Using the Tape Retention System (TRS) › TRS Processing Considerations › Changing the Retention Period

Changing the Retention Period

Although we do not advise overriding retention criteria once it has been defined, it is possible to shorten or extend retention periods that have been defined using the following retention methods:

• Catalog Control-To shorten the retention period, uncatalog the data set. There is no way to extend the retention period.
• Keep Date Control-If no days are specified in the count field, you can either shorten or extend the retention period by manually changing the keep date (KEEPDT) field in the VMF.

  If a number of days has been specified in the count field of the retention statement, changing KEEPDT will not help because the keep date is automatically recalculated each time TRS runs. The only way to shorten or extend the retention period is to manually change the creation date (CDATE) field (see discussion below). Changing the date from which the keep date is calculated will also change the keep date.

• Cycle Control-Code a new retention statement with a different number of cycles.

The following two methods may be used although we do not recommend changing the creation date. This can cause serious problems for cycle-controlled data sets. It also destroys any chronological information which could be used for tracing possible problems.

• Elapsed Days Control-Code a new retention statement or manually change either CDATE, or MOVEDT if the volume has moved to an off-site location.
• Days Since Last Used Control-Code a new retention statement or manually change either CDATE or LDATE.

More information:

Volume Master File Inquiry and Update