Determining what MOD 3 volumes can be removed and are not reserved

Products

• Allocate DASD Space and Placement

Issue/Introduction

In working with VAM volumes there is a need to reduce the number of MOD3 volumes  on the system. They are being pulled off the system in groups.  There was an issue where a volume that was not part of any VAM allocation routine, with no data on it, was removed from the system and caused an issue for multiple developers.

It was determined that the volume was pre-allocated to a dataset for future use as a multi-volume extent. By doing an 'I' command on the dataset in ISPF =3.4 to view its information, it was determined which volumes were reserved.

Is there a way that we can see what datasets have a volume reserved prior to pulling it off the system, to prevent similar issues?

Preferably a process that will allow us to check multiple volumes at the same time, as we have a couple thousand volumes yet to go.

Environment

Release : 12.5

Component : Allocate DASD Space and Placement

Resolution

A couple of things you can do is run an IDCAMS LISTCAT to see the allocation of the datasets.

Or if you have Vantage you can see what datasets span multiple volumes.   The Vantage object to view would be in the Vantage object tree under: Data Set Management / Multi Volume Data Sets / Details (object name = MVDETAIL).  See the Help info for this object to get more details concerning how this object's data is collected.  Within the MVDETAIL object you can set up a Filter for your datasets and also define a Sort, if needed.