Custom Fields in the RACF Connector

Custom fields are fields within the RACF database that you customize to store security information about the users and groups in your system. You can tailor the names and attributes of custom fields. Once you define custom fields, use RACF commands, such as the ALTUSER and ALTGROUP to add data to custom fields.

For each custom field, you can customize the following attributes:

• The name of the custom field, which is used as the RACF command operand for TSO/E commands.

• The data type for the custom field. Choose character, numeric, hexadecimal, or flag (YES or NO) fields.

• The help text for each custom field.

• The output heading for LISTUSER and LISTGRP listings.

• The acceptable values for the data in each field based on data type. You can customize several options, including the following:

  • For character fields, you can customize maximum length, restrict the character contents, and allow mixed-case characters.

  • For numeric fields, you can customize maximum value and minimum value.

  • For hexadecimal fields, you can customize the maximum length.

Field attributes (names and data formats) defined as profiles in the new CFIELD general resource class. Field data for users and groups is held in a new CSDATA segments in USER and GROUP profiles.

The custom field names format is:

profile-type.segment-name.custom-field-name

where:

• profile-type – USER/GROUP

• segment-name – CSDATA

• custom-field-name – a name of up to 8 characters for this custom field

Custom fields are described in "Defining and using custom fields" chapter of IBM's RACF Security Administrator Guide.