How are special resources used?

HCL Workload Automation for Z just keeps a record of the state of each resource and its allocation. The product does not know that PAYROLL.DATABASE is a database, and it is unaware that TAPES resources are tape drives. Only you know this, and you have the responsibility of making sure that the product knows the true availability of the objects that the resources represent.

VSAM will not tell HCL Workload Automation for Z when the payroll database is opened, and z/OS® is not going to tell HCL Workload Automation for Z when you vary a tape drive offline. This is your responsibility.

The best way to tell HCL Workload Automation for Z about changes in special resources is through the RODM interface. System components such as Automated Operations Control (AOC) inform RODM about changes to their resources. You can subscribe to RODM updates by setting the RODMTASK keyword on the OPCOPTS initialization statement, and using the RODMOPTS initialization statement. Refer to Customization and Tuning for details of initialization statements.

If you do not have RODM installed, and for resources that RODM does not know about, you can automatically notify HCL Workload Automation for Z about changes in resources by intercepting messages, for example, and issuing the HCL Workload Automation for Z SRSTAT command, or calling the EQQUSIN subroutine. If you cannot automatically notify HCL Workload Automation for Z of a change in resource status, use the Special Resource Monitor.