Security Information in Metadata-Bound Data

In addition to the usual directory and file content, additional security-related information is stored in the host for metadata-bound data.
  • For a physical library, the security information consists of a subdirectory and file. The corresponding metadata object is called a secured library object.
    z/OS Specifics: On z/OS, the security information for a UNIX file system (UFS) library is stored as described above. However, the security information for a z/OS direct-access bound library is instead stored within the bound library data set itself. For this reason, z/OS sites that choose to use metadata-bound libraries might prefer the z/OS direct-access bound library implementation to the UFS library implementation. z/OS sequential-access bound libraries cannot be bound to metadata.
  • For a physical table, the security information consists of information in the header. The corresponding metadata object is called a secured table object.
The security information includes the following:
  • an indication that access to the physical data must be authorized by the metadata server
  • a record of the metadata location of the metadata objects that correspond to the physical data
The security-related information itself is host protected.