Troubleshooting scenario 1: Unable to combine two applications in one application group

Symptom

While attempting to have more than one application in an application group, I received this error:

arsload: Processing file /ars1/ATEST.TST.TST11.SYS001.1285.021030.075349.ARD<  
The application >< does not exist within the application group >ATEST<

Possible causes

The -A parameter is not specified in the ARSLOAD program. If you are loading from the JES SPOOL, ARSLOAD has two parameters: -A and -G. You do not need to specify -A if you only have one application in the application group, because ARSLOAD uses that one application for the load. However, if you have more than one application in the application group, then the -A parameter must be specified. As an alternative to specifying -A, you might use the ARS.RSADUPDT exit.

For example, if an IEBGENER job that sends the report to the spool specifies

//OUTPUT1  OUTPUT WRITER=TESTAPP1,FORMS=TESTAPG

then the corresponding -G and -A parameters on ARSLOAD is

-G FORMS -A WRITER

In this case, ARSLOAD uses the TESTAPG application group and the TESTAPP1 application.

Action

If multiple applications share the same indexing and storage management attributes, there are advantages in including them in the same application group. Combining the applications saves you from having to create and maintain a separate, identical application group for each of those applications. For example, if you have two different reports and want to index both of them on the same values and store both of them for five years, consider creating the corresponding applications for those reports in the same application group. For more information, refer to ARSLOAD. There might be potential performance implications caused by combining more than one application in an application group.