Logon Timeout eXtension Facility - MVS, OS/390, z/OS
LTXF allows MVS, OS/390 and z/OS system administrators to manage the timeout termination of idle TSO sessions in a secure and friendly way.
What's the problem?
What TSO user hasn't had to leave their desk briefly, for coffee, restroom, to answer someone else's telephone, countless reasons. Often enough these "moments" turn into a longer absence, leaving the TSO session available for deliberate or accidental misuse by other persons. Ever gone to lunch, gone home, leaving your mainframe session logged on? Each time this happens it's a potentially serious security exposure for the individual user and for the enterprise.
Enterprise. That's right. We're talking mainframe systems that are likely to hold significant corporate data and applications. If the user session has significant access privileges then the security and integrity of that system, the data it manages, could be at risk.
There's the so-called "(Auditors solution):" Cut the TSO idle session time limit WAY back. Make it 10 minutes, even 5, if the users will put up with it. Anything to minimise this orphan session problem. Maybe you've seen it. Users tickle the CPU every minute or so by tapping their ENTER keys like obsessed laboratory rats, losing what's on the screen in some situations. The system deals out "522" abends like a hanging judge. Batch jobs waiting for tape mounts or operator replies are amongst the casualties. Users seem to spend half their time logging back on. Tempers flare. Morale and efficiency hit new lows. And all without even leaving your desk.
It's unattractive. A tense standoff between the need for the system to be secure while legitimate users try to be as productive as possible.
So, how might things go in a site using LTXF?
Mary comes back from an errand, coffee, a meeting, to find her TSO session still running. What's on the screen helps her to pick up where she left off. Typing a command, an option, some program code, eventually she hits ENTER or a PF key. Immediately she is presented with the LTXF lockup screen. Mary types her password and presses ENTER causing her application to resume without loss of data or continuity. Being treated with respect helps Mary to do her job well.
Peter works in the system operations "flight deck" area. LTXF has been told that TSO sessions on the four TSO terminals in this strictly limited access area are not to time out. When Peter has to leave the room he uses the LOCK feature of LTXF to secure his session by putting the LTXF lockup screen up until he comes back.
It's 11.30am. John's just taking a call from a client who wants "just five minutes" to talk about a project John's doing for him. Coming off this call an exhausting 50 minutes later, John sees his friends gesturing for him to hurry up and join them for lunch, and in a moment he's gone. TSO session? Well before, while he was still on the call, LTXF had quietly locked that up, safely preserving the interrupted work situation until he can return to it.
When John eventually goes home at 5.05pm he forgets to logoff. At 5.30pm, along with many others, John's session moves into a new LTXF category where idle users are cancelled after 15 minutes. Between 5.30 and 5.45pm LTXF cancels all those sessions that are still idle, clearing the decks for the overnight batch workload period.
Elsewhere, a furtive figure leans over a keyboard, types a command then presses ENTER. Later, when Colin, the session's owner, returns he finds the LTXF lockup screen displayed. Colin knows he didn't leave his screen this way, knows that someone, however innocently, has touched his keyboard. Entering his password and pressing ENTER, Colin carefully scans the redisplayed application screen to find a command he didn't type sitting there. Not yet in effect. Caught by LTXF. Colin calls his supervisor over...
LTXF is supported 24 hours a day every day of the year. Install requires SMP/E R5 or later. LTXF is fully Y2K compliant. Latest release is 2.10
To: Download LTXF install material and the Program Description Operation Manual (PDF or WORD)
or: Request a 30 day free trial
or: email ASE for further information about LTXF
or: Go to the ASE home page
Thank you.
Last Updated: 22:11 WED 13rd Nov 2002 UCT