Thanks for finding that Mark - We probably don't need to convert backwards and 
forwards as we build running systems, but now we've had this in place for so 
long I think we'll stay there. Also look forward to John and Marne's comments.

Jerry Whitteridge
Lead Systems Programmer
Safeway Inc.
925 951 4184

If you feel in control
you just aren't going fast enough.


-----Original Message-----
From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf 
Of Mark Zelden
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2012 1:25 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: installing serverpac for 1.13 using 1.11 system

On Mon, 18 Jun 2012 13:13:10 -0500, Mark Zelden <[email protected]> wrote:

>On Mon, 18 Jun 2012 10:49:04 -0600, Jerry Whitteridge 
><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>In service mode the /etc and /var directories are supposed to be true 
>>directories so maintenance can be applied. When you clone them to become the 
>>running versions there is a script to run to switch to a symlink. Look in the 
>>doc for the Installation of the serverpac and at the server pac jobs.
>>
>
>
>I have never done this.   You're correct that if maintenance hit my service
>directory /etc or /var it would update the live /etc or /var on the
>system I ran the APPLY on due to the symlinks.  I didn't think that
>was an issue though (see #2 below).
>
>1) Other than the RESTORE job documentation that states it converts
>   /etc and /var to symlinks, I can't find another reference to changing
>   them back and forth for maintenance / cloning etc.    Can you point me
>   to where this is documented.
>
>2) I didn't think IBM ever serviced /etc or /var via maintenance.
>
>John Eells or Marna Walle (if you are lurking),  can you comment on #2?
>

I didn't find anything about this in ServerPac doc because nothing probably 
exists.   However,
in the z/OS Unix System Services planning manual, in the section titled  
"Establishing
an /etc file system for a new release", it specifically states the following:

"Because IBM products do not create files into /etc, there is no possibility 
that SMP/E installation
 of an IBM product or service will overlay your own files within /etc."

(thanks to Shmuel for the pointer to that manual - I was looking in the MVS 
Planning manual 
and Severpac manuals)

It doesn't specifically mention this about /var, but I assume it is also true.

So going back to the OP,  I don't know when his symlinks were removed and I have
never run into that problem, and there should be no harm in keeping them
as symlinks in his maintenance / service root file that get's cloned.

--
Mark Zelden - Zelden Consulting Services - z/OS, OS/390 and MVS       
mailto:[email protected]                                        
Mark's MVS Utilities: http://www.mzelden.com/mvsutil.html 
Systems Programming expert at http://expertanswercenter.techtarget.com/

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