How to bypass the error message CAT3391E when deleting a CA TLMS RMF rule that contains special characters.

Products

• TLMS Tape Management

Issue/Introduction

The CA TLMS Pattern Masking feature provides a method to identify and select data sets based on a mask, or pattern. A pattern is a character string consisting of a combination of alphanumeric characters into which may be incorporated special characters that perform unique masking operations during match and compare functions. Patterns can be sorted in a most to least-specific order to ensure the accuracy of a match.

With the introduction of the pattern masking RMF in CA TLMS 12.6, certain special characters are now treated as pattern masking characters.

The pattern masking characters are "?, !, #, @, *, and -".

The following are examples of the errors when trying to delete a RMF rule in which there is a special character in the DSN() or the OWNER() fields:

DELRTN DSN(BKUP.DAILY.FM-) +
 OWNER(BKUP          00074777)

  CAT3391E RECORD FOR DELRTN IS NOT IN THE RMF
  CAT3307I NO UPDATES DUE TO ERRORS
  CAT3308I END OF RMF UPDATE REPORT    RC =?08

 DELRTN DSN(ADSM.) OWNER(ADSM-MANUAL)

 CAT3391E RECORD FOR DELRTN IS NOT IN THE RMF
 CAT3307I NO UPDATES DUE TO ERRORS
 CAT3308I END OF RMF UPDATE REPORT RC = 08

How to bypass this error?

Resolution

The issue is with the "-" in one of the operand nodes (the 3rd node for DSN() value and the 1st node for the OWNER() value) . The RMF update routine looks at the "-" in the DSN or OWNER as a pattern masking character when in fact it is not. Adding a backslash (\) in front of the "-"in the delete request will cause the delete routine to treat the "-" as an actual character.

This example will successfully delete an RMF rule with a special character within the DSN: 

DELRTN DSN(BKUP.DAILY.AA\-BBB) +
   OWNER(BKUP 00074777)
 

This example will successfully delete an RMF rule with a special character within the OWNER:

DELRTN DSN(ADSN.) OWNER(ADSN\-MANUAL)