We recently installed RDzUT. We are able to IPL successfully and login using IBMUSER ID.
First time logging in using IBMUSER:
After logging in to TSO/ISPF, everything looks fine. There are about 59 datasets in volume SBSYS1. There are 10 datasets named USER.* in the SBSYS1 volume. These datasets are empty (i.e., no members in these PDS's), but accessible.
Then, we just logoff without performing any other action.

Logging in for the second time:
Then, if we try to login again, we are facing issues due to certain datasets being not accessible. Most of these datasets are starting with USER.* qualifier and ALL of them are in the SBSYS1 volume. These datasets are present in the logon PROC and since these are not available, the ISPPROF, ISPPLIB, SYSPROC, etc. DD allocations fail. After manually allocating these DD (by excluding the USER.* datasets from the concatenation), using alloc command from READY prompt, we are able to login to ISPF. But, we get further issues when creating and accessing datasets in SBSYS1 volume. For example, if we create a dataset named IBMUSER.CNTL in the SBSYS1 volume, then every time we try to access this dataset through option 3.4, we get some error messages in the log indicating that there is some problem in accessing the catalog:
IEC331I 028-002,IBMUSER ,ISPFPROC,IGG0CLEG
IEC331I CATALOG.Z111S.MASTER
IEC331I IBMUSER.CNTL
IEC332I GETO,GFL ,ICDV,ACD1

Also, datasets like USER.CLIST appear in 3.4 option (DSLIST), but if we try to edit them, we get the message "Data set not found". We can see only 41 datasets under SBSYS1 volume if we just enter the volume name in option 3.4. The USER.* datasets are not appearing. (it appears as if the catalog entry exists, but the VTOC entry is missing). There were 59 of them when we logged in for the first time.
Our understanding of root cause:
The VVDS or VTOC of the volume SBSYS1 gets corrupted once we logoff from IBMUSER TSO/ISPF session the first time. We have tried restoring the system volumes from the installation disks and re-start the z/OS system freshly. Every time, the SBSYS1 volume gets corrupted after the first logon/logoff of IBMUSER. Only thing that happens during the first logon of IBMUSER is the creation of ISPF profile dataset IBMUSER.ISPF.ISPPROF. This dataset gets automatically created in SBSYS1 volume. Somehow, this corrupts the VVDS/VTOC/Catalog entries related to other datasets in that volume. Please note: The master catalog resides on SBSYS1 volume, and the IBMUSER.* datasets get cataloged in the master catalog.

Snapshot of devmap defining the SBSYS1 volume:
manager
name awsckd 0001
device 0a80 3390 3990 /home/z/SBRES1
device 0a81 3390 3990 /home/z/SBRES2
device 0a82 3390 3990 /home/z/SBSYS1

Output of ls -l command to see the properties of SBSYS1 file in Linux:
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 ibmsys1 ibmsys1 2846431232 Oct 17 15:15 /home/z/SBSYS1

Output of awsstat a82 command:
Config file: /home/ibmsys1/aprof11, IOCDS: None, 3270port: 3270
DvNbr S/Ch --Mgr--- Actv Busy PID -------------------Device Information-------------------
0A82 34 AWSCKD Yes Yes 7487 Cyl-676, Head-0 /home/z/SBSYS1

Can anyone suggest what could be causing the corruption of VTOC/VVDS/Catalog after the first dataset (IBMUSER.ISPF.ISPPROF) is cataloged and IBMUSER logs off? Any advice or suggestion will be of great help for us.
Thank you!

An update:
After logging on for the first time, when the catalog related error messages have not yet started appearing, I ran an IDCAMS DIAGNOSE job with COMPAREDD against the VVDS of SYSBS1 volume. This shows an error "CATLG AND VVDS NAMES UNEQUAL" for 5 entries:
SYS1.ACDS.DATA
SYS1.IODF00
SYS1.IODF01
SYS1.IODF99
SYS1.SCDS.DATA

Snapshot of the dump of the ICFCAT and VVDS records shown in the output:
ICFCAT:
*....C....SYS1.ACDS *

• ...........*

....?.......D....SYS1.ACDS.DATA.
..............?.........SBSYS1..
*.................. *

VVDS:
....Z......SYS1.ACDS.DATA..SYS1.
ACDS..CATALOG.Z16.MASTER.SYS1.AC
DS.... -...........{...... .....
....................%...........

It looks like the VVDS entries of these datasets are pointing to an incorrect, non-existing catalog name (CATALOG.Z16.MASTER). The correct master catalog name where these datasets are cataloged is CATALOG.Z111S.MASTER.

This inconsistency between BCS and VVDS entries could be causing the further cooruption of master catalog. I don't know if it is possible to fix the above VVDS Catalog mismatch issue. Please let me know if anyone has any suggestions after looking at the above update.

Thanks!

Have you made SMS changes? These are not the values as supplied on the distributed volumes. Is it possible for you to reload volume SBSYS1 from the media?

RDzJohn

Hi RDzJohn,

No. We have not made any changes. I have tried restoring the SBSYS1 volume (and other system volumes like SBRES1, SBRES2, SBUSS1, etc.) from the installation disks several times. Every time, the catalog issues start after we logoff from TSO/ISPF for the first time and login again. I ran the above mentioned DIAGNOSE command "immediately" after logging on for the first time, after a fresh restore of the system volumes from installation DVDs. So, it looks like the VVDS entries in the original SBSYS1 image from installation disks itself are corrupted.

We've not had any reported problems in this area. What release of RDz-UT are you currently running? You mention you are on z/OS 1.11, so I suspect v.8.0.1? Did you get S&S with your purchase and is there any possibility you could move up to the current release? I realize this would be a large move, but you might get resolution quicker since we don't support the z/OS software in the RDz-UT, RD&T package.

RDzJohn

Yes, our version is 8.0.1.
I shall check with our IBM contact regarding how we can upgrade to a latest version.
Thanks for your response!

We are re-looking into the above issue again.
After restoring all the volumes from installation disks and IPL, during first logon from IBMUSER, I was performing the initial configuration changes recommended from the configuration guide. One of the step is to define 2 user catalogs:
DEFINE USERCATALOG (NAME(USERCAT.VUSER00) ICFCATALOG -
CYLINDERS(10 5) VOLUME(USER00) )
DEFINE USERCATALOG (NAME(USERCAT.VSYSUT1) ICFCATALOG -
CYLINDERS(5 5) VOLUME(SYSUT1) )

Out of the above, the first one went through fine, but the second one gave an error indicating some cataloging issue. USER00 is a mod-9 volume and SYSUT1 is a mod-3 volume. Could it be possible that somehow the system is not able to process the mod-3 volumes properly? (All the system volumes from the installation disk are mod-3 volumes). Please let me know if this rings any bell for anyone on what we can check to debug this issue.

Below is the devmap:
system
memory 4096m
processors 1
3270port 3270

manager
name aws3274 0002
device 0700 3279 3274 mstcon
device 0701 3279 3274 L701
device 0702 3279 3274 L702
device 0703 3279 3274 L703
device 0704 3279 3274 L704
device 0705 3279 3274 L705
device 0706 3279 3274 L706
device 0707 3279 3274 L707
device 0708 3279 3274 L708
device 0709 3279 3274 L709
device 070A 3279 3274 L70A
device 070B 3279 3274 L70B
device 070C 3279 3274 L70C
device 070D 3279 3274 L70D
device 070E 3279 3274 L70E
device 070F 3279 3274 L70F
device 0710 3279 3274 L710
device 0711 3279 3274 L711
device 0712 3279 3274 L712
device 0713 3279 3274 L713
device 0714 3279 3274 L714
device 0715 3279 3274 L715
device 0716 3279 3274 L716
device 0717 3279 3274 L717
device 0718 3279 3274 L718
device 0719 3279 3274 L719
device 071A 3279 3274 L71A
device 071B 3279 3274 L71B
device 071C 3279 3274 L71C
device 071D 3279 3274 L71D
device 071E 3279 3274 L71E
device 071F 3279 3274 L71F
manager
name awsckd 0001
device 0a80 3390 3990 /home/z/sbres1
device 0a81 3390 3990 /home/z/sbres2
device 0a82 3390 3990 /home/z/sbsys1
device 0a83 3390 3990 /home/z/sbuss1
device 0a84 3390 3990 /home/z/sbbbn1
device 0a85 3390 3990 /home/z/sbbbn2
device 0a86 3390 3990 /home/z/sbprd1
device 0a87 3390 3990 /home/z/sbprd2
device 0a88 3390 3990 /home/z/sbprd3
device 0a89 3390 3990 /home/z/sbdis1
device 0a8a 3390 3990 /home/z/sbdis2
device 0a8b 3390 3990 /home/z/sbdis3
device 0a8c 3390 3990 /home/z/sbdis4
device 0a8d 3390 3990 /home/z/sbdis5
device 0a8e 3390 3990 /home/z/sbdis6
device 0a8f 3390 3990 /home/z/sares1
device 0a90 3390 3990 /home/z/sbwas1
device 0a91 3390 3990 /home/z/sbwas2
device 0a92 3390 3990 /home/z/sbwas3
device 0a93 3390 3990 /home/z/sbdb91
device 0a94 3390 3990 /home/z/sbdb92
device 0a95 3390 3990 /home/z/sbdb93
device 0a96 3390 3990 /home/z/sbcic1
device 0a97 3390 3990 /home/z/sbims1
device 0a98 3390 3990 /home/z/sbims2
device 0a99 3390 3990 /home/z/sbims3

1. Additional user volumes

device 0ab0 3390 3990 /home/z/PUBLIC
device 0ab1 3390 3990 /home/z/USER00
device 0ab2 3390 3990 /home/z/SYSUT1

We reinstalled the software in SUSE Linux version 11.2. (earlier, we were using RedHat Linux 64 bit version 6.2). Now, the above reported issues are not occuring!