Naming standards
The site's rules for how datasets, jobs, programs and other things are named, which security and automation rely on.
Also written naming conventions, dataset naming standard, job naming standard
Every mainframe site has naming standards, and they matter more than on most platforms. Names are short, often eight characters or fewer for each part, and much of the system's behaviour depends on them.
A dataset name might follow a pattern such as system, application, environment and type: ZBANK.ACCT.PROD.MASTER. A job name might start with letters for the application and the environment, followed by a number. Programs, PROCs, transactions and user IDs have their own rules.
The rules exist because so much depends on names. Security profiles protect datasets by name patterns, SMS decides where datasets go and how long they are kept by name, schedulers and automation find jobs by name, and support staff recognise from a name alone what something is and whether it is production.
Following the standard is not optional. A dataset with the wrong name may be unprotected, placed on the wrong storage, deleted by a clean-up job, or rejected outright. When you create anything new, ask for the naming standard first.
Where can I learn this hands-on?
Right here, at ZedBank. You take a junior job at a simulated bank and learn each part of the work by doing it, with Zed beside you. There's nothing to install.
Start at ZedBankRelated
- Dataset nameThe full name of a dataset, written as dot-separated qualifiers of up to eight characters each.
- High-level qualifierThe first part of a dataset name, which usually identifies the owner and drives how security and storage rules apply.
- JobA unit of batch work submitted to the system, made up of one or more steps that run in order.
- Dataset profileA security rule describing which datasets it covers and who is allowed to do what to them.
- SMSThe Storage Management Subsystem: the z/OS feature that decides where new datasets go and how they are backed up, kept and deleted, using rules the site writes.