Managing ICF Catalogs with IDCAMS - A Practitioner Series Course Offering Copyright © 2001 Mentor Services Corp - 200 White Plains Road - Tarrytown - NY 10591.

Introduction: The MVS operating system maintains information on catalogued data sets in VSAM and ICF (Integrated Catalog Facility) catalogs. The Access Method Services utility (IDCAMS) provides the services necessary to create ICF catalogs and manage and manipulate the contents of these catalogs. This course is intended for users who are responsible for the management and maintenance of ICF catalogs. The course will cover the JCL required to invoke Access Method Services and complete details on the commands used to request it's utility services. In addition, it will fully describe the contents of the ICF catalog and the impact of the IDCAMS functions on the catalog contents. To provide the student with an understanding of the catalog structure, an overview of VSAM=s KSDS (Key-Sequenced Data Set) organization is provided. This course has hands-on exercises, and access to TSO terminals will be required. Audience: Programmers, end-users or any technical support personnel who have a need to create or maintain ICF catalogs in an MVS/ESA system. Objectives:  On completion of this course, the student should be able to: Create ICF catalogs (both master and user catalogs) Connect and disconnect user catalogs to/from a master catalog Back up and recover a complete ICF catalog Use the IDCAMS DIAGNOSE utility to recover catalog data from a VVDS Catalog data sets using both direct and indirect cataloging (aliases) Describe the contents of the different catalog objects (record types) Prerequisites: The student must have a working knowledge of computer fundamentals, MVS JCL and MVS concepts. These requirements can be met by attending the MVS/ESA Concepts and Facilities and JCL for End-Users courses. Duration: This course is 3 days long.