I will second what Lizette said, but also, I have to ask, the 'other' person tapped to take over, was she a sysprog ? new to SMP/E? seems 2 years is a long time for any maint not applied to any security product. you should concentrate on your current situation, research the use of APPLY/ RESTORE with group or groupextend, research why a PTF will not apply or restore, it may be a valid reason, not all PTF's will apply or restore. I suggest an SMP/E course sooner than later
Carmen Vitullo ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lizette Koehler" <stars...@mindspring.com> To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2019 10:17:17 AM Subject: Re: Newbie SMP/E questions The other option is to see if the ISPF environment has the ISPF SMP/E panels available. That also can help reduce the stress of using SMP/E REC/APP/REST/REJ/ACC are pretty easy to do. Try not to get lost in the details. The panels will wrap JCL around what you are going to do. I save that off to a dataset and then I have a sample of how to do each. Lizette > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On Behalf Of > Lizette Koehler > Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2019 9:15 AM > To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU > Subject: Re: Newbie SMP/E questions > > For supporting any CA Product, you should be using if possible, CA MSM. > > This is a gui interface that makes CA SMP/E maintenance easier > > It pulls the fixes, and you just select what you want it does the rest. > > Do you have CAMSM available to you? > > Lizette > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU> On > > Behalf Of Bob Bridges > > Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2019 9:07 AM > > To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU > > Subject: Newbie SMP/E questions > > > > I'm the Top-Secret admin for a client whose system programmer retired > > a couple years ago. The client tapped another employee to take his > > place, and she's learning the job with frantic haste but insists with > > some justification that she's not a system programmer yet. Me, I came > > into security through the applications-development side so I'm not even > close. > > > > Together she and I are trying to learn SMP/E. The immediate purpose > > is so we can apply some TSS-related PTFs, but really, it's become > > clear to me that we need no excuses to make it a priority; SMP/E is kind of > important. > > > > I have embarked on a serious reading of the SMP/E User's Guide, but I > > still need help. I'll limit myself to a handful of questions to start > with: > > > > Question #1) We started by applying a PTF - call it A for simplicity - > > and its prerequisite B. We did that last August and then the project > > languished for the sake of other priorities. Now we're working on it > > again and we want to restore those two PTFs and do the APPLY again. > > Why? Well, partly because it was 'way back in August and we're > > uncertain about exactly how we did it back then. We know more now. > > Partly because we know more now and we want to practice it better. I > > dunno, partly because we just want to. I think maybe we bypassed some > HOLDs back then too. > > > > Anyway, we attempted the RESTORE, but we got lots and lots of error > > messages saying we need to include other PTFs in the RESTORE. Some of > > these have an indirect connection to A and B; B superceded at least > > three of them, for example, which I can see were applied some years > > ago. Others have no relation to our PTFs that I can discern. I > > haven't yet found the place in the User's Guide that explains these > > relationship and their relevance. Can someone give a helpful explanation? > > > > Question #2) So far as we can tell by issuing LIST XREF commands, > > whoever ran this thing in the past never did any ACCEPT, ever, except > > for the original function code. I see at least 11 PTFs that were > > applied (including our two), but the distribution library shows no PTFs for > any module I've yet LISTed. > > If true, does that mean that to do a RESTORE of our two PTFs we'll > > have to RESTORE everything back to the plain-vanilla base? > > > > Question #3) My partner the not-sysprog has in mind that maybe we need > > to set aside this CSI (which is dedicated to Top Secret) and create > > another one starting with the base software and build up from there. > > I didn't realize this could be done, but she thinks she can do it. If > > it'll work, I like it; we'll know in that case what we have, which we > > do not at present. Anyone have any thoughts on this plan? > > > > Question #4) This is a less-important add-on: In both the online > > documentation and the User's Guide, I read if I'm doing a RESTORE and > > name PTFs A and B, including the GROUP operand causes SMP/E to add > > whatever other PTFs are required for various reasons. It doesn't seem > > to, though; it names them and complains about them, but doesn't add > > them to the list. Have I misunderstood something? I'm loathe to > > believe the documentation is flat wrong. > > > > If you're getting ready to send rushed messages saying "DON'T DO > > ANYTHING UNTIL YOU'VE CHECKED...", relax; we're planning to go slow. > > > > --- > > Bob Bridges, cell 336 382-7313 > > robhbrid...@gmail.com > > rbrid...@infosecinc.com > > > > /* Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he is > > supposed be doing at that moment. -Robert Benchley */ > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send > > email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to > lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
