XPFC V3R3 Installation & Testing Notes

Site Software Requirements
XPFC Version 3 Release 2 is no longer supported.

XPFC Version 3 Release 3 will support the following OS/390 levels;

	OS/390 Release 1 ....... right thru to Release 2.8
	OS/390 Release 2.9 is planned for 3rd Qtr 2000

Please also note the following;

There is no version of XPFC that runs under MVS/JES3

Online XPFC Installation & Testing Considerations
It is strongly recommended that an MVS Test Partition or Secondary JES2 system be available to allow installation and testing during normal working hours and without disruption to the Production service.

If using a Secondary JES2 environment, then there are testing considerations that may determine the best way to configure the Secondary JES2 according to site requirements.

It can be a totally isolated system with it's own Spool and Checkpoint Volume, but it is necessary to generate sample Production output however which is not as easily accomplished as with the Primary JES because normal Applications will only communicate with the Primary JES.

It is not straightforward to create all Production output on Secondary JES directly.

There are two ways to ensure that Secondary JES can access Production output easily, both of which require some small adjustment to the Primary JES2 System Parameters and a warm start to bring into effect;

Run the Secondary JES2 as a member of a Multi-Access Spool system sharing the Primary JES2 Spool and Checkpoint This provides an easy way of ensuring that Secondary JES can access Production output as it can view the same JES2 Spool data as the Primary, but there are some Operational differences that may be noticeable to Operators of the Primary JES when the Secondary JES is being started and stopped or has been abnormally terminated.

Run the Secondary JES2 as an NJE node defined locally to the Primary JES2 Running as an independent NJE node means that output for the Secondary JES must be transmitted from the Primary JES2 but the two JES2 systems are operationally isolated which may be considered preferable ...... and highly desirable !

The Xerox printer(s) must be available for testing from the Test Partition or Secondary JES to verify correct printing of test output. If the printer is not easily available during the daytime, it is possible to verify that XPFC is functioning correctly by using a non-Xerox printer upon which test output can be printed/inspected.

The XPFC inserted cover sheet information and DJDE packets will be visible for verification provided that XPFC is configured to intervene on the output Class used and the name of the printer used (check against the specifications of the **PRINTERS/**RPRINTERS/**REMOTES features) .......... but note also that **PRINTERS and **RPRINTERS features are only available in XPFC V3R3 onwards.

This "inspection" printer could even be a small desktop printer managed by JES328X, for instance.

Such a device may be defined to JES2 as, say RMT180. In order for XPFC to intervene on output destined for that printer, the Configurator File must be modified to include the following options during this test;

	Include the Keyword "USEREMOTES" under the **OPTIONS Section
	Code a **REMOTES Section as follows;

**REMOTES

180

Offline XPFC Installation & Testing Considerations
The OFFLINE environment is much less restrictive than for ONLINE as it runs as a discrete External Writer Task.

This means that installation does not need a separate MVS Test Partition or Secondary JES to isolate testing from the Production service.

A test XPFC OFFLINE External Writer procedure can be set up and used for initial (and subsequent) testing and no adjustments to the JES2 Initialisation Parameters followed by a warm start are necessary.

If the Xerox printer is not readily available for printing test output, it is possible to verify that XPFC is functioning correctly by directing the output (DDNAME IEFRDER in the External Writer Proc.) to a Dasd Dataset rather than a Magnetic Tape unit.

The XPFC inserted cover sheet information and DJDE packets will be visible for verification provided that XPFC is configured to intervene on the output Class used.

The DCB attributes of this Dasd Dataset should be;

LRECL=255, BLKSIZE=6144, and RECFM=VBM

XPFC Configurator File ONLINE/OFFLINE Sharing Considerations
If running both ONLINE and OFFLINE XPFC, it is desirable to share the same Configurator File for ease of maintenance.

This is normally quite feasible, as any Configurator File features that are ONLINE only (eg, **REMOTES, **PRINTERS) are simply ignored during OFFLINE processing.

However, there are some DJDE constructs that differ between ONLINE and OFFLINE, ..... such as "FONTINDEX" and "DATA" keywords. This is simply down to how the Xerox printer interprets the input data when running either in online or offline mode and is well documented in the appropriate Xerox documentation ...... even though it is often ignored !.

In this case, separate versions of the XPFC Configurator File are required to achieve correct operation in both the environments.

It should be noted that if Font Indexing is determined by the coding of "OPTCD=J" or "TRC=YES" in the originating JCL specified by using the XPFC runtime parameter &+FI, then the ONLINE/OFFLINE difference is catered for automatically at run-time.

For ONLINE, the DJDE

FONTINDEX=(0,ZERO),DATA=(1,300)

is generated, whilst for OFFLINE

FONTINDEX=(1,ZERO),DATA=(2,300)

is generated.

In this situation ONLINE/OFFLINE compatibility is maintained.