Discover Something New Daily

From productivity hacks to creative hobbies - Explore comprehensive guides that inspire action

Fail

Enhanced Definition

In the context of IBM mainframe systems, to **fail** refers to the abnormal termination or inability of a program, job, transaction, or system component to complete its intended function successfully. This typically results from encountering an unrecoverable error, violating system rules, or exhausting critical resources, leading to an `ABEND` (Abnormal End) or a specific error condition.

Key Characteristics

- Abnormal Termination (ABEND): The most common manifestation of a failure, indicated by a system ABEND code (e.g., S0C4 for a protection exception) or a user ABEND code (e.g., U4038 for a program-defined error).
- Return Codes: Programs and utilities communicate their execution status via return codes; a non-zero value typically signifies a failure, warning, or conditional success.
- Diagnostic Messages: Failures are almost always accompanied by specific error messages in job logs (SYSOUT), SYSLOG, or transaction logs, providing crucial diagnostic information.
- Impact on Processing: A failure can halt subsequent job steps, prevent transactions from committing, compromise data integrity, or impact the availability of online systems.
- Resource Exhaustion: Failures can be triggered by insufficient system resources such as memory (REGION), CPU time (TIME), or disk space.

Use Cases

- JCL Job Step Failure: A COBOL program in a batch job attempts to divide by zero, causing an S0C7 ABEND and terminating the current job step.
- CICS Transaction Failure: A CICS transaction tries to access a file that is not open or defined to CICS, resulting in a transaction ABEND (e.g., ASRA for