Health Checks and Vkgparms PLSZSEC and PLSOPT94

Products

• Allocate DASD Space and Placement

Issue/Introduction

Introduction:

A few Health Check messages advise good things about some Vkgparm settings and
warnings when some things are wrong with VAM.  But, two of these messages do cause concern.

Instructions:

These two messages are not correct, in the opinion of this writer...

• VAMH0081E urges to set PLSZESEC (Y)

I advise against setting PLSZSEC (Y) because this will cause a Secondary quantity to be added to all
allocations and there is no way to limit this action.  Many system data sets must have a zero Secondary value.

It is better to specify a SECONDARY quantity in the ALLOC and DEFINE Environments for those
data sets that you want, which will allow EXTEND and EOV to function.

•  VAMH0101E advises that you are running with PLSOPT94 (Y) and suggests to set the value to (N).

I advise setting PLSOPT94 (Y) for this reason:
Several PTFs indicate that an IPL is required.  However, the IPL can be circumvented
if PLSOPT94 (Y) is in effect at the shutdown prior to the startup after those PTFs are applied.

For r12.5, there are 6 PTFs (as of April 2016) that indicate that an IPL is needed. 
However, only one PTF actually needs a "real" IPL.  The other five PTFs can be applied
without an IPL if PLSOPT94 (Y) is in effect.

Additional Information:

PLSOPT94 (Y) will remove 8 hooks and modules when VAM is shutdown with the command: F VAM,REMOVE 
So, with those 8 modules removed, the updated modules will be loaded at the next startup.  So, the IPL is circumvented.

These are the messages about the 8 hooks that PLSOPT94 (Y) will remove at shutdown:

VAM000I PLSOPT94(Y) : REMOVING VAMPRE00
VAM000I PLSOPT94(Y) : REMOVING VAMPOST0
VAM000I PLSOPT94(Y) : REMOVING VAMAB4A2
VAM000I PLSOPT94(Y) : REMOVING VAMAB490
VAM000I PLSOPT94(Y) : REMOVING VAM0EX0B
VAM000I PLSOPT94(Y) : REMOVING VAM0002F
VAM000I PLSOPT94(Y) : REMOVING V37VSAM
VAM000I PLSOPT94(Y) : REMOVING VAMDAC02

To get PLSOPT94 (Y) into effect, follow these steps so it will be active before you shutdown.

 - Add or update Vkgparms with: PLSOPT94 (Y).
 - Issue the console command:
      F vam,PARMREF
When this command is complete, when VAM is shutdown those additional VAM hooks will be removed.

You can leave this sysparm in the Vkgparms member.

If you have any questions, please contact CA Technical Support.

 

Environment

Release: ESBALQ99000-12.5-CA-Allocate-DASD Space and Placement-with Quota Manager-Extende
Component: