CA EPIC for z/VSE Online Manager › Introduction to Manual Cataloging

Introduction to Manual Cataloging

There are several reasons for doing manual cataloging and catalog management. Automatic cataloging is global in scope, so it will not match the exact requirements of all datasets. You may want to:

• ensure that precise catalog defaults are established before the dataset is written for the first time
• update a definition after it is created in a job
• change a dataset's requirements due to changes in government regulations or datacenter procedures

For manual cataloging, CA EPIC for z/VSE provides a panel–driven system called the Online Manager. Online Manager is easy to use, and its full–screen fill–in–the–blank formats lead you through the catalog management task step–by–step.

CA EPIC for z/VSE also provides a command–driven catalog management program called TSIDMNT for batch cataloging of new datasets and versions, for updating fields in existing dataset entries, and for DSN Catalog reporting. TSIDMNT is discussed in Chapter 3, "DSN Catalog Management Utility".

CA EPIC for z/VSE programs do not require leading zeros; numeric values are zero–filled on the left. However, in Online Manager and TSIDMNT, you can suppress the zero–fill by entering a volume serial number as a six–character string with blanks on the right (Example: "12 ").