Unforeseeable special situations can occur during activation, e.g.:
internal system problems or bottlenecks (e.g. lack of storage space)
connection problems
volume defects, ambiguous volume identifiers
inconsistent pubset metadata (e.g. invalid time stamp)
faulty current master assignments
difficulties in assigning the requested cache areas
problems connecting cache areas still assigned
If problems occur during the import operation, systems support can abort the current import job before it has terminated by using the CANCEL-PUBSET-IMPORT command. In a shared pubset network, the main advantage of this is that an active import with master change can be aborted while the pubset remains accessible to at least one other system.
Checking homogeneity
The homogeneity of pubset mirroring for the pubset to be imported is checked by specifying the CHECK-PUBSET-MIRRORS=*YES operand in the IMPORT-PUBSET command. As soon as an inhomogeneity is determined in a pubset volume, the import operation is interrupted and systems support has the choice of aborting or continuing the import operation (see section "Checking the homogeneity in the case of pubset extension" in chapter "Modifying dynamic configuration data of SF and SM pubsets").
Excluding defective volume sets from import
In the IMPORT-PUBSET command systems support can specify volume sets (with the exception of the control volume set) which are removed automatically from the pubset before it is actually activated (DEFECT-VOLUME-SET operand). Only the remaining part of the pubset is then activated. In this case a list of the files on the removed volume set is created which can be used in a later RESTORE call (by HSMS).
Repairing defective F5 labels and TSOSCAT files
If there is a suspicion that a pubset’s control structures are defective (e.g. the TSOSCAT file or F5 labels), the following operands can be specified in the IMPORT-PUBSET command:
RECONSTRUCT-F5-LABEL=*YES: Initiate F5 label reconstruction explicitly
REPAIR-TSOSCAT=*YES: Activate repair mode
F5 label reconstruction
If, during the reconstruction of the F5 labels in a TSOSCAT file, an error is encountered in the chaining of a user ID’s TSOSCAT pages (defective user chain), then an analysis mode is activated in catalog management (CMS) for the remainder of F5 reconstruction. In this analysis mode, the chaining of the user IDs that remain to be processed is logged at the console for diagnostic purposes. An intact chaining is indicated by message DMS13A7 (one or more per ID). If an error occurs in a user chain then this is logged by means of message DMS13A8.
This information can be used to assess the extent of the damage to the TSOSCAT file. Once analysis is complete, the pubset import is always terminated with an error in such cases. It is then not normally possible to import the pubset successfully until the TSOSCAT file has been repaired.
In such cases, Customer Support should always be contacted. The repair can be performed by system specialists manually following a suitable diagnosis or can be initiated automatically.
Repair mode
During the import phase, the command attempts to make the defective user chains accessible for catalog management again by unchaining defective blocks or detaching the remainder of the chain.
Files whose catalog entries are located on pages that have been detached in this way are lost! No information concerning the affected files can be provided by the system. The service should always be contacted before automatic TSOSCAT repair is activated.
To protect against accidental activation, the repair mode must be confirmed once via the message DMS13AE. The implemented measures are logged via messages DMS13A9, DMS13AA, DMS13AB and DMS13AC. If the repair fails (for example, because of a permanent hardware error), message DMS13AD is displayed.