GUARDS stores the guards in a system catalog ($TSOS.SYSCAT.GUARDS). GUARDS administers one such guards catalog per pubset. The guards catalog is opened when the pubset is imported and remains open until the pubset is exported or until the subsystem GUARDS is terminated (normally at system shutdown time).
If a new pubset which does not contain a guards catalog is imported while GUARDS is running, a new, empty guards catalog is created.
If the guards catalog on the pubset is cataloged with BLKSIZE=(STD,2) it is renamed to SYSCAT.GUARDS.date.time. Then it is copied into a new guards catalog with
BLKSIZE=(STD,4) and the name SYSCAT.GUARDS. This guards catalog thus becomes the current guards catalog.
The errors which may occur when the guards catalog is opened are described under “Error during subsystem initialization” in "GUARDS - installation and startup".