Set the retention period via cycles rather than numbers of days.

Products

• Disk Backup and Restore - MVS
• DISK BACKUP AND RESTORE- ADD-ON OPTIO
• DISK BACKUP AND RESTORE

Issue/Introduction

Is it possible to set the retention period via cycles rather than numbers of days?

Resolution

Unfortunately when executing a backup, the retention is controlled by the number of days, and not by how many version (cycles). To accomplish cycle control, you may want to try to running your daily IXMAINT with COPIES= parm added to the DSNDELETE command statement. This indicates the number of versions of each data set to be maintained in FDS. So if COPIES=3, the three most current versions of the data set will remain, and all others will be deleted regardless of their expiration date. You can find more information in the Disk User's Guide under IXMAINT Utility, Chapter 10.