Access method

An Access Method is a set of APIs provided by an operating system to enable access to data on disk or tape. In the z/OS operating system, two elements provide access methods:

• Data Facility Product
• Communications Server

Examples of storage Access Methods include:

• VSAM - Virtual Storage Access Method
• BDAM - Basic Direct Access Method
• BSAM - Basic sequental access method
• QSAM - Queued Sequential Access Method
• BPAM - Basic Partitioned Access Method
• ISAM - Indexed Sequential Access Method
• OAM - Object Access Method

Examples of networking Access Methods include:

• BTAM - Basic Telecommunications Access Method
• QTAM - Queued Teleprocessing Access Method
• TCAM - Telecommunications Access Method
• VTAM - Virtual Telecommunications Access Method