ISMF is obviously invoking such a program to read the offline volume label and the operator command "D U" does not. The program that does this is not very complex, but it does have to be authorized.
Bill Fairchild Software Developer Rocket Software 275 Grove Street * Newton, MA 02466-2272 * USA Tel: +1.617.614.4503 * Mobile: +1.508.341.1715 Email: [email protected] Web: www.rocketsoftware.com -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lizette Koehler Sent: Friday, April 17, 2009 12:19 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Validating existance of a Volume from REXX I guess I am just confused because ISMF can do it. But there does not seem to be a batch process to do the same thing. I know that Bill cannot see me kneeling and saying I AM NOT WORTHY. But, it might be nice if someone decided to build a nice batch interface for us to use. My philosophy is - if you do in one place why not the other? So, is that a challenge to write a user friendly assembler program that could be called by ANYTHING that will return the volser based on a UCB address, or return a UCB address based on a volser? Lizette > >z/OS deliberately obscures the volser in the UCB when it is offline - and the >only way to read it is to construct your own low level I/O program to read the >device label - the sort of thing that Bill Fairchild does 5 times before >breakfast. > > > > >How to deal with a volume that is valid but offline? The D U fail because the >volume is offline. This is one issue I have been struggling with. > >How can I see the volumes when they are offline in REXX or through a Batch >interface? I know that ISMF can see volumes offline, but I have not found a >way to emulate that outside of ISMF yet. > >Lizette > > > >>I don't believe there is a VVDS on a volume if there is no VSAM, and if >>the volume is non-SMS. So a sysres volume probably might not have a >>VVDS on it, and most non-SMS volumes would not as well, unless there is >>VSAM. >> >>You could probably check for a VTOCIX if you make all of your volumes >>have an index? >> >>I do these checks in the following REXX code using the console command: >> >> "CONSOLE DEACTIVATE" >>"CONSPROF SOLDISPLAY(NO) UNSOLNUM("NM") SOLNUM("NM") UNSOLDISPLAY(NO)" >> "CONSOLE ACTIVATE CART("TOKEN") NAME("NAME")" >> VOLA=GDGX >> ADDRESS CONSOLE 'D U,VOL='VOLA'' >> ER = GETMSG(DMSG.,"SOL",TOKEN,MASK,5) >> MSGCHECK=SUBSTR(DMSG.1,2,7) >> IF MSGCHECK='IEE455I' THEN >> DO >> LINE.J= 'THE VOLSER FOR GDG: 'GDGX' DOES NOT EXIST' >> J=J+1 >> END >> >> >>If you look into the CONSOLE command you can do the D U,VOL=xxxxxx >>command and interogate the output. This works for a weekly job where I >>check for the existence of all of our dump datasets for actual online >>volumes. >> >>Hope this helps. >> >>C. Todd Burrell, PMP, MCP >>Lead z/OS Systems Programmer >>ITSO >>(404) 723-2017 (Cell) >> >>> >>I have written a REXX exec with an ISPF dialog that will allow a user >>to copy and rename a cataloged dataset to another volume. The user >>will rename the dataset, and has the option to catalog, or not, the >>new dataset. Also, the user has the option to delete the existing >>cataloged-or-not dataset on the target volume. >> >> >> >>I've been using LISTDSI on "SYS1.VVDS.V"volume_name to validate the >>existence of the target volume since the user can type in the volume >>name. >>However today, on the target volume, the SYS1.VVDS.Vvolume_name entry >>does not exist, so LISTDSI fails with RC=16, REASON=0024 - dataset does >>not exist. >> >> >> >>I'm a novice to this area, and my existing logic is probably pretty >>hackish, at best. >> >> >> >>Two questions- >> >> >> >>1) Why might the SYS1.VVDS dataset not exist for the volume today? >> >> >>2) What is a better approach to volume validation? >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
