-sharing terminal with the TSO/E OUTPUT command or from the SDSF panel, or until the operator modifies the disposition with the $O (output) command. The operator can either release or cancel held data sets based on time (that is, n days or n hours old) with the $O command or the $T OJ command. In this manner, you can easily dispose of held output unnecessarily using spool space and job queue elements (JQEs) for too long a time. If you free up these JQEs regularly, you reduce your installation's JQE needs. As your TSO environment grows in size, it is important to prevent this “wasting” of spool space with unneeded or forgotten held output data sets.

The operator can determine spool usage by issuing the $D SPL command. This command can also display job utilization of specific spool volumes. (see z/OS JES2 Commands for more information on this command.) If the $D SPL response indicates a particularly high spool usage by a particular job, the operator can take action (cancel, offload, or print) to eliminate that job. Here again, the age parameters on the $O command are useful.

Type 26 SMF records provide further job spool utilization information. These records include the number of track groups and spool buffers used. If you and the operator monitor spool usage and eliminate unnecessary held data set spool usage, you should be able to more effectively tune the track group size parameter (TGSIZE= on the SPOOLDEF statement), thereby using available spool space more efficiently.