Effective July 31, 2000, automatic data set protection (ADSP) will be turned off on the North system. At that time, a discrete profile will no longer be automatically built whenever a new disk data set is created. All existing data sets, of course, will continue to be protected by their existing discrete profiles. CIT is making this change in preparation for the OS/390 standard system that will be available starting in August.

Newly created data sets will be protected by generic profiles created either by the user or by CIT. The CIT-generated generic profiles are based on the high-level qualifiers for user data sets ($iii) and for all agency data sets (aaa) and have UACC’s of NONE with no access list. Like the discrete profiles created by ADSP, these generic profiles limit data set access to the owner until access is granted to others. Unlike discrete profiles, generic profiles pre-exist data set creation and can vastly simplify the process of granting access. Creating a generic profile is usually a one-time process, whereas discrete profiles require constant attention.

Over the past nine months CIT staff members have been working with individual agencies to assist in setting up and modifying generic RACF profiles. If your group would like to take advantage of this assistance, call TASC and arrange a consultation with CIT staff.

For more information on generic profiles see the next article: "Operating in the Generic RACF Profile Environment." Information about how to use generic profiles may also be found on the North system Web page, http://silkad.nih.gov/. Articles in the September 1999 and March 2000 issues can be found at http://datacenter.cit.nih.gov/interface.

Interface 214 (June 23, 2000)