Changing HiDRO's Catalog Retention Period
Article ID: 27733
Updated On:
Products
Issue/Introduction
Each task that is successfully backed up in a Pool job has a record in the INDEX file of the catalog. These records have such values as DSN, name of Logical Pool, user ID, vaddr, volser and job submitter. Retention period is one of those values and is in clear text. Customers often contact us needing to know how to change the retention period for a specific backup.
Changing this date on HiDRO does not change the expiration date in VM:Tape's TMC or Dynam/T's catalog files. For VM:Tape, use the CATALOG command and for Dynam/T VM, use the DYNCAT ALTER command.
Environment
Release: 2.8-VM:Backup-HiDRO (VM:Backup HiDRO)
Resolution
We ship UPDEXPDT EXEC with the product which gets loaded to HiDRO's 201 disk. UPDEXPDT EXEC is the tool to use to change the retention period. Before using, HiDRO will need to be logged on and no longer in SYBSHELL, exiting to CMS.
To change the expiration date for Pooled job, WEEKLY, whose current expiration date is 16144 (May 24th 2016) which needs to be changed to 16365(Dec 31st 2016), the command would be:
UPDEXPDT WEEKLY 16144 16365
The expiration dates are stored in Julian date format.
Each task's expiration date is calculated from the time of day clock, using the retention period for that Logical Pool.
If a job runs across midnight, August 30th - September 1st, you would need to issue the command for both days to change all the tasks for that backup.
To determine the current expiration date for a specific backup job, you need to know the Logical Pool name and it's retention period. It would be helpful to know a tape volser used in that job. Browse the INDEX file for the volser which is stored in columns 51-56, and the Julian date is stored in columns 142-146. Use the date stored in columns 51-56 as one of the parameters for UPDEXPDT.
It is not a problem if you don't know a tape volser that was used in the backup you are wanting to change. Since you know the name of the Logical Pool, you can determine the retention period for that pool by going to the HiDRO DEFAULTS file. From the HiDRO Machine Main Menu, select PF5 Set Defaults and Tape Pools and then select PF6 Tape Pool Manager. Find the Logical Pool on the TAPE POOL MANAGER screen and calculate the current expiration date by adding the Retention Period to the Julian date that the job ran. This date can be used, along with the name of the Logical Pool for the parameters for UPDEXPDT.
** Additionally, HiDRO PTF LU05153 is available that adds support to the UPDEXPDT EXEC for NON-POOLED backups that are created by the jobs you create manually and submit a SYSIN file for.
Additional Information
Changing this date on HiDRO does not change the expiration date in VM:Tape's TMC or Dynam/T's catalog files. For VM:Tape, use the CATALOG command and for Dynam/T VM, use the DYNCAT ALTER command.
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