How to Begin Using the Product › Lesson 8: Create Rules from an MPF Suppression List

Lesson 8: Create Rules from an MPF Suppression List

The CA OPS/MVS MPF conversion facility lets you complete the following tasks:

• Take advantage of the effort that your site has put into maintaining MPF message suppression lists
• Move message suppression into a more available and maintainable location
• Use libraries other than the Logical parmlib Concatenation

Use of the MPF conversion facility is limited to suppression entries. Messages regarding console colors and exit information are not automatically processed.

Review the following preparation before you can begin creating rules from an MPF suppression list. You prepare to convert MPF suppression lists to rules:

• Use ISPF option 3.2 to allocate a partitioned data set with sufficient directory space for the CA OPS/MVS rules that you want to create. You have one data set member for each MPF suppression list entry that you convert. The term rule set refers to a partitioned data set containing CA OPS/MVS rules.
• Use a nonproduction environment for testing.

  Important! Do not use a live rule set as the initial target for your conversion. The conversion process places the source code for rules into the target data set. It is safer to use a nonproduction environment for testing.

• Before you can perform the conversion, install CA OPS/MVS and OPSVIEW at your data center, and you must have access to them.
• If you use the MPF conversion facility, modify parmlib to remove message suppression.

This lesson shows you how to access the CA OPS/MVS MPF conversion facility, and how to generate CA OPS/MVS rules from an MPF suppression list automatically.

1. Begin at the OPSVIEW Primary Options Menu. Enter 7.3 into the Option field.

   As a result of your selection, the MPF Conversion panel appears:

   MPF Conversion ------------ MSI1 --- O P S V I E W ------------ Subsystem OPSS
   Command ===>
   Specify data sets below, then press ENTER key
   Logical parmlib MPF list member:
      Member name  ===>
   AOF RULE DATA SET (Do not specify a member name):
      DATA SET NAME  ===>
   

2. Enter the following data in the MPF Conversion panel and press enter:
   • Type the name of the MPF list member that you want to convert in the Member name field.
   • Type the name of the test rule set (enclosed in single quotes) in the Data Set Name field.

   As a result, conversion proceeds automatically.

   Note: In recent versions of z/OS, multiple active MPF list members may exist. If this is the case at your installation, use the Member name field (as described in step 1) to enter the name of the MPF list member that you want to convert, and repeat the step as necessary. If you are using an older version of z/OS, the panel automatically displays the currently active MPF list member in the Member field.

3. Test and verify. Test and verify rules according to the procedures of your installation, the specific needs of your installation, or both. Use Lesson 2 as a guideline.

   Your newly created rule is tested and verified.

4. Obtain approvals. Obtain installation approvals for canceling MPF message suppression and enabling the CA OPS/MVS rules for production.
5. Implement. Because the conversion process usually introduces CA OPS/MVS message suppression to an installation that has not used it before, you probably require a new rule set to hold the generated rules.