How do you increase AUX/WARNING parm within the CA TLMS VMF?

Products

• TLMS Tape Management

Issue/Introduction

How to increase the AUX/WARNING parm within the CA TLMS VMF?

Resolution

It's not uncommon to run low on TLMS chaining records as more data is being stored and with the use of Virtual tape drives, these records are in high demand. The chaining / AUX records are used to chain together multiple files and multiple volumes. It's best to set your WARNING at 80% of the number of total records you allocated in the AUX statement.

Here are the step by step instructions to change the AUX/WARNING parm:

1. Run proc CATVMFID to verify that the current definitions in TLMSIDCK member in CTAPOPTN are correct. If not, update the TLMSIDCK MEMBER.  

2. Update the AUX and WARNING values within the TLMSIDCK. 

3. Run PROC CTAPPROC(CATVMFV) to check if there are chaining errors on the VMF. These need to corrected before the BACKUP/RESTORE. 

4. Halt tape processing. 

5. Backup the VMF using PROC CTAPPROC(CATVMFB). You can create the BACKUP output to DISK instead of CART. Alter DD STATEMENT //CAIBVMF to redirect the output. 

6. Shut down CTS/TLMS on all systems sharing this VMF. 

7. Restore VMF USING PROC CTAPPROC(CATVMFRS). Review the output carefully. Some CAT1601W CAT1602W, AND CAT1603W messages may be issued, and are usually the result of using the UPV VVVVVV,EXPDT=60001 command; these can be ignored. If VMF has not been blocked, the recommendation is to use BLKSIZE=5000 on the new allocation as it will save space and slightly increase the performance. Block sizes greater than 5000 have been shown to only slightly improve DASD utilization and have been shown to have an adverse effect on real-time performance as most of the access in random.