GDG (Generation Data Groups) with Data Services?

[Former Member]

I have a customer who is generating a GDG file on a mainframe. It is a specific way for naming files, etc.

From my reading and research, Data Services doesn't seem to handle this natively. I don't see any mention of this in either the admin/DS guide.

Is there any way to appropriately handle this? I was not able to find good references or suggestions anywhere online either.

[Former Member]

Hi Alden

Not sure what you mean by "handle" here?

BODS does not run on a mainframe so would not natively interact with the mainframe method of referencing GDG's.

GDG file names are maintained via the catalog on the mainframe, managed by the OS. So a native mainframe job might refer to a GDG (via JCL) as "filename(0)", which would be the latest file written in the group. Under the covers on the mainframe the file will have a normal full file name (filename.nnnnnnn) that is generated by the GDG mechanism. That filename can be determined from a catalog listing.

If you need to be able to read a GDG file into BODS then you will need the full native file name, or rename the file to something simpler. I doubt if you will be able to write to a GDG and have it maintained correctly in the system catalog.