SA z/OS : utilization of new 'Skip Active' function

Answer

Prior to SA z/OS V3R3, customers would have to define IEF403I as a MESSAGES entry in the Application policy if they wished to have SA utilize that z/OS message to indicate a given APL resource had reached 'UP' status.

In current releases the recommended mechanism to streamline the definition process and make it simpler to have the same effect on the customer systems.

Using the SA z/OS TSO/ISPF dialog, access the APPLICATION INFO definition for an APL or APL class and there is an called 'Skip Active':

Entry Type : Application           PolicyDB Name   : pdb_name        
Entry Name : APPLX                 Enterprise Name : ent_name      
                                                                               
Skip ACTIVE status . . . . _______  (YES NO)    

SkipActive = 'NO' is the default.

If 'YES', customer is telling SA z/OS not to submit command 'ACTIVMSG' when message IEF403I is trapped for the resource, and instead execute 'ACTIVMSG UP=YES' to post the status to 'UP'. Status ACTIVE is 'skipped' and the resource posted to UP status with that definition in place; after receipt of a IEF403I message for a defined SA APL resource.

This is useful for cases where an application does not have a unique message to indicate status UP, and greatly simplifies the definition process since no MESSAGES entry are required for IEF403I any longer, as per the first paragraph in this section.

Per the SA z/OS sample policy file (PDB), an example resource that could use this new definition format is a DB2 DIST or DB2 DBM1 type of application resource.