Creating Minidisks

Directory Manager Guide › Managing Minidisks › Creating Minidisks

Creating Minidisks

Before you create a minidisk, you must decide several details about it, such as its virtual address, size, and subpool. Many of these details have default values that your CA VM:Secure system administrator set for you. Other information may be necessary, depending on how you create minidisks.

Information you must decide on a minidisk before you can create it:

Minidisk feature	Default value	How to learn the default value
Virtual address	191	N/A
Subpool where minidisk will be created	First subpool listed on your MANAGER record	vmsecure query subpool
Size	Listed on your DEFSIZE record	vmsecure admin managers
Device type	Listed on your DEVTYPE record	vmsecure admin managers
Volser where the new minidisk will be allocated	Depends on the definition of the subpool	vmsecure config dasd
Location on the real volume	Depends on the definition of the subpool	vmsecure config dasd
Link mode	MR	N/A
Read, write, multiple passwords	No passwords	N/A
Block size	Depends on the device type	See the FORMAT command in IBM’s CMS Command Reference
Label	DKvaddr	N/A

Important! CA VM:Secure reserves virtual addresses in the range 600 to 6FF for its own use. Do not assign minidisks to CA VM:Secure in this range because CA VM:Secure will attempt to reclaim them.

To create a minidisk

From CMS, enter the MANAGE command with the name of the entry, the numeral 2, and the virtual address you want for the minidisk (191 by default). For example, to create a 18B disk for user ID STARO12, enter the following:
```
vmsecure manage staro02 2 18B
```

When prompted, enter your password.

The Define a New Minidisk screen appears.

MAN00010 Define a New Minidisk VM:Secure ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Userid: USERID Minidisk Address: 192 + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + | | | Subpool: MAIN Type: 3390 Size: | | | | Volume: Location: | | | + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + | Passwords | | | | Read: Write: Mult: | | | + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + LINK password display is suppressed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PA1: Cancel PF1: Help PF3: Quit PF10: Print PF12: End

The name of the directory entry and the minidisk address you entered appear at the top of the screen.

Your default subpool for creating minidisks appears in the Subpool field. If you want to allocate the minidisk from another subpool you are authorized to use, type in that subpool name.

Your default device type for creating minidisks appears in the Type field. If you want to create the minidisk on another device type, such as 3380 or FB–512, enter that value in this field. If you want CA VM:Secure to identify the device type based on the subpool definition, clear the field or type an asterisk in it.

In the Size field, type the size of the new minidisk. This size must be an integer, either alone or with the K (1024 bytes) or M (1024K bytes) designation.
- If you enter the size with no designation (the integer alone) and you designated a CKD device as the minidisk’s device type, CA VM:Secure takes this size as the number of cylinders; if you designated an FBA device as the minidisk’s device type or entered an asterisk as the device type, it takes this size as the number of 512‑byte blocks. The smallest allowable size is 12 blocks.
  For example, if you enter 35 as the size for this minidisk, and you also designated a CKD device as its device type, the minidisk will be created with 35 cylinders of space. If you enter 40 as its size but you also designated an FBA device as its device type, the minidisk will be created with 40 blocks (512 bytes each) of space.
- If you enter the size in units of K (for example, 20K) or M (for example, 5M), CA VM:Secure uses the default block size for the minidisk’s device type to calculate the equivalent number of cylinders (for CKD devices) or blocks (for FBA devices). CA VM:Secure then uses this number of cylinders or blocks as the actual size.
In the Volume field, type the volume serial number (volser) of the real disk to which CA VM:Secure should allocate this minidisk. If you want CA VM:Secure to assign the volume number, leave this field blank.
If you have CA VM:Secure assign the volume number, it does so based on the definition of the subpool and the order in which volumes are defined to CA VM:Secure.
In the Location field, type the location on the real disk where this minidisk begins. If you are creating the minidisk on a CKD device, this location is a cylinder number; if you are creating the minidisk on an FBA device, this location is a block number. If you want CA VM:Secure to assign the location, leave this field blank.
If you have CA VM:Secure assign the location, it does so based on the definition for the subpool and available storage space.
If you want to specify read, write, or multiple link passwords, type them in the Read, Write, and Mult fields. If you leave these fields blank, the minidisk will have no passwords.

Press ENTER to submit your choices to CA VM:Secure.

If there are problems with any of the values you entered, CA VM:Secure returns you to the screen where you can correct the problems.

If all entries on this screen are valid, CA VM:Secure displays the Format a Minidisk screen. This screen contains the minidisk specification you entered and a default block size and label for the new minidisk.

MAN0001A Format a Minidisk VM:Secure ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Userid: USERID Minidisk Address: 192 Device Type: 3390 Volume: VST020 Minidisk Location: 1303 Minidisk Size: 1 + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + | | | Blocksize: 4096 Label: DSK192 | | | | Do you want to format the NEW minidisk? YES | | | | Do you want to wait while formatting? YES | | | + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PA1: Cancel PF1: Help PF3: Quit PF10: Print PF12: End

Your default block size for creating minidisks appears in the Blocksize field. If you want to allocate the minidisk with another block size, type in that block size. Valid block sizes are:
- 512
- 1024 (1K)
- 2048 (2K)
- 4096 (4K)
Note: For more information about block sizes, see the CMS FORMAT command description in the appropriate CMS command reference.
The default volume label appears in the Label field. If you want to assign a different label to this new minidisk, type it in this field. The label can be up to six characters and cannot include blanks.
If you are authorized to work with minidisks without formatting them, you can skip the formatting of this new minidisk for now. To skip the formatting for now, type no in the Do you want to format the NEW minidisk? field. If you are not authorized to skip formatting, you must format this new minidisk now.
If your site uses the Servant Facility and you are formatting this minidisk now, you can return to CMS and your other work while the minidisk is formatted. To return to CMS, type no in the Do you want to wait while formatting? field. If your site does not use the Servant Facility, you must wait for the minidisk to be formatted before you can leave this screen and return to your other work.
Press ENTER to submit your choices to CA VM:Secure, or press PF3 to cancel the minidisk creation.
If you are formatting the minidisk now and waiting for formatting to complete before continuing, CA VM:Secure displays informational messages near the bottom of your screen. If you are not waiting for formatting to complete before continuing, CA VM:Secure sends these informational messages to you in a spool file from the servant machine that completed the task.

You can also create a minidisk for a directory entry by answering screen prompts. Enter the MAINT MANAGE command, with the name of the directory entry for whom you want to create the minidisk, the NEWDISK parameter, and the disk virtual address. For example, to create the 194 minidisk for user ID LEMST01, enter the following command:

vmsecure maint manage lemst01 newdisk 194

Answer the prompts for the requested information for subpool, minidisk size, device type, and other minidisk characteristics. When you have finished, enter end in response to the prompt for the next MANAGE subfunction.

You can also create a minidisk for a directory entry by using the ADDMDISK line-mode command. This command allows you to specify more options than MANAGE or MAINT MANAGE. For example, to create a 1B0 minidisk for user ID COUJO03 and specify it is to be a member of your subpool, have 2 MB, and be on a 3390, enter the following command:

vmsecure addmdisk coujo03 *mine 2M 3390

Note: For more information about additional parameters and options, see ADDMDISK Command in the Reference Guide.

When you create directory entries through the ADDENTRY command, you create minidisks for them automatically if the skeleton files or the directory entries you use to create them include MDOPT and MDISK statements. This is not true for other ways of creating directory entries. The existence of these statements in the skeleton file or directory entry means that CA VM:Secure builds an ADDMDISK command. This command includes the parameters specified by the statements to create the appropriate minidisks. See the Reference Guide for the following:

Descriptions of additional parameters and options on the ADDMDISK command
Information about the special formats of the MDISK and MDOPT statements for the ADDENTRY command