Output processing

For automatic direction, the installation has many options concerning where the output and notification information resulting from an RRSF request can be sent. This flexibility is provided by operands of the SET command. For example, some installations might choose to notify only one or two administrators when errors are encountered during automatic direction.

The OUTPUT operand specifies that the output from automatic direction should be put in the RRSFLIST data set for the specified users. If the output cannot be put in the RRSFLIST data set for some reason, the output is transmitted to the users. The output usually contains messages issued during execution, such as informational, warning, or error messages. After RACF® determines the result of execution, it sends back either a message saying it succeeded or a message giving diagnostic information.

The NOTIFY operand specifies that TSO SEND commands are issued to the specified users with the results of automatically directed updates. The information sent indicates whether the update was successful or unsuccessful, but does not include other details about the execution.

On both the OUTPUT and NOTIFY operands, you can specify whether the output or messages should be sent for all or some updates. The ALWAYS option specifies that results or output from all automatically directed updates are returned to the specified users. This should be used if the users are interested in the results of every automatically directed update.

Output includes informational, warning, and error messages. For automatic direction of commands:

WARN specifies that results or output from an automatically directed update are returned to the specified users only when the return code from the update is at least four. This should be used if the users are interested in those automatically directed updates that complete with error conditions or warning conditions.
FAIL specifies that results or output from an automatically directed update be returned to the specified users only when the return code from the update is at least 8. This should be used if the users are interested in only those automatically directed updates which complete with error conditions.

For automatic direction of application updates and passwords:

WARN and FAIL have the same meaning. Either WARN or FAIL result in returned output or notification when a directed application update or password fails to completely take effect on a remote node.

If an automatically directed update error occurs, the RACF profiles become unsynchronized. An installation should specify at least one person (probably an administrator who is familiar with required profiles) on the OUTPUT and NOTIFY options to receive error results and output (FAIL option). If the initial values of NOOUTPUT and NONOTIFY are used, no one is notified when automatic direction errors occur. Also, once an update is automatically directed to a remote node, all output and messages associated with that update are discarded.

For more information and examples on using the SET command to specify options for automatic direction of updates, see z/OS Security Server RACF Command Language Reference.