z/OS UNIX Analysis › About UNIX Analysis

About UNIX Analysis

One of the most critical elements of auditing any operating system are the controls which govern how the operating system operates.

z/OS has a primary central source of initialization controls referred to as Parmlib. Understanding Parmlib and other controls is essential to auditing the system.

The Parmlib Map and Parmlib Status functions audit the Parmlib members specified at IPL time. The z/OS UNIX configuration options and controls primary Parmlib member is BPXPRMxx.

The installation many dynamically alter the z/OS UNIX configuration options and controls after initialization is complete.

Before making any type of dynamic configuration change consider:

• Is it for the duration of the IPL or permanent?
• What change control procedures control how and when a dynamic change is made?
• What audit trails are available? The only logging records recorded are those by the ESM.

An audit based on the BPXPRMxx Parmlib members used during IPL may not be complete. Changes made after IPL may not be reflected. For the audit to be complete, an audit of z/OS UNIX should include:

• The Parmlib-based controls used at IPL
• All available methods for effecting dynamic post-IPL configuration changes