Administering the Extended Terminal Option

The IMS Extended Terminal Option (ETO) allows you to dynamically add VTAM® terminals and users to your IMS without having to first define them during system definition.

ETO dynamically creates user structures for a terminal session when:
  • The user signs on to IMS.
  • Output messages are sent to the user and await retrieval by the user.
  • The /ASSIGN command is used to assign an LTERM to a non-existent user.
  • The /ASSIGN command is used to assign a non-existent LTERM to a user.
  • The /CHANGE USER username AUTOLOGON command is directed to a non-existent user.
Some of the administrative advantages of using ETO include:
  • You do not need to code the following macros for the system definition stage-1 input stream:
    • MSC NAME macros
    • VTAM macros: TYPE, TERMINAL, NAME, VTAMPOOL, SUBPOOL
    Removing these macros reduces the complexity of network management.
  • You need to perform fewer system definitions.
  • You schedule fewer planned outages for new system definitions.

Using ETO, you can ensure that all terminals and users are able to establish sessions with IMS, even if these terminals and users are not defined to IMS during system definition.

You can use execution-time parameters and exit routines to authorize users to access some or all of the functions that ETO provides.