Within the first few minutes of the DTS Software May 2022 webinar: Getting What You Need – With REXX Execs, presenter and DTS CTO Steve Pryor proclaimed, “I’m going to do this mostly by example.” What followed was a steady stream of how-to examples and demos as Pryor looked at the REXX (Restructured Extended Executor) language, facilities, and philosophy, and how to quickly write REXX execs that can solve problems for both applications and systems programmers.

REXX Execs to Quickly and Accurately Obtain the Information You Need
Despite the many programming languages, utilities, and report generators available in mainframe systems, a z/OS® programmer is often faced with the problem of how to obtain the specific information he or she needs, quickly and accurately, and present it in a format that is easily understandable. Often the user is under time pressure, and the standard utilities can be inadequate, difficult to use, or can’t provide the necessary detail. REXX execs provide a simple yet powerful means of obtaining detailed data and the ability to distill it into useful information.

REXX Execs to Write Programs and Reports
REXX is a universal, high-level language that enables you to write programs and reports to get ad hoc information quickly and easily. REXX can be run in a multitude of different environments, performing single or groups of tasks that can include reading from a file, writing to a file, and accessing the catalog.

In addition, REXX can pull information from many different places both within z/OS and from other system services to:

• Access locations in virtual storage to read information from the OS control blocks
• Access dataset information
• Access system information
• Access tape management

Learn More in our Webinar Available On-Demand
Our May webinar is now available on-demand in the DTS webinar library. In addition to reviewing the video presentation and downloading the slide presentation from the webinar, we’re including two files containing REXX examples and the JCL for download.

As with each of our webinars, “Getting What You Need – With REXX Execs” is a 60-minute informative and educational look at an important topic in the mainframe space. It includes numerous examples, how-to guides, and references on where to find more information should you need it.

If you weren’t able to attend or would like to review the material presented, you can view it on-demand, download a copy of the slide deck, and view the examples shared during the presentation by using this link. And be sure to join us each month for our complimentary webinar series.

In our latest client case study, we give an overview of DTS’s ACC (Allocation Control Center) Monarch solution which helped this financial services client run more reliable jobs on IBM® z/OS® with fewer failures while enforcing SMS standards and preventing unwanted time and resource-consuming disk allocation and space errors.

This Fortune 500 client has been in business for nearly half a century and has a vast IT environment with a dozen production systems and many more test LPARs in several data centers across the US, along with hundreds of analysts and tens of thousands of end-users.

Freeing Up Resources for More Strategic Initiatives

They needed help implementing automation for their repeatable storage management tasks, which freed up human resources so they could focus on other more valuable modernization initiatives. With ACC Monarch, the financial services company was able to automate much of their workflow so that their programmers no longer had to manage dataset policy through a series of emails and memos.

As one of the largest financial services organizations in the world operating in a heavily regulated industry, disruptions, downtime, and noncompliance were unacceptable. The solution to help them automate their storage management tasks needed to be easy to learn, quick to deploy, and with a competitive total cost of ownership.

ACC Monarch was an ideal fit, as it is a system-level product that can examine each file selected for use to ensure consistent standards across the client’s vast computing landscape. Additionally, ACC Monarch gives users flexible control to easily examine, override and record JCL control statements and warn of incorrect usage, and manage datasets with easy-to-understand policy rules.

There’s no need for a complex ISPF interface to keep track of multiple sets of rules and policies, nor is there a need for hiring new personnel with JCL subject-matter expertise (an increasingly difficult specialty to hire for).

To learn more about how DTS’s superior customer service and expertise as a long-time z/OS solutions provider helped this Fortune 500 enterprise streamline their data storage and management and speed up IT modernization efforts, read our latest case study on DTS’s website.