Introduction:

You are in the process of mass printer migration project and have to make adjustments to the CA Dispatch definitions to reflect your changes to the printers. 

You need to change the printer related fields including the DESTINATION field on the VRDMU130 screen and the PRINTER ID field used for OLV reprints on the VSGMU235 screen using batch job instead of manual updates to the screens.

Dispatch provides a BATCH utility called the DATABASE LOAD/UNLOAD utility that can be used to perform massive updates to the database records so that you don't have to perform the changes manually. There are a number of different database record types and fields that are available to the DATABASE LOAD/UNLOAD utility.

There are also two versions of the utility:

The DSEXLOD job runs with CA-Dispatch active, but requires that all of the subtasks (RPI,MSG,RPO,ARCHIVE,EXTRACT) be down to avoid contention. This job journals before and after pictures of every database record being modified and can run up to four times longer than the version that runs with Dispatch completely down. The second version of the utility is the DSEXLODL job. This version runs with Dispatch completely down.

Instructions: 

The first field that needs to be updated on the Dispatch database is the recipients Destination field, which is coded on the VRDMU130 screen. This specific field is located starting in offset 137 of the Dispatch "TYPE 3" record. 

Refer to the CA Dispatch System Programmers Guide , Chapter 12 – Using the Database Update Utility - Type 3 - Report Recipient Addition, Modification and Deletion for the format of Type 3 records.

The format of the UNLOAD control card for a TYPE 3 record is documented in the CA Dispatch System Programmers Guide , Chapter 12 – Using the Database Update Utility - Type 3 - Report Recipient Unload.

There are four fields available to the utility that allow you to selectively offload the TYPE 3 records from the database. You can optionally specify an asterisk in the Report Name, Jobname, Recipient or User fields if you want to offload ALL of the Type 3 records from the database.

The following is a sample of a LOADIN dataset to unload all the type 3 records in preparation of performing a MODIFY:

BROWSE    LOADIN.DSN3          

 Command ===>                            

----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4-

U3M *       *       *               *   

2)                 The second field that needs to be updated on the Dispatch database is the OLV User default Printer Id field, which is coded on the VSGMU235 screen. This specific field is located starting in offset 77 of the Dispatch "TYPE F" record.

Refer to the CA Dispatch System Programmers Guide , Chapter 12 – Using the Database Update Utility - Type F - Online Viewing User Add, Modify, Delete for the format of Type F records.

The format of the UNLOAD control card for a TYPE F record is documented in the CA Dispatch System Programmers Guide , Chapter 12 – Using the Database Update Utility - Type F - Online Viewing User Unload.

There is one field available to the utility to offload the TYPE F records from the database, User Identification. You can code an asterisk in this field to select all records.

The following is a sample of a LOADIN dataset to unload all the type F records in preparation of performing a MODIFY:

BROWSE    LOADIN.DSNF          

 Command ===>                            

----+----1----+----2----+----3----+----4-

UFMN*

Tips for running the DATABASE LOAD/UNLOAD utility.

The CONVERT symbolic in your submit JCL always points to the "input" file for the utility.

1)      UNLOADing phase

The CONVERT symbolic in your submit JCL points to a LOADIN.DSN dataset that has the unload control card.

This run will create an UNLOAD dataset that has all of the records in it.

Set the ALLOC symbolic to ALLOC='LT' for your first unload run only.

The unload function does not actually REMOVE the records from the database. It is only putting a picture of them in the unload file.

2)     Edit the UNLOAD dataset and update the fields with the appropriate value within records type 3 and F.

3)      LOADing phase

The CONVERT symbolic now points to the UNLOAD file that was created during the UNLOADing phase and has all of the updated records in it. The ALLOC symbolic should be set with ALLOC='LE' for the RELOAD run.

Note1: Consider performing the updates for record types 3 and F in two separate runs, doing type 3 first, then doing type F.

Note2: When you are done with the updates it is recommended that you validate that the changes were successful.

Additional Information:

The DATABASE LOAD/UNLOAD utility is documented in chapter 12 of the CA Dispatch System Programmers Guide , and in Chapter 18 in the CA Dispatch User Guide for the Report Administrators . Please refer to these sections of documentation for details on execution of the utility.

The record layout/format of the various database record types and fields available to the DATABASE LOAD/UNLOAD utility is shown in chapter 12 of the CA Dispatch System Programmers Guide in the section entitled Load Record Formats.