Data set allocation not picking up correct characteristics

If the data set is being allocated successfully, but the resulting data set does not have the expected data set characteristics, check for the following:

All values obtained from SITE variables
- Issue the STAT command to verify that the settings of all the SITE variables are correct. If any variables are missing from the STAT output, check for values specified for the DCBDSN or DATACLASS parameters. If a value is specified for the DCBDSN data set, go to Step 3. If a value is specified for the DATACLASS parameter, go to Step 2.
- Check for variables overridden by a client. The VM and MVS™ FTP clients automatically issue SITE commands when doing a STOR, STOU, or APPE command. The values sent automatically by the client could be overriding values set by specific SITE commands issued by the user. To prevent the VM or MVS client from automatically sending new SITE settings, issue the SENDSITE command at the client.
Values from SMS
If the DATACLASS parameter has been specified, but the actual data set characteristics do not match the values in the specified SMS data class, issue the STAT command and check the information shown in the output from the STAT command for the following:
- Is SMS active at the server system? If SMS is not active, the SMS data class cannot be used to define the data set.
- Are values specified for any of the data set characteristic variables (DSNTYPE, LRECL, RECFM, BLKSIZE, PDSTYPE, PRIMARY, SECONDARY, RETPD, or DIRECTORY)? If these keywords are missing from the STAT output, or if the value 'SYSTEM' is displayed, no value is assigned to them and the data set characteristics should be picked up from the SMS data class. If, however, a value is present for any of these variables, the setting shown by the STAT command overrides any information in the SMS data class. To pick up the value from the data class, issue the SITE command with the keyword with no value (for example, SITE RECFM) to turn off the parameter setting.
- Is a value specified for the DCBDSN parameter? If a DCBDSN data set is specified, the values for LRECL, RECFM, BLKSIZE, and RETPD are obtained from the model DCB data set and overrides any values in the SMS data class. Issue the SITE DCBDSN command to turn off the DCBDSN parameter setting.
- Check for variables overridden by a client. The VM and MVS FTP clients automatically issue SITE commands when doing a STOR, STOU, or APPE command. The values sent automatically by the client could be overriding values set by specific SITE commands issued by the user. To prevent the MVS or VM client from automatically sending new SITE settings, issue the SENDSITE command at the client.
Values from DCBDSN
If the DCBDSN parameter has been specified, but the actual data set characteristics do not match the characteristics of the specified data set, issue the STAT command, and check the information shown in the output from the STAT command the following:
- Are values specified for any of the data set characteristic variables (LRECL, RECFM, BLKSIZE, or RETPD)? If these keywords are missing from the STAT output, no value is assigned to them and the data set characteristics are picked up from the DCBDSN data set. If, however, a value is present for any of these variables, the setting shown by the STAT command overrides the values of the DCBDSN data set. To pick up the value from the DCBDSN data set, issue the SITE command with the keyword with no value (for example, SITE RECFM) to turn off the parameter setting.
- Are variables being overridden by a client? The VM and MVS FTP clients automatically issue SITE commands when doing a STOR, STOU, or APPE command. The values sent automatically by the client could be overriding values set by specific SITE commands issued by the user. To prevent the VM or MVS client from automatically sending new SITE settings, issue the SENDSITE command at the client.