Using the OM View ERO Table for Report Retention Control

Products

View

Issue/Introduction

This article gives an overview of the View Expanded Retention Option (ERO) to enable customizing report retention.

Environment

View®
OM View for z
Output Management View® for z/OS

Resolution

The View Expanded Retention Option (ERO) table is used to enable greater granularity, and provide better control, in determining report retentions.

The table takes effect during Phase 2 of the View standard backup, where report retentions are evaluated.

You enable use of the ERO table using the following:

Obtain the license key for View product code VC.

This enables use of both ERO processing and the View SARPAC utility.

Recommended settings for SARINIT parameters:

EROOPT=YES [|NO] PRETAIN=TABLE [|INIT] EROPRO=YES [|NEW|ALL]

Adding the following statement to your View started task (SARSTC):
```
//SARPATAB DD DISP=SHR,DSN=...
```

The above points to a sequential file with a logical record length of 80 to 256 characters, or a PDS with a logical record length of 80 to 256 characters, containing a member of 80-to-256 character records that have the following format:

/sysout-id {ALL|MARK|LAST}         RETPD=nnnnn GENS=nnnnn COPIES=nnnnn         DRETPD=nnnnn DGENS=nnnnn DCOPIES=nnnnn         IRETPD=nnnnn LRETPD=nnnnn         STORGRP=storage-group-name         DSK2DAYS=nnnnn         DSK2NOTP         D2RETPD=nnnnn         VIEWTAPE={YES|NO}         XCOND={YES|NO}         EXCLUDE         DELETE

Note: Please refer to the View Reference Guide, in the Expanded Retention Option chapter, for detailed explanations of the above parameters.

Rules for coding ERO table entries:

A more specific entry should always be placed before a more general entry. For example:

/PAY* ... /PA*  ... /P*   ...

/* ...

The /* entry denotes a "catch all" entry that, when optionally used, should ALWAYS be the last entry in the table. If there are no matches to any other entries in the table, then processing will default to this entry.

If there is no "catch all" entry in the table, and there are no matches to anything else in the table, then processing will default to the SARINIT either NGEND and NGENT, or PCOPIES parameters, depending on the setting of the PRETAIN parameter.

A brief overview of some of the retention parameters:

Some ERO statement parameters (DSK2DAYS, DSK2NOTP, and D2RETPD) specifically address report migration and retention on secondary disk.

For more information, View Reference Guide chapters Configure the Optical Disk Interface and "Obsolete Features should be reviewed.

Parameters RETPD, GENS, and COPIES are used for total retention. Their reference is usually in regards to how long reports are retained on tape.

Parameters DRETPD, DGENS, and DCOPIES are used for disk retention.

DRETPD/RETPD are retentions defined for the designated number of calendar days.

DGENS/GENS are retentions defined for the designated number of generations. Generations are measured by the occurrence of a View standard backup (SARINIT DAYS=YYYYYYY TIME=hhmm INTERVAL=nnnn).

DCOPIES/COPIES are retentions defined for the designated number of copies (occurrences) of a Sysout ID.

Important points:

It is best to use the same type of retention for your disk and total retention (DRETPD/RETPD, DGENS/GENS, DCOPIES/COPIES). If you need to change the length or type of retention for reports (for example, from GENS to RETPD) that are currently on the database and under ERO control, or if you want to establish ERO control for a report on the database that was not previously under ERO control and has already been backed up, you then need to either change SARINIT parameter EROPRO to EROPRO=ALL or use EROPRO=YES.

With EROPRO=ALL, all reports are evaluated for a possible retention change, then the parameter is reset to the default of EROPRO=NEW after the backup completes.

With EROPRO=YES (the recommended setting), all reports are evaluated for a possible retention change with every backup, and there is no parameter resetting.

You can have an ERO table and have SARINIT parameter PRETAIN=INIT.
However, with use of that combination, the length of retention for a report is determined from a comparison of the ERO settings to the SARINIT NGEND and NGENT parameters, where View will retain reports for what it considers to be the longer time period.

For additional information on the use of ERO, please consult the Expanded Retention Option chapter in the View Reference Guide.