Previous Topic: Physical Console Security

Next Topic: Sysplex Considerations

Ordinary Terminals as Consoles

Certain vendor and user‑developed programs let their users transform an ordinary TSO terminal into an operator console, which usually can only be accomplished only by APF‑authorized programs. You can determine if such a program exists at the data center by reviewing the APF‑Authorized TSO Table Entries Display (2.2.3) and the various APF Library Analysis displays (2.2).

In addition, authorized TSO users using products such as SDSF, or native TSO facilities such as the CONSOLE and OPERATOR commands have access to console facilities through use of MVS Console Services to establish an extended console session. Typically, access to such functions requires appropriate access from the external security manager (ESM) in use on your system.

It is also possible to include operator commands in job control language (JCL). However, this can be controlled with the appropriate JES2 or JES3 parameters. See the JES Parms Display (4.1) for more information.