Several releases back z/OS JES2 introduced the job correlator.  This is a string that can be used for several things.  First it acts as a longer jobname.  When you submit a job with the job correlator you can select up to 32 characters additional data to be added to the job.  You can select a job or query it by correlator.  You pick a name and then you select by that name.

JES2 will carry the name in the spool structures for the job and you can either continue to look for the jobname and optionally the jobnumber… or you can do a query using the correlator.  It is your responsibility to make the correlator unique if that is a requirement you have.  This is reasonably easy… generate a name, query for the name and if not found it is unique.

This can be particularly useful if you have your own job scheduling package and you want to be able to generate your own job naming and locate the jobs yourself.

The job correlator is also queryable in SDSF, as well as through the z/OSMF REST JOBs API and of course the normal assembler subsystem interface (SSI) of z/OS.

To specify the job correlator you can modify the batch job and add UJOBCORR= on the job card to the value you want.  If you don’t want to modify the job, you can specify the JES symbol SYS_CORR_USRDATA on the invocation of the internal reader DD statement of the submitting address space.  The z/OSMF REST JOBs API can also assist with that.

Have you ever used the job correlator?