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Status Not under consideration
Workspace z/OS
Categories BCP_Scheduler
Created by Guest
Created on May 27, 2025

RELATED IDEAS

JCL Maximum 255 steps

Good afternoon,

Due to an incident that occurred on 12/19/2025, we have noticed that some of the processes in our installation have failed because they reached the maximum of 255 steps.

We know this goes back to the beginning of JCL. However, we would like to propose an improvement so that JCL supports more than 255 steps.

A useful example is having a 255-step JCL and the last step calling a generic with two more steps.

This would add two more steps (257 steps), and since it already exceeds 255, it adds up.

We know that logically, we can propose splitting these processes into multiple JCLs to avoid problems. But after so many years, we believe this could evolve to support more than 255.

As a matter of consultation, we would like to know the following:

 

-Is there a technical reason why this hasn't been possible?

-Could an improvement be studied?

Idea priority Medium
  • Guest
    Jul 29, 2025
    IBM has evaluated the request, and has determined that it can not be implemented at this time or does not align with the current multi-year strategy. This request may be resubmitted for consideration after 12 months from the date of decline.
    Reply

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