SMFD EXTRACT problem with Multiple VTape Subsystems

Products

• JARS
• JARS Resource Accounting
• JARS SMF Director

Issue/Introduction

I am sure this is a very unique problem. :-)

On advice from Vtape support to fix a longstanding configuration problem, I am migrating from using an old Vtape subsystem (SVT8) to a new Vtape subsystem (SVT1). Yesterday I did a TAPEINIT in SMFD to start a new accumulation tape. So now I have two tapes:

From Timestamp       To Timestamp         Dumped Timestamp     Unit      Volume  File

2020/04/30 00:01:00  2020/04/30 15:42:07  2020/04/30 15:42:24  3490      S00731  48  

2020/04/30 15:42:16  2020/04/30 15:44:20  2020/04/30 15:44:55  3490      S10120  1   

Tape S00731 is in SVT8, while tape S10120 is in SVT1.

If I do an EXTRACT for dates/times only on tape S00731 it works fine. The tape is found in SVT8 and mounted on an SVT8 tape drive.

If I do an EXTRACT for dates/times only on tape S10120 it works fine. The tape is found in SVT1 and mounted on an SVT1 tape drive.

If I do an EXTRACT for dates/times that span tapes S00731 and S10120 then it fails. First it reads tape S00731 OK from an SVT8 drive, then it asks for tape S10120 on an SVT8 drive (instead of an SVT1 drive). Then it produces the following Vtape error repetitively:

SVT8V0420E 900F,S10120,Requested volser not found in VCAT. The volume is invalid or not a Virtual Volume

Then the job has to be cancelled else it will wait forever.

It looks to me like SMFD expects all tapes to use the same drive as the first tape mounted.

The tapes look like:

Current SCDS : SYSU.CAI.SMFD.SCDS                            Volume: SYSDA1 

Configuration:                            SMF ID: TDS                       

                                           Index: PRIMARY                   

                                                                            

History File DSN: SYSU.CAI.SMFD.MS043020.T1542P01                           

  Unit: 3490        Volume: S00731    File Number: 48                       

     Records From: 2020/04/30 00:01:00.88                                   

       Records To: 2020/04/30 15:42:07.49                                   

       Was Dumped: 2020/04/30 15:42:24.70                                   

  Expiration Date: 2021/06/04                                               

     Record Count: 10392                                                    

                                                                            

Contains the following record types:                                        

                                                                            

4 5 9 11 14 15 17 18 21-23 26 30 60 61 64-66 70-75 77 78 80 84 89 90 250 251

and:

Current SCDS : SYSU.CAI.SMFD.SCDS                            Volume: SYSDA1

Configuration:                            SMF ID: TDS                      

                                           Index: PRIMARY                  

                                                                           

History File DSN: SYSU.CAI.SMFD.MS043020.T1544P01                          

  Unit: 3490        Volume: S10120    File Number: 1                       

     Records From: 2020/04/30 15:42:16.23                                  

       Records To: 2020/04/30 15:44:20.06                                  

       Was Dumped: 2020/04/30 15:44:55.47                                  

  Expiration Date: 2021/06/04                                              

     Record Count: 165                                                     

                                                                           

Contains the following record types:                                       

                                                                           

4 5 14 15 17 21 30 60 61 64 65 80 90                                       

I was able to circumvent the problem by using SOURCE ALTERNATE where all data for the desired date/time range was in the same Vtape subsystem (by a complete fluke of luck). But I will not be so lucky in coming months where I have to extract a whole quarter and there will be no way to avoid having to read tapes from both SVT8 and SVT1.

Environment

Release : 12.7

Component : CA SMF Director

Resolution

You need to set the TAPEVOLCHG  to RELEASE (default is NORELEASE) on the EXTRACT.  This will force a new unit allocation when each volume is mounted.  The NORELEASE tells SMFD to try and use the same unit for each tape to save time. 

This operand was created specifically for the circumstances that this customer has run into.