Re: Question For Backup Automation

Rick wrote:

> is there any way to avoid this message under these circumstances without
> having to do the INZTAP?

As others have suggested, use a real expiration date rather than *PERM.  The
idea is to train your operators to hear alarms when they see the 'Tape has
files on it' message.  You want them to always use the right tape for the
job, so having each set expire in a week means that MON001 can be used only
next Monday (and every Monday thereafter) and not accidentally on Friday.
The last thing you want is to have the operators go ahead and write on an
un-expired tape!  That can result in having a Very Bad Day.

As associated consideration is the volume names.  Whatever you do, don't
initialise every tape to the same VOLID (like IBMIRD).  When you do that,
the machine and operators can't tell what tape they're working with vs.
which one they *should* be working with.  Come up with some scheme that
works for your environment; say, MON001, MON002, MON003, TUE001, TUE002,
etc.  Expire them when they really should be overwritten and your tape
handling operations now become more accident-proof.

Initialise one more tape than you need so it's ready to go when you
overflow.  So if your Monday backup takes two tapes now, initialise a third
with the proper naming convention and make sure your backup program
specifies the right volume names.  When you overflow your operators will be
glad they have it handy.
  --buck