Maximizing tape capacity when executing the Dispatch archive consolidation/condense utiltiy

Products

• Dispatch Output Mgmt

Issue/Introduction

We are converting all of our existing CA Dispatch archived reports from their old media over to high capacity media and would like to exploit the higher capacity of the new devices.

If we specify the archive consolidation utilities OUTVOL=xxxxxx parameter as being the actual output volser from a previous run, will the utility append new consolidated reports onto that same tape starting at the last file sequence number that was written?

Environment

z/OS

Resolution

Condensed reports CAN NOT be appended onto the same output tape in separate runs of the utility. 

 

In order to use 'OUTVOL=xxxxxx' and a specific volser number, the volser specified MUST be recognized by the tape management system as being a SCRATCH tape. 

Once the utility has been run, the OUTVOL volser that was specified will no longer be a scratch tape, so it can not be specified again as an OUTVOL volser in a subsequent run of the consolidation/condense utility .