Migrating an ADCD z/OS release: user data sets, user catalogs and High Level Qualifier

Start here:Migrating an ADCD z/OS release to the next release.

I have covered datasets, aliases and catalogs in One minute mvs: catalogs and datasets.

If your master catalog is a mess

If you have your personal data sets in the master catalog instead of a user catalog, see Here’s another nice mess I’ve gotten into!

You could start again on the new system and do it properly.

Note down which volumes your data sets are on. On the new system define a user catalog and alias, and use ISPF 3.4, to list the contents of the volume and use the C local command to catalog the data set.

I found the easiest way of doing VSAM datasets is a backup and restore

If you have a user catalog for your user data sets

You need to get a list of the user aliases in the master catalog on the old system, and the user catalogs the aliases refer to, before trying to import them into the new system. I could not find a way to list the master catalog from another system. See here for example JCL

To access your data sets in a user catalog you need to import the catalog into the master catalog on the new system, and define the aliases for your data to the catalog.

On your new system, you will not have immediate access to your data sets, so you either need

• to access a dataset, and specify the volser information,
• or you need to have a copy of the JCL to import a user catalog, and define alias, stored in a note pad area outside of z/OS. Edit a member such as USER.*.PROCLIB(TEMP) and paste the import catalog JCL. When that has worked, paste in the add alias to your datasets ( COLIN.*). Once you have done this, you can use ISPF 3.4 and use COLIN.* to locate your data sets.

Once you have your list of aliases and user catalogs, you can IPL the new system and import the user catalogs, and define the aliases.

Product data sets

There is usually an alias in the master catalog for a program product. The alias may have the product release as part of the name. If you have customised any of the product owned datasets, you may need to copy the data off.