Releasing save tapes

The HSMS/ARCHIVE tapes which have been written without being allocated to a directory are only released during a release session if the expiration date has elapsed.

The “release session” in MAREN (FREE-VOLUMES statement) only releases those HSMS/ARCHIVE tapes managed in directories which have previously been removed from the relevant directory using one of the following statements:

HSMS:

//MODIFY-ARCHIVE ..., SAVE-FILES=*DELETE(...)
//MODIFY-ARCHIVE ..., VOLUMES=*REMOVE (...)

ARCHIVE:

*PURGE DIRECTORY=...,...
*POOL DIRECTORY=...,REMOVE=(<vsn>,...)

In the case of these statements, a number of catalog entry fields in the MAREN catalog are modified:

Catalog entry field	Modification using HSMS or ARCHIVE statements
FREE-DATE	is set to the current date, provided all three of the following conditions are satisfied: A reserved tape of the local data center is concerned (VOLUME-STATUS=RESERVED) The statement is executed under the user ID contained in the catalog entry (USER-ID), under the user ID TSOS, or under the user ID SYSHSMS. The tape was reserved by the automatic free tape allocation MARENUCP.
EXPIRATION-DATE	is likewise set to the current date, provided it has not already expired.
INIT	is set to YES for reserved tapes of the local data center (VOL-STATUS= RESERVED) if the volume expiration date has not yet been reached (for HSMS with FORCED-DELETE=*YES or in the ARCHIVE statement PURGE ...,FORCE=YES).
DIR-NAME	is deleted. Special feature: if the tape is assigned to a special directory free tape pool, the DIRNAME field in the catalog entry is filled with the directory name specified for FREE-POOL=<filename>, as before. However, it is no longer output for the MAREN statement SHOW-VOLUME-ATTRIBUTES.
ARCH-USAGE	A flag to the effect that the tape is no longer contained in a directory is set internally. Only if this indicator is set in the catalog entry the tapes will be included in the next release session started by the MAREN administrator.

If inconsistencies have occurred, e.g. because tapes in HSMS/ARCHIVE were released while MAREN was not started, any inconsistency must, if necessary, be rectified manually. In the example given, it may be necessary to reset the allocation to the directory with the MAREN statement //MODIFY-VOLUME-ATTRIBUTES ...,NEW-DIRECTORY-NAME=*NONE. Only then the tapes can be released in the next release run of MAREN.

 

CAUTION!
This command must be used with caution, and only if the tape is no longer present in the specified directory. Otherwise there is a danger of data loss.

First ascertain the name of the archive to which the directory file is assigned. Then use the HSMS statement //SHOW-ARCHIVE <archive_name>,SELECT=*VOLUMES(VOLUMES=<vsn>,,..) or the ARCHIVE statement *INQUIRE DIR=<dirname>,POOL.

Merely viewing the expiration date or free date is not sufficient since in the case of migration archives the tapes are as a rule not protected by retention periods.

After release, the tapes are reallocated to exactly the same subset of the MAREN free tape pools as they were in before reservation took place.

Premature release of a backup version

Several steps are necessary to reassign a tape whose expiration date has not yet elapsed to a pool:

1. The backup version concerned is deleted using the HSMS statement //MODIFY-ARCHIVE SAVE-FILES=*DELETE or the ARCHIVE statement *PURGE ..., FORCE=YES.

2. The tape is deleted from the pool using the //MODIFY-ARCHIVE VOLUMES=*REMOVE statement (HSMS) or the ARCHIVE statement *POOL REMOVE=<vsn>.

3. The tape must be newly initialized using the INIT utility program.

4. The tape is added to the pool again using the HSMS statement //MODIFY-ARCHIVE VOLUMES=*ADD or the ARCHIVE statement *POOL ADD=<vsn>.

These four steps are considerably simplified by the use of a special HSMS/ARCHIVE free tape pool and the “implicit reservation” procedure:

1. Same as above.

2. Not applicable.

3. The MAREN administrator starts a procedure which executes the release session and the subsequent initialization run.

4. Not applicable.