Guidelines for RECYCLE Implementation

The following guidelines describe some considerations for setting up RECYCLE processing:

RECYCLE is a physical tape-to-tape process. A minimum of two tape drives are needed for processing: one for the input tape and another for the output tape. If duplex tapes are being created, a third drive is necessary for the duplex tape. You should plan ahead to ensure that sufficient physical drives are available for RECYCLE processing.
Although RECYCLE can be run at any time, it requires approximately the same CPU and tape channel time as any other tape-to-tape job. Consider running RECYCLE during nonpeak processing times when physical tape drive activity is low.
Avoid recycling the same data sets repeatedly. You should avoid merging tapes that will expire within a few days. Also, try not to move groups or subgroups that have relatively short expiration dates.
Evaluate tape library scratch needs in order to establish an appropriate RECYCLE percentage threshold. Higher percentage values select more physical tapes, requiring longer processing runs. Lower percentage values select fewer tapes and result in shorter, but more frequent, processing runs.