IOF
Year 2000
Compliance

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The Interactive Output Facility
Release 7D
Support for the Year 2000
Updated May 17, 1999

IOF Release 7D is year-2000 ready.  All known problems associated with running IOF with the system clock set beyond January 1, 2000 have been fixed.  The High Priority Y2K Fixes page describes all maintenance required for Y2K operation.  Should any additional problems be discovered, they will receive top priority for resolution.

Although the IOF product is minimally affected by year 2000 considerations, it is date sensitive in these ways:

IOF developers and many customers have successfully tested Release 7D with the system date set to various dates in the year 2000 and later.  IOF 7D accurately displays and controls jobs, devices and initiators for all tested dates.   IOF 7D displays four digits for the year in date displays.   Job-age calculation is accurate across the century boundary.  Sorting on date fields correctly positions the jobs run before the year 2000 with jobs run after January 1, 2000.

The table below shows all the fields that display date and time information in all IOF panels.  The abbreviations used in the display format are: 

IOF Panel---------------Field------7C Display Format-------7D Change-----Description-----------------
Job List (Output Jobs)  TIMECOND   ddd hh:mm               no change     Condensed oldest output time
Job List (Output Jobs)  AGE        yyddd hh:mm:ss          yy --> yyyy.  Time run (oldest output)
Job List (with EXTEND)  RAN        hh:mm mo/dd/yy dayname  yy --> yyyy   Time and day run
Job List (with EXTEND)  DATETIME   yymodd hhmm             yy --> yyyy   Date/time job ran/received
Job List (with EXTEND)  JDATE      yyddd                   yy --> yyyy.  Julian date job ran/received
Job Summary             RAN        hh:mm mo/dd/yy dayname  yy --> yyyy   Time and day run
Job Summary             RDRON      hh:mm mo/dd/yy          yy --> yyyy   Reader on time
Job Summary             CONVERT    hh:mm mo/dd/yy          yy --> yyyy   Converter time
Job Summary             XEQON      hh:mm mo/dd/yy          yy --> yyyy   Execution start
Job Summary             XEQOFF     hh:mm mo/dd/yy          yy --> yyyy   Execution end
Output Group Display    CREATE     yyddd hh:mm:ss          yy --> yyyy.  Group created
Multi Access Spool      LASTCKPT   mm/dd/yy hh:mm:ss.cc    no change     See note below

The MAS panel LASTCKPT field displays the time in .01 seconds when the last checkpoint was taken. This field is usually no more than a few seconds old so we choose to display only the 2-digit year.  The condensed TIMECOND field does not contain the year so it did not change.  The format of RAN, DATETIME, RDRON, CONVERT, XEQON and XEQOFF have changed to display the 4-digit year.  The AGE, JDATE and CREATE fields have changed to display a 4-digit year and a period delimiter between the year and day number fields.

Several distributed IOF clists and execs display the date in output reports.  Expanded date formats as described above are displayed by the 7D versions of these clists and execs.  User-developed clists and execs that fetch IOF date fields with the TSICOPY command will obtain the new expanded date format when running under release 7D.

IOF Job Archival and Retrieval (IOF/JAR) generates directory and offload data set names that contain the current date with a 2-character year.  These data set names have not been changed.  The UPLOAD dialog has been changed however to display the 4-character year in the directory table display.

The SLAMARCH command generates a data set name for archiving SYSLOG and OPERLOG data that contains the 2-character year.  The "L ARCH" command dialog expands this to a 4-character year in the archive data set dialog.

After application of IBM PTF UW28980, the HCFORMAT(CENTURY) parm can be specified in the CONSOLxx member of SYS1.PARMLIB to cause 4-digit years to be displayed in the system log (SYSLOG). IOF also uses this parm to determine the sysplex OPERLOG date format.  The 7D versions of IOF SLAM clists have been updated to detect and adapt automatically to the format of the year being used in SYSLOG and OPERLOG.  Customer-written SLAM condition definitions may need to be modified slightly when a 4-character year is used in the system log.   See the 7D SLAMDEF and SLAMINST clists for detailed information about how to make the required changes.

IOF Release 7D supports a new CPU-dependent expiration date patch that allows continuous testing with the system clock set between the dates of June 1, 1999 and July 31, 2001.  Each site is authorized to order a test patch for one currently licensed CPU at no additional charge.   Order the special 7D Year 2000 Test Expiration Patch by clicking here.  The customized test patch will be e-mailed to you.  Apply this patch to your year 2000 test machine.

There is an alternate way to run a short-term year 2000 test.  The special expiration date patches below allow IOF 7D (or 7C) to be tested with the system clock set through December 31, 2000.  With the appropriate patch applied, a "LICENSE" warning will be displayed on the first IOF screen, but IOF will function normally until the second midnight after the system IPL.  This provides at least 24 hours of testing for each IPL of the system.

To apply the patch, edit the A50EXPIR member of the IOF options library and replace the existing "REP" statement(s) with the appropriate (TSO or CICS) "REP" statement shown below.  Then, run the M40EXPIR job from the IOF install library to apply the patch. 


  REP 00  5785,B2D2,05DC,BE31   IOF/TSO Temporary Year 2000 Patch


  REP 00  684F,C56D,B394,7095   IOF/CICS Temporary Year 2000 Patch

DO NOT APPLY THESE PATCHES TO YOUR PRODUCTION SYSTEM.  They are intended for testing only. When applied, IOF will run only until the second midnight after each IPL.