Utilities › TMSMERGE Utility—Merge TMC Data › Considerations

Considerations

The receiving site should take the following into consideration:

• The use of Catalog Control and Catalog Days Control of tape data sets (CATALOG, CATLG, or CATLG/ddd in control statements and online interfaces, or LABEL=EXPDT=99000 and LABEL=EXPDT=90ddd in JCL) indicates that CA 1 keeps tapes out of scratch status as long as the CATLG-protected data set has an entry in the system catalog. If the system catalog information from the sending site is not immediately available to the receiving site, the batch utility TMSCTLG should not be executed until the system catalog is updated or the merged TMC records are updated with some other EXPDT value.
• If OCTLG=NO in hlq.CTAPOPTN member TMOOPTxx, run TMSOSCAT PARM=SYNC again if the receiving data is from a Version 5.2 system or below that has not had TMSOSCAT PARM=SYNC run against the data.
• If Volume records from the sending site are under Vault Management System control, the Vault Pattern entries from the sending site should be integrated into the receiving site's pattern prior to running any VMS utilities. If the sending site uses vault names (OUTCODEs) equal to vault names used in the receiving site, the sending site's vault pattern entries need to have the REDEFINED keyword option specified for each data set name affected to prevent duplicate slot errors.
• If the sending or receiving site uses the Scratch Pool Management feature, the hlq.CTAPOPTN members defining the tape pool options need to be built/integrated. Console operators and users should be informed of any visible changes this may cause. The same holds true for the CA 1 options defined in the TMOOPTxx and TMOEDMxx members of hlq.CTAPOPTN. The Retention Data Set used by TMSEXPDT, and the PDS used by TMSPULL, will require similar accommodation if either data set is in use at either location.

  Note: When using PARM=DEFAULT with TMSMERGE, the FLAG1 =x’01’ ('eligible for RDS override') bit will be turned on in ALL the new merged TMC records. If there is a matching RDS entry, the EXPDT of the tape is overridden. To ensure that the proper expiration date is assigned to your datasets: review your RDS entries or incorporate your sending RDS entries into the receiving site’s Retention Dataset (RDS) before running TMSEXPDT. Otherwise, premature retention expiration may occur.

• A split/merge operation should not be performed when the sending site's ranges are identical to ranges in the receiving site's TMC that currently reflect nonscratch data sets unless new external VOLSERs are assigned. The merge operation requires that the Volume records for the import data set be properly formatted in the receiving TMC, and they should be in either scratch or inactive (DELETE) status. If TMSMERGE determines that you are overlaying an active record, it will free the DSNBs and break the volume chains and then do the overlay.
• The number of Audit records required to support the merge is specified on the TMSSPLIT output. This number is to be combined with the value of the number of Audit and DSNB records reported. The number is also relative to the Audit data set threshold level; should the level be reached TMSMERGE will terminate with a U0008 abend. Another consideration is that more than the number specified by TMSSPLIT is required if the merge overlays records that are active; that is, records not in scratch or delete status, especially if the volume records being overlayed are multifile volumes and the DSNBs associated with them have to be cleared and returned to the free chain by the merge process. Since the number of audit records needed if AIVS or foreign control statements are used is increased, plan for an additional audit record for each secondary volume and secondary VOLSER. A good practice would be to triple the number of AUDIT records based on the output from TMSSPLIT.

  Because RESTART cannot be used if AIVS or foreign control statements are used, the only way to recover from an abend situation is to restore the TMC. For this reason, CA 1 should be in batch active mode. It is recommended that a TEST parameter be used for the initial run to ensure there are no problems prior to the production run.