Customize the Discovery Agent for JCL processing

You can send JCL-related data from the Discovery Agent. This topic provides details on data transfer types and JCL file customization.

JCL processing involves three types of data─Static, Dynamic, and Routecard.

  • Static JCLs are JCL files that are stored in a z/OS dataset on the file system.
    • The Discovery Agent parses the JCL files listed in the corresponding FILE_STATIC_JCL.YML file before sending them to the Discovery Server.
    • One common use case is to generate the FILE_STATIC_JCL.YML file automatically based on the JCL files that are modified, which might be determined from a version control system.
  • Dynamic JCLs are for jobs that are run on a z/OS system, but the corresponding JCL files are not available.
    • These jobs are defined in the JCL Dynamic file, provided by the user based on data such as z/OS syslog. You can define one or more JCL Dynamic Files in the corresponding FILE_DYNAMIC_JCL.YML file.
  • Routecards is a mapping between the JCLs routecard statement and the z/OS system or sysplex.
    • A JCL job can be submitted on one z/OS system and routed to another z/OS system for execution. The routing of JCL is controlled by the “ROUTE” statement defined in the JCL. The ROUTE statement can be mapped to multiple z/OS systems or sysplex. The JCL ROUTECARD file contains the mapping from the ROUTE statement parameter to one or more nodes that can run the JCL. You can define one or more ROUTECARD files in the corresponding FILE_ROUTECARD.YML file.
The FILE_STATIC_JCL.YML, FILE_DYNAMIC_JCL.YML, and FILE_ROUTECARD.YML files have a general format that applies to all three types of data:

- version: v1
    type: <Data Type: ROUTECARD, STATIC or DYNAMIC> 
    timestamp: <Time Stamp in format YYYY-MM-DD HH:dd:MM>
    deleted: <true/false>
    sysplex_name: <the sysplex name>
    dataset_name: <the name of the dataset>
    Member_name: <the member within the dataset>
- version: v1
    type: <Data Type: ROUTECARD, STATIC or DYNAMIC> 
    timestamp: <Time Stamp in format YYYY-MM-DD HH:dd:MM>
    deleted: <true/false>
    sysplex_name: <the sysplex name>
    dataset_name: <the name of the dataset>
    Member_name: <the member within the dataset>

The descriptions of the values are defined as follows:

  • version─The version of the .YML file. This value must be v1.
  • type─The type of file that needs to be read. The value can be STATIC, DYNAMIC, or ROUTECARD.
  • timestamp─The timestamp when the file is created. This value is optional.
  • deleted─Specifies whether the records are deleted or not. Acceptable value is True or False. This value is required only when the type is STATIC or ROUTECARD, and is ignored for the DYNAMIC type. The deletion of corresponding dynamic data is defined in the JCL DYNAMIC file.
  • sysplex_name─Specifies the sysplex name. This value is required only when the type is STATIC or DYNAMIC, and is ignored for ROUTECARD type. The SYSPLEX can be defined in the JCL ROUTECARD file.
  • dataset_name─Specifies the data set name file location.
  • member_name─Specifies the name or naming pattern of the dataset members to be processed. You can use the wildcard characters ? (to match a single character) and * (to match zero or more characters). For example, RO*CARD matches all files that start with "RO" and end with "CARD".