Multiple ISPF.conf files with multiple z/OS Explorer setups

If the allocation exec scenarios described in the previous sections cannot handle your specific needs, you can create different instances of z/OS® Explorer's RSE communication server, with each instance using its own ISPF.conf file. The main drawback of the method described below is that z/OS Explorer users must connect to different servers on the same host to get the desired TSO environment.

Note: Creating a second instance of the RSE server only requires duplicating and updating configuration files, startup JCL and started task definitions. A new installation of the product is not necessary, nor is any code duplicated.

$ cd /etc/zexpl
$ mkdir /etc/zexpl/tso2
$ cp rse.env /etc/zexpl/tso2
$ cp ISPF.conf /etc/zexpl/tso2
$ ls /etc/zexpl/tso2
ISPF.conf          rse.env
$ oedit /etc/zexpl/tso2/rse.env
      -> change: _RSE_RSED_PORT=4037
      -> change: CGI_ISPCONF=/etc/zexpl/tso2
      -> change: –Ddaemon.log=/var/zexpl/logs/tso2
      -> change: –Duser.log=/var/zexpl/logs/tso2
      -> add at the END:
         # -- NEEDED TO FIND THE REMAINING CONFIGURATION FILES
         CFG_BASE=/etc/zexpl
         CLASSPATH=.:$CFG_BASE:$CLASSPATH
         # -- 
$ oedit /etc/zexpl/tso2/ISPF.conf
      -> change: change as needed

The commands in the previous example copy the z/OS Explorer configuration files that require changes to a newly created tso2 directory. The CGI_ISPCONF variable in rse.env must be updated to define the new ISPF.conf home directory , and daemon.log and user.log must be updated to define a new log location (which is created automatically if it does not exist). The _RSE_RSED_PORT update ensures that both the existing and the new RSE daemon will use unique port numbers. The CLASSPATH update ensures that RSE can find the configuration files that were not copied to tso2. The ISPF.conf file itself can be updated to match your needs. Note that the ISPF workarea (variable CGI_ISPWORK in rse.env) can be shared among both instances.

What is left now is creating a new started task for RSE that uses a new port number and the new /etc/zexpl/tso2 configuration files. Note that if _RSE_RSED_PORT is not changed in rse.env, the new started task must specify a new port as startup argument.

Refer to the Host Configuration Guide (SC27-8437) for more information on the actions shown previously in this section.