NCL File Processing › Work with Data › Offline Processing of Data Sets

Offline Processing of Data Sets

On z/OS systems, the DEALLOCATE command can be used to release a UDB for offline processing. Before you deallocate the UDB, it must be closed using the UDBCTL command.

This can only be performed once all current users have ceased using the UDB. If deallocation cannot be used, the stripping of files created by NCL for further offline processing can be achieved without a restart of the system if the following rules are followed:

• VSAM SHAREOPTIONS must allow concurrent access to the data set.
• DISP=SHR must be specified on the data set (Z/OS only).
• The UDBCTL CLOSE=xxxxx operand is used to stop further logical connections to the file and to close the physical data set. This is allowed only if there are no users currently referencing the file.
• Use a utility to strip the file (for example, the VSAM REPRO utility). Any offline processing programs must take any high-value (X'FF') field separators into account when determining record formats on UDB format files.