Providing data security

You can control the security of data accessed by your IMS application programs through data sensitivity and processing options.

Data sensitivity: Controls what data a particular program can access.
Processing options: Controls how a particular program can process data that it can access.

Providing data availability

Specifying segment sensitivity and processing options also affects data availability. You should set the specifications so that the PCBs request the fewest SENSEGS and limit the possible processing options. With data availability, a program can continue to access and update segments in the database successfully, even though some parts of the database are unavailable.

The SENSEG statement defines a segment type in the database to which the application program is sensitive. A separate SENSEG statement must exist for each segment type. The segments can physically exist in one database or they can be derived from several physical databases. If an application program is sensitive to a segment that is below the root segment, it must also be sensitive to all segments in the path from the root segment to the sensitive segment.

Related Reading: For more information on using field-level sensitivity for data security and using the SENSEG statement to limit the scope of the PCBs, see IMS Version 15.5 Database Administration.