Understanding mixed security environments

Your network might be a mixed environment, that is, it can contain nodes in which different levels of JES and RACF®, or non-JES systems, are installed. Networking in a mixed environment causes JES and RACF to validate work differently in some cases. For example, certain security information, such as security labels, might not be sent with work from some systems. The following list categorizes the various environments into three groups:

Uplevel security systems
- Systems running z/OS where RACF is installed and active.
Downlevel security systems
- Systems running z/OS where RACF is not used but another security product is being used.
- Systems not running z/OS.
Default security systems
- Systems running z/OS where no security product is being used.

The terms (uplevel, downlevel, and default) describe the security systems of the source nodes. This tells JES and RACF how much of the security information has been verified at the source. They are used to determine how much the receiving node trusts the source nodes.

For jobs, the amount of trust determines under what circumstances RACF propagates the submitter. For SYSOUT, it determines under what circumstances RACF accepts the owner information. NJE uses the NODES profile UACC to determine level of trust. Use these definitions when this topic refers to uplevel, downlevel, and default security systems. See Table 1 and Table 1.