Effective RACF Administration

This intermediate course is for people who are new to the RACF component of the z/OS Security Server, and responsible for security administration. This includes people who are planning to implement RACF for the first time, and people who are security administrators in installations where RACF is already implemented. Those inexperienced z/OS users might find the course Basics of z/OS RACF Administration (ES19) more appropriate.

Anyone planning to implement the advanced features of RACF should consider attending Implementing RACF Security for CICS (ES84), and Exploiting the Advanced Features of RACF (ES88).

After this course participants should be able to:

• Identify the security requirements of a system
• Evaluate the facilities and options of RACF
• Define users to RACF
• Set up a RACF group structure
• Use RACF to protect resources
• Select options to tailor RACF
• Evaluate and implement RACF database and performance options
• Identify tools available for auditing
• Administer the system so that it is consistent with the installation's security goals

Day 1

• Welcome
• Unit 1 - Security and RACF overview
• Unit 2 - Administering groups and users
• Exercise 1 - Log on to the lab system
• Exercise 2 - Defining a RACF group structure
• Exercise 3 - User administration

Day 2

• Exercise review
• Unit 2 - Administering groups and users (continued)
• Exercise 4 - Delegating security administration
• Unit 3 - Protecting z/OS data sets
• Exercise 5 - Protecting z/OS data sets: Part 1

Day 3

• Exercise 5 - Protecting z/OS data sets: Part 1 (continued)
• Exercise 6 - Protecting z/OS data sets: Part 2 Exercise review
• Unit 4 - Introduction to user administration and delegation and general resources
• Exercise 7 - Password reset granularity
• Unit 5 - RACF database, tables, and performance options

Day 4

• Unit 6 - RACF utilities and exits
• Unit 7 - RACF options
• Unit 8 - Auditing the RACF environment
• Exercise 8 - Using RACF for TSO administration (Optional)
• Exercise 9 - RACF utilities (Optional)
• Exercise 10 - RACF monitoring

Day 5

• Exercise review
• Unit 9 - Storage management and RACF
• Unit 10 - Security for JES facilities
• Unit 11 - Security classification

You should be familiar with the facilities of the system, logging on to TSO and using ISPF. A knowledge of resources like data sets, DASD volumes, and programs is required to get the most benefit from the course. This knowledge might be obtained by attending Fundamental System Skills in z/OS (ES10), or consider taking Basics of z/OS RACF Administration (ES19) instead of this course. ES19 spends the first day covering these prerequisites and provides a more basic understanding of RACF than Effective RACF Administration (BE87).

You might also find it beneficial to attend z/OS Security Server RACF, Implementation and Customization (SZ81) to learn the implementation and customization of the z/OS security server RACF.

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