Sharing Catalog and Spool Files Between JES Regions

Enterprise Server for .NET allows catalog and spool files to be shared between JES regions. This capability is typically needed when multiple regions need access to the same datasets. A job submitted to a region configured to use shared catalog and spool files will always be executed by an initiator associated with that region, irrespective of whether any other participating region has an initiator available to run it.

Sharing catalog and spool files between JES regions requires:

Creating a shared catalog definition in the cross-region database that defines the location of the catalog and associated data allocation folder. The Enterprise Server for .NET Administration UI or seeout utility can be used to do this.
Modifying the region start-up file of each participating region to associate it with the shared catalog definition.
Cold-starting each participating region.

When a region is configured to use shared catalog and spool files, the Spool view in the Enterprise Server for .NET Administration UI will by default show just those jobs that have been submitted to that region. However, the Spool view optionally allows you to display jobs that have been submitted by all participating regions and perform the usual release, flush and kill operations on them.

Note: A released job will always be executed by an initiator associated with the region that it was originally submitted to, and not by an initiator associated with the region that it was released from.