Other Features › Real-time Alert Notification › How to Monitor Scratch Tapes in a Volume Pool

How to Monitor Scratch Tapes in a Volume Pool

As a storage administrator, you are responsible for monitoring scratch tapes availability to ensure that you have enough space for data that needs to be stored. To monitor scratch availability for a set of volumes that is defined in the tape management catalog (TMC), use the Volume Pool Monitor feature (VPM). In this example scenario, the daily batch cycle typically uses 200 scratch tapes. The users want to be notified if the number of available scratch volumes falls below 500.

The following illustration shows how to monitor scratch tapes in a volume pool:

To monitor scratch tapes in a volume pool, do the following:

1. Verify the prerequisites.
2. Create a volume pool.
3. (Optional) Start the VPM subtask. The VPM subtask can be already started.
4. Create an alert.
5. Define the recipient.
6. Create an email.
7. Activate the alert.

Verify the Prerequisites

To be able to define volume pools and monitor the number of scratch tapes available in a volume pool, verify the following prerequisites:

• Verify that the VSAM Database is allocated and initialized.
• Verify that ISPF Panels are installed.
• Verify that SEND data set exists.
• Verify that some variables are set to define the email environment and Volume Pool Monitor (VPM) subtask parameters.

Note: For more information about these prerequisites, see the Installation Guide.

Create a Volume Pool

To define a range of tapes that you can monitor and perform actions on, create a volume pool.

Follow these steps:

1. Open the CTS Primary Menu, and enter 2.

   The Volume Pool List panel opens.

2. Enter ADD in the Command field.

   Note: If you have already defined at least one volume pool, you can enter A in the CMD line for any row in the displayed list of volume pools.

   The VPM Range Add Panel opens.

3. Specify the volume pool parameters for this example:
   • Type Production_Range_1 in the Pool ID field.
   • To set the volume serial number (VSN) range, type 010000 in the LO VSN field and type 019999 in the HI VSN field.
4. Press Enter to save the settings.

   The volume pool named Production_Range_1 is created. The volume pool includes volumes with serial numbers from 010000 through 019999.

(Optional) Start the VPM Subtask

To send alerts, the VPM subtask must be started. If you added the VPM subtask to the CTS started task and you started the Common Tape System (CTS) started task, the VPM subtask is already running.

Follow these steps:

1. If the CTS started task is not running, start the CTS started task. Specify the following command in the ENFCMDS member of CA Common Services hlq.PPOPTION:

   S CTS
   

2. If the CTS started task is running and you have not set the VPM subtask to start automatically, use the modify command:

   F CTS,SET TASK(VPM) PGM(CTSVPM)
   F CTS,START VPM
   

   The CTS started task and the VPM subtask is running.

Note: To start the VPM subtask each time CTS is started, add the following commands to the CTSSTART member in hlq.CTAPOPTN:

SET TASK(VPM) PGM(CTSVPM)
START VPM

Create an Alert

To monitor scratch availability in the Production_Range_1 volume pool so that you know if you are reaching the critical threshold, define an alert with the name Scratches_Running_Low.

Follow these steps:

1. Open the CTS ISPF primary menu, and enter 3.

   The VPM Alert List Panel opens.

2. Enter ADD in the command line on the VPM Alert List Panel.

   The VPM Alert Add Panel opens.

3. Specify the alert parameters:
   • Type Scratches_Running_Low in the Alert ID field.
   • Type Production_Range_1 in the Pool ID field.
   • Type Scratch_Count in the Variable field to have the alert trigger when the number of scratch tapes in the volume pool falls below 500.
   • Type LT in the Oper field.
   • Type 500 in the Value field.
   • Type SCRLOW in the Send field.
   • Type ONCE in the Interval field.
4. Press Enter to save the settings.

Note: The Alert ID can be any name. The Pool ID must be the name of the volume pool that you want to monitor. For complete information about the options for this panel, see the Administration Guide.

Define the Recipient

To define a recipient of an email notification that is sent by the alert, create a variable to use in the email. Using a variable also enables you to change the recipient of the email easily.

Follow these steps:

1. Open the CTS ISPF primary menu, and enter 1.

   The CTS Variable Type menu opens.

2. Enter 1 on the CTS Variable Type menu.
3. Enter the ADD command on the CTS User Variable List menu.
4. Type Lead_tape_librarian in the Name field on the CTS Variable Add Panel. On this panel, do not specify the ampersand (&) character that you normally include with variables.
5. Type the email address of the recipient in the Value field.
6. Press Enter to save the settings.

Create an Email

You can enable automatic sending of an email when the alert condition is met. The person responsible gets email notifications in a timely manner.

Follow these steps:

1. Open the SCRLOW member of the SEND data set for editing.
2. Edit the member as follows:
   • Type EMAIL in the first line of data.
   • Type x-TO: &Lead_tape_librarian& in the second line.
   • Type x-TITLE: Scratch tapes are low! in the third line.
   • Type the body of the email in the following lines.

     EDIT       SYS3.CA1.SEND(SCRLOW) - 01.00         Columns 00001 00072
     Command ===>                                        Scroll ===> CSR 
     

     ****** ************************ Top of Data ************************
     000001 EMAIL
     000002 x-TO: &Lead_tape_librarian&
     000003 x-TITLE: Scratch tapes are low!
     000004 Warning! There are only &CTS_Alert_Variable_Value& tapes
     000005 left in volume pool
     000006 &CTS_Alert_Pool_ID&.
     000007 Please take action now to insure we have sufficient tapes for
     000008 daily processing. Note - do not
     000009 reply to this email.
     ****** ********************** Bottom of Data **********************
     
     

3. Press PF3 or enter END in the command line to save the settings.

Note: You can extensively customize the emails. For more information, see the Administration Guide.

Activate the Alert

To have the email sent when the condition that you defined in the alert is met, activate the alert.

To have the VPM subtask activate the alert, issue the following command:

F CTS,MSG,VPM,UPDATE

The VPM subtask reads the CA 1 Audit file and updates the counters that are associated with the Production_Range_1 volume pool.

The VPM subtask reads the CA 1 Audit file in user-specified intervals. You can set this interval in the option variable OPT_VPM_TIMER. As tapes change status, the accumulators for the Production_Range_1 are updated. The VPM subtask also tests the alert condition in this interval. If the condition is met, the email that is defined in SCRLOW is sent.