Setting Up Tape Mount Intercept Filters › OSFILTR Parmlib Member

OSFILTR Parmlib Member

The Parmlib Directory Section in the OSPARMS Parmlib member contains attributes which identify which Parmlib members contain specific sets of related Parmlib attributes. One of the attributes is DatasetFilters which has a default value of OSFILTR. The OSFILTR Parmlib member is where you code your tape mount intercept filters.

OSFILTR contains a number of comment lines documenting the structure and syntax of the member, how to customize the member, and examples. The member contains an index section and one or more filter sections which contain include or exclude filters.

The index section name is <DatasetFilters>. In this section, you code IncludeDatasets, ExcludeDatasets, and IncludeDataClass attributes. Code these attributes to organize and document your filter sections properly. The values of these attributes are unique, customized section names which contain filters of the type that is associated with the attribute name.

For example, IncludeDatasets = Production_Include_Data_Sets, would indicate that a section named <Production_Include_Data_Sets> is coded in the member and it contains include filters. CA Vtape uses the values coded in this section to try and intercept tape mounts. Whether the entries are really for production data sets will not be validated. The customizable nature of the names allows you to document what the sections are for.

These filter sections contain GROUPnn attributes where nn is 01-04, 11-14, 21-24, and so on, up to 71-74. The value of the group attribute is a fully qualified data set name, a data set name pattern, or a data class.

Groups are documented in the OSGROUP Parmlib member. Groups are used to assign management policies to tape data sets that have similar requirements. All production tape data sets could be assigned to group 01. All test tape data sets could be assigned to group 02. All disaster recovery tape data sets could be assigned to group 03 allowing you to manage these data groups differently.

The best practice when starting out is to assign all tape data sets to a single group. When you are more familiar with CA Vtape and the effects of splitting the tape data into multiple groups, the filters and groups can be modified.

The following is an example of a typical filter setup:

<DatasetFilters> 
  IncludeDatasets = Prod_Data_Set_Includes
  ExcludeDatasets = Prod_Data_Set_Excludes
  IncludeDatasets = Test_Data_Set_Includes
<Prod_Data_Set_Includes>    
      Group01 = PROD./
<Prod_Data_Set_Excludes>
      Group01 = PROD.PAYROLL./
<Test_Data_Set_Includes>  
      Group02 = TEST./ 

Use TSO edit to add, delete, and modify filter entries. Use the SVTn REFRESH=FiLTers console command to notify the appropriate CA Vtape Subsystem of filter changes.

Note: The SVTn REFRESH=FiLTers console command is local in scope. If three Subsystems running on two Logical Partitions use the same filter member that was changed, issue the console command once for each Subsystem.