How can I reuse a range of volumes for new media.

Products

• CA 1 Flexible Storage

Issue/Introduction

I would like to reuse an old range of VOLSERs for new media so that I don't have to extend the TMC. Are there any specific updates that should be done before reusing the existing VOLSER range?

Resolution

Before reusing the VOLSER range, the ranges should all be in SCRATCH status with their DSN and DSN17 fields set to HEXZEROS. This update can be done via TMSUPDTE with the following control statements.

 

 VOL=uuuuuu-vvvvvv,NODSN,NOCHAIN,SCRATCH       
 REP DSN=HEXZEROS 
 REP DSN17=HEXZEROS

 

If the new media is in an MTL (manual tape library) or is an EMC DLM device, then you should also set the DEN and TRTCH fields to the appropriate values to match the device definitions (i.e. 3480, 3490, 3590 etc.). The values for the DEN and TRTCH are listed in the Programmers Guide, section:  Record Definitions and Keywords

To update the DEN and TRTCH fields with the HEX values from the Record Definitions and Keywords section, you would add the following command to your TMSUPDTE control statements:

 

REP DEN=E8,TRTCH=E8         <<< These are the values for a 3590, 128 track tape from the manual.