Tape Mount Intercept Filters › VTFILTR Parmlib Member

VTFILTR Parmlib Member

The Parmlib Directory Section in the VTPARMS parmlib member contains attributes which tell CA Vtape where specific sets of related parmlib attributes are located. One of the attributes is DatasetFilters which has a default value of VTFILTR. The VTFILTR parmlib member is where you code your tape mount intercept filters.

VTFILTR 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 contain include or exclude filters.

The index section name is <DatasetFilters>. In this section you code IncludeDatasets, ExcludeDatasets, and IncludeDataClass attributes. If you are licensed for the P2P Option, you can also code RemoteIncludeDatasets, RemoteExcludeDatasets, and RemoteIncludeDataClass attributes. These attributes can be coded as many times as needed to properly organize and document your filter sections. The values of these attributes are unique, customized section names which contain filters of the type 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 will use 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 VTGROUP parmlib member. Groups are used like DASD storage groups or pools to associate tape data sets with similar storage management requirements. All production tape data sets could be assigned to group 01, all test tape data sets could be assigned to group 02, and all disaster recovery tape data sets could be assigned to group 03 allowing you to manage these groups of data 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 set up:

<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./ 

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

Note: The SVTn REFRESH=FiLTers console command is local in scope. If three CA Vtape subsystems running on two Logical Partitions are using the same filter member that was changed, the console command must be issued once for each subsystem.