Mainframe Playground

About this website

Welcome to Mainframe Playground, website in which you will find useful practical exercises from many areas of z/OS system and related software. Exercises are designed for people new in mainframe area. Each assignment provides clear direction, hints and solution with short explanation. This concept was caused by the lack of similar exercises in official training that is designed mostly for theoretical education, without practice and repetition such training tend to be simply forgotten overtime.


Each assignment is made from many exercises called tasks. Tasks are divided into three categories based on their risk:
- Risk 1 - it can be done on any test system. This tasks do not interfere with any system function.
- Risk 2 - it can be done on any test system only if you have approval from System Administrator. This tasks either change some less critical system setting or are simply risky because of their complexity or possibility of mistake.
- Risk 3 - it can be done only on the system where you are Administrator. This tasks either change some very important system setting or are very risky to do.

Website was created to help others with developing their skills, but I am also learning. I also want this website to provide high quality useful materials, because of this I am grateful for any feedback, especially if:
- you would like me to include exercises on specific topic,
- you've noticed description that is not fully clear or lacks something,
- you've found mistake or obsolete information,
- you have any idea or advise toward this website.
E-mail address: mainframeplayground@gmail.com

Updates

2019.03.23 - 16 new exercises added to COBOL section:
- Good Coding Practices - 11 exercises
- Working with DB2 - Part III - Transactional Processing - 4 exercises
- CALL statement - 1 exercise

2018.11.01 - Mainframe Playground was featured in the official IBM Systems Magazine: Link

2018.09.28 - 40 new exercises related to SQL query performance:
DB2 & SQL:
- Loading a test database into DB2 - 5 exercises
- Concurrency & Locking - 6 exercises
- DB2 Performance - Basics - 11 exercises
- DB2 Performance - Indexes - 5 exercises
- DB2 Performance - Predicates - 5 exercises
COBOL:
- Working with DB2 – Part II – Locks & Performance - 8 exercises
Also, a few corrections in "Intrinsic functions" and "Working with DB2 – Part I – Basics" Assignments.

2018.05.31 - 7 new Assignments were added and 2 old one updated. 55 exercises in total:
- Structures and tables - 1 exercise
- Working with sequential files - 3 exercises
- CALL statement - 9 exercises
- Error handling - 6 exercises
- Standard functions - 11 exercises
- SORT & MERGE statements - 6 exercises
- Intrinsic functions - 7 exercises
- Working with DB2 - Part I - Basics - 8 exercises
- Using copybooks - 4 exercises
PayPal Donate button added.

2018.03.13 - New category "COBOL" with 7 new assignments. 53 exercises in total:
- Executing COBOL programs - 8 exercises
- PERFORM & GO TO - 5 exercises
- Structures and tables - 10 exercises
- PICTURE - 8 exercises
- USAGE - 5 exercises
- Working with Sequential files - 8 exercises
- Working with Indexed and Relative files - 9 exercises

2018.01.01 - New category "DB2 & SQL" added with 3 big assignments. 27 exercises in total:
- Setting up a database - 7 exercises
- SQL Basics - 11 exercieses
- Automatizing data load - 9 exercises

2017.11.09 - Four new tools added:
- RACF Command Extractor
- Batch Workload Reporter
- XLS & CSV Creator
- UNITOOLS

2017.08.09 - 3 Tools and 6 new assignments with 34 exercises:
Tools:
- SYSLOG Message Extractor
- Spool Usage Monitor (Health Check)
- COND to IF converter
REXX:
- Executing REXX scripts - 5 exercises
SMF & RMF:
- Extracting batch workload statistics - 3 exercises
System Programming:
- Installing a basic STC - 9 exercises
- Setting up Health Checker - 7 exercises
- Working with Health Checks - 5 exercises
- Writing REXX checks - 5 exercises

2017.01.26 - New category "Utilities" added with 69 exercises:
- IEBGENER - 5 exercises
- IEBCOPY - 4 exercises
- IEHLIST - 3 exercises
- IEBDG - 2 exercises
- IEBUPDTE - 2 exercises
- IEBCOMPR - 2 exercises
- IEHPROGM - 2 exercises
- ISRSUPC - 4 exercises
- IKJEFT* - 4 exercises
- SDSF - 5 exercises
- BPXBATCH - 5 exercises
- IDCAMS - 8 exercises
- DFSORT - 9 exercises
- ADRDSSU - 11 exercises
- Executing Utilities without JCL - 3 exercises

2016.11.25 - 23 new exercises added in JES2 category & few small corrections.
- Managing JES2 - 8 exercises
- PROCLIB concatenation - 5 exercises
- Spool - 6 exercises
- Checkpoint Data Set - 4 exercises

2016.10.06 - Tab with links added & some small updates.

2016.06.04 - Workaround for 591737 Firefox bug applied. Infographic added.

2016.06.04 - 39 new exercises added.
System Programming:
- EREP Facility - 9 exercises
- SYSLOG & OPERLOG - 9 exercises
TWS:
- Using Periods and Run Cycles - 6 exercises
- Creating Special Resources - 6 exercises
- Managing Application Execution - 9 exercises

2016.04.20 - 17 new exercises in "SMF & RMF" section. 7 new exercises in "IPL & PARMLIB".

2016.01.26 - Website start. 133 exercises available in following categories: JCL(95), TWS(27), SDSF(6), RMF(5), PARMLIBs(3), System Programming(3).