Image Catalog FAQ

I am going to submit this as an FAQ as is, unless there is some problem.
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Building an image catalog on the iSeries


(thanks to Rob Berendt at Group Dekko Services, LLC for all the pointers)

CRTDEVOPT DEVD(OPTVRT01) RSRCNAME(*VRT) ONLINE(*YES) TEXT('Virtual optical 
drive for image catalog')

Make the drive available (after you create it the first time only):

VRYCFG CFGOBJ(OPTVRT01) CFGTYPE(*DEV) STATUS(*ON)

Create the image catalog to copy the images to:

CRTIMGCLG IMGCLG(PTFCATALOG) DIR('/fixes') TEXT('PTF image catalog')

Note: You have to either create the directory first OR use the CRTDIR(*YES) 
option when you create the image catalog.

At this point you will need to copy the images to the catalog folder using one 
of the following methods:
(1) If you downloaded the images using the FTP commands sent to you when you ordered your 
PTF's (online)  you will use the following command for each .bin (binary) file in the 
folder. It will "register" the existing bin file to the image catalog.  This 
will save space by using only one copy of the image (the TOFILE(*FROMFILE) parameter will 
do this IF the folder referenced in the FROMFILE is the same folder as identified in the 
DIR parameter in the CRTIMGCLG command) :

(2) If you are copying the CD image to the catalog, use the following command:

"Load" the image catalog into your virtual drive:

LODIMGCLG IMGCLG(PTFCATALOG) DEV(OPTVRT01)

Verify that all is well with the loaded catalog:

VFYIMGCLG IMGCLG(PTFCATALOG) TYPE(*PTF) SORT(*YES)

Work with the contents of the image catalog (if you need to change something - 
like the order of the images)

WRKIMGCLGE PTFCATALOG

Run your PTF option as follows, using the Virtual Optical drive.

GO PTF
8. Install program temporary fix package

You can load as many image catalogs as you want (as space permits) so that you 
could create a series of image catalogs for sequential loading as follows:

Create the directories for the image catalog:

md '/fixes'
md '/fixes/cume'
md '/fixes/SF99529'
md '/fixes/SF99269'

Create the image catalogs:

CRTIMGCLG IMGCLG(CUME) DIR('/fixes/cume')
CRTIMGCLG IMGCLG(SF99529) DIR('/fixes/SF99529')
CRTIMGCLG IMGCLG(SF99269) DIR('/fixes/SF99269'
...

Add image catalog entries for each as listed above.


Then you just run multiple
LODIMGCLG IMGCLG(CUME) DEV(OPTVRT01) OPTION(*LOAD)
GO PTF, Option 8, no ipl
LODIMGCLG IMGCLG(CUME) DEV(OPTVRT01) OPTION(*UNLOAD)
LODIMGCLG IMGCLG(SF99529) DEV(OPTVRT01) OPTION(*LOAD)
GO PTF, Option 8, no ipl
LODIMGCLG IMGCLG(SF99529) DEV(OPTVRT01) OPTION(*UNLOAD)
...
And so on.