You can use global access checking to improve the performance of RACF® authorization checking for selected resources. Global access checking should be used for public resources that are accessed frequently. For example, an entry in the global access checking table can allow all users on the system to have READ access to the SYS1.HELP data set.

The global access checking table is maintained in storage and is checked early in the RACF authorization checking sequence. If an entry in the global access checking table allows the requested access to a resource, RACF performs no further authorization checking. This can avoid I/O to the RACF database to retrieve a resource profile, and can result in substantial performance improvements.

Global access checking is used for authorization processing invoked by the RACROUTE REQUEST=AUTH macro. It is not used for authorization processing invoked by the RACROUTE REQUEST=FASTAUTH macro.