What on Earth is a Mainframe

Tutorial Name	Things you can try at home
Introduction to Mainframes
Mainframe Information Representation and Storage
Get your hands wet on a Mainframe
TSO/ISPF Commands
Structure of JCL	A JOB tells which Program to run, what's the Input-File and what's the Output-File. Click here for a simple Job-Listing that illustrates the Structure–of-JCL.
Basic Framework of JCL	DD Statement comes in 3 flavours, to read data from a Dataset, Create a New dataset and store output, and Print information to the Log. Click here for a Job-listing, that demonstrates the kinds of DD-Statements.
Multi-step Job Streams	A multi-step job is made up of a chain of several inter-linked steps. Each Step runs a Program, takes input from preceding step, processes the Data, and produces output to be fed to the next Step. Click here, to play around with a 3-Step Toy Job .
Submitting a Job	For This exercise, here are the artifacts 1. The Data Input File – referred to as 'AGY0157.DATA.INPUT'. Click here. You'll need this, before you try to run the 3 step-Job. 2. The JESMSGLG Message Log Listing – After submitting the job, this is what the Message-Log in the SPOOL looks like. Click here. 3. The JESJCL Listing – This will contain the original source-JCL. Click here. 4. The JESYSMSG Listing – This will contain any allocation/deallocation messages. Click here to see how it looks. 5. The Sorted Output SYSPRINT Listing – After running the 3-step toy-job, the Output Data is present in the SYSUT2 Listing of //STEP03. Click here to see it.