Using the CA View EAS option from multiple LPARs

Products

View

Issue/Introduction

We currently have a sysplex with 5 LPARs where we run the View and View EAS tasks on one of the LPARs (the primary LPAR). If a user on the primary LPAR browses a report that's been archived to tape, EAS mounts the tape and presents the report and the user does not need MOUNT authority. If a user on one of the secondary LPARs tries to do the same thing they get a 'No mount authority' message and cannot view the report. Is there a way to configure EAS so that a user from any of the LPARs can access an archived report without needing TSO mount authority? Do we need to have an EAS task on each LPAR? If so how is that configured?

Environment

Release : 14.0

Component : CA View

EAS

Expanded Access Server

Cause

The cause of the "No Mount Authority" message was due to not having a secondary EAS task running on the LPARS the reports were being browsed from.

Resolution

Yes, you MUST have an EAS task running on any LPAR your users will be trying to browse reports that reside on tape from. The most common approach to setting up EAS to support your multiple LPAR environment is to have the PRIMARY EAS task running on your PRIMARY LPAR (You already have this). You will then need to run a SECONDARY EAS tasks on each of the other 4 LPARS users will be browsing reports from. (Same EASTNAME in both primary and secondary tasks to make them parent/child tasks). The secondary EAS tasks will communicate with the primary EAS task via an XCF (Cross Coupling Facility) connection between the LPARS.

You will also need to run SARINIT against each of the 4 other View databases and configure them with the EASTNAM1= parameter pointing to the the appropriate EASTNAME.

- EAS task configuration example...

LPAR1 - PRIMARY:
//EASPRIME PGM=SAREAS,PARM=('COMM=XCF','EASTNAME=LPR1','TYPE=PRIMARY'...),REGION=512M,TIME=NOLIMIT

LPAR2 - SECONDARY:
//EASSECDY PGM=SAREAS,PARM=('COMM=XCF','EASTNAME=LPR1','TYPE=SECONDARY'...),REGION=512M,TIME=NOLIMIT

LPAR3 - SECONDARY:
//EASSECDY PGM=SAREAS,PARM=('COMM=XCF','EASTNAME=LPR1','TYPE=SECONDARY'...),REGION=512M,TIME=NOLIMIT

LPAR4 - SECONDARY:
//EASSECDY PGM=SAREAS,PARM=('COMM=XCF','EASTNAME=LPR1','TYPE=SECONDARY'...),REGION=512M,TIME=NOLIMIT

LPAR5 - SECONDARY:
//EASSECDY PGM=SAREAS,PARM=('COMM=XCF','EASTNAME=LPR1','TYPE=SECONDARY'...),REGION=512M,TIME=NOLIMIT

- VIEW configuration example - For the CA View databases that run on the 4 secondary LPARS, configure:

View1 - SARINIT primaryview.db.prefix
EASTNAM1= LPR1

View2 - SARINIT your.db.prefix
EASTNAM1= LPR1

View3 - SARINIT your.db.prefix
EASTNAM1= LPR1

View4 - SARINIT your.db.prefix
EASTNAM1= LPR1

View5 - SARINIT your.db.prefix
EASTNAM1= LPR1

Additional Information

* Key points to remember:

- ONLY a TYPE=PRIMARY EAS task can mount tapes.

- A single TYPE=PRIMARY EAS task supports tape mounts for multiple View databases. This PRIMARY task would run on the system where the tapes and tape drives, to be mounted for View, are available.

- Technically, you don't link an EAS to a View database. Instead, you link a View database to it's appropriate EAS task, via the View databases (EASTNAM1, EASTNAM2 or EASTNAM3) SARINIT parameters.

- SARSTC will call for its own tape mounts whenever BACKUP processing occurs for that View task. There is NO EAS involvement with BACKUP processing. EAS is only used for browsing of report data, directly from your backup tapes.

* Different configuration options:

- If you have say 2 View database running on the SAME LPAR and you want EAS to mount tapes for BOTH of these View's, then all you would need is a single PRIMARY EAS task running on that LPAR. You would then link both of the View's to that same EAS task via "EACH" View's SARINIT EASTNAM1= initialization parameter.

Optionally...

- If you were to run multiple Views on any other LPARS, then as long as those LPARS have an XCF link to the PRIMARY EAS task, you could install TYPE=SECONDARY EAS tasks on those other LPARS. These SECONDARY EAS tasks could share the "SAME EASTNAME" as the PRIMARY task, and the View's EASTNAM1= parameter would be configured accordingly. (The SECONDARY's are linked to a PRIMARY via the EASTNAME specified for that EAS task).

Optionally...

- You could run TYPE=PRIMARY EAS tasks on EACH of the LPARS that you run View's on, if you wanted each View to have it's own tape server. In this circumstance, each EAS task would have a unique EASTNAME and you would configure each View's EASTNAM1= name accordingly.

- "TYPE" Configuration options are as follows:

** TYPE=PRIMARY|SECONDARY|ONLY

– PRIMARY specifies that this server is to perform the tape mounts and input and that secondary servers make requests from it using L-SERV or XCF.

– SECONDARY specifies that this server does not perform any tape mounts or input; instead, requests for tape blocks are made using L-SERV or XCF to the primary server.

– ONLY specifies that this is the only server; it performs all of its own tape input, and no L-SERV or XCF communications are established. The default is ONLY.

For more information and additional details, please see the following area of CA View documentation:

Configure the Expanded Access Server for Tape and Robotics

Topics included in the above section of Expanded Access Server (SAREAS) documentation are:

- Requirements
- Internal Operation
- Implementing the Expanded Access Server
- Optimizing Performance of the Expanded Access Server
- Operating the Expanded Access Server Task