JCL Interview Questions

Gautam512 · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 7:16 pm

Hi All,

JCL Interview Questions are attached.
Hope it is useful.

JCL Questions.

1. What are all the Jcl statements used in Jcl? & What are the jcl statements you have coded so far?

A: JOB, DD , EXEC, INCLUDE.

2. What is the difference between the Positional parameters & keyword parameters, give examples where they are used?

A: Positional Parameters ----
Keyword Parameters ---- To specify in the JCL. Positioned wise specified.
Used along with DD, JOB statement.

3. What are the operands coded in a JOB statement?
A: Access, Room, Time , Msglevel, Msgclass, Notify, Typrun

4. How many characters can be coded for a jobname? What were you coding as a jobname?
A: Eight. Userid with two extra characters.

5. What is the difference between the Comment statement and the Comments? How they were coded in a jcl?
A:
They are coded in the JCL as “ //* Comments ”

6. How will you check the syntax of the JOB without executing it?
A: Typrun = Scan in the job card information will let us know the error in the JCL..

7. What are all the parameters needed in a DD statement to create a dataset thru Jcl? How a Partitioned dataset is created through JCL?
A: DD statement, Disp parameters , unit , volume , Space will be coded along with DD.
DD DSN= Dataset-name DISP= ( NEW, DELETE, KEEP )
DCB=( DSORG= PO, LRECL = 80 , BLKSIZE = 800 )

8. How is the Catalog procedure called from a JCL, if it is lying in your own datasets?
A: Through EXEC Proc-Name statement.

9. What is the difference between the Instream Procedure & Catalog Procedure?
A: Instream procedure is coded in the same JCL. Catalog procedure has to be called

10. What is the Symbolic parameter? What for it is needed? Where it is most commonly used?
A: Symbolic Parameter is used to pass the value to the Proc.

11. Can you explain the DISP Parameter in detail? What are the default DISP Parameters?
A: DISP = ( Status , normal_d , abnormal_d )
Status--- New , Old , Mod  To specify whether the dataset is existing or the new.
Normal Disposition --- Delete, Keep  Action to be taken when succesful
Abnormal Disposition --- Delete , keep  Action to be taken when not succesful
Default (New , delete, Delete ).
Default (Old, keep, keep)
Default (Mod, keep, keep)

12. What is the difference between the Referbacks & Overriding parameters? How are they coded in a JCL?
A:

13. How do you pass parameters to a program coded in an EXEC statement?
A: By specifying Parm =

14. In how many ways can you create a VSAM dataset? Thru JCL How will you create a VSAM dataset ? Can you write a JCL for this?
A: Using DD statement.

15. What is a GDG? How will you create a GDG? Can a GDG be used for Partitioned Datasets?
A: Generation Dataset Group , Chronological relation between physical datasets.
Define GDG( NAME )
Limit(nnnn)
Empty/Noempty
Scratch/ NoScratch

16. What are the parameters used in creating a GDG? Explain in detail? Can you alter
the parameters for the existing GDG? If yes, How?
A: Define GDG( NAME )
Limit(nnnn)  No. Of generations to be created
Empty/Noempty  When the limit reaches what action has to be taken.
Empty  Empties the datatset when the limit is reached.
NoEmpty  When the level is reached only the oldest generation will be
deleted.
Scratch/ NoScratch  When the dataset is deleted Scratch will delete the
Generation completely. NoScratch will uncatalog the
dataset.
GDG parameters can be altered.

17. What for the Model dataset used for a GDG? How much space will you give to the Model Dataset?
A:

18. How many Maximum generations can be created for a GDG? How will you create a Generation dataset?
A: 255. Using DD statement
DD dsn= xxx.yyyyyy. zzzzzz. G000001.v000001(+1).

19. What is the E37 error? How will you resolve it with out losing a single byte of data? (Hint: This Error comes when you save the dataset after editing it)
A: Space Error.

20. What is SOC7 abend? How do you resolve it?
A: Data movement error . When an alpha numeric item is moved to numeric item field.

Thanks,
Gau