Caveat: insert Daily Digest delay here...
Charles: in addition to gil's notes [1], be advised that {any, some} catalogue
changes to .COMMON will lose all the aliases. For example, I have daily
processing to create FDR exclusion commands for all aliases in the system [2]
that are included in *all* my archiving jobs. In the past, when FDR archived
the base dataset, the alias(es) disappeared and were not re-constructed on
recall. (not surprising) I'll gamble that similar stuff might occur with HSM.
So, any process you have that creates .COMMON should also have the Define Alias
commands imbedded with it ie. batch IDCAms.
If it's for your own use and helps your processes, why not? If something fails
because .A, .B, or .C are missing, you'll be the one to fix it anyway. (unless
you should be re-thinking the use of .A, .B, & .C anyway)
[1] that I've accidentally deleted already. Oh, yeah, I remember. We, too,
use aliases for versioning of product datasets particularly DB2 loadlibs [3]
which are found in JCL all over the place.
[2] easily done in 30 seconds with FDReport.
[3] which was how I learned about the conflict between aliases and archiving.
The testing/install environments wouldn't use their DB2 loadlibs for more than
2 years causing migration to occur. That led to DSN Not Found errors because
the aliases disappear as part of the process.
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Neil Duffee, Joe Sysprog, uOttawa, Ottawa, Ont, Canada
telephone:1 613 562 5800 x4585 fax:1 613 562 5161
mailto:NDuffee of uOttawa.ca http:/ /aix1.uOttawa.ca/ ~nduffee
"How *do* you plan for something like that?" Guardian Bob, Reboot
"For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism."
"Systems Programming: Guilty, until proven innocent" John Norgauer 2004
-----Original Message-----
From: Charles Mills [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: December 10, 2014 19:49
Subject: Dataset alias advice
I've never used dataset aliases. (Well, I'm sure I have; it would probably be
more correct to say "I have never been involved with the administration of
dataset aliases.")
I have a situation where I am going to have several sets of datasets; one set
each for "situation" A, one for B, one for C, and so forth. So I might have
HLQ.FOO.A
HLQ.FOO.B
HLQ.FOO.C
etc.
HLQ.BAR.A
etc.
In many cases these will be PDSes with multiple members. For *some* of these
sets, the A, B and C PDSes will be the same. I only need the A, B, and C to
make the big picture scheme work.
These are for my own use, basically -- this is not for an entire datacenter.
Question: Does the use of aliases make sense? Let's say HLQ.BAR is identical
across A, B and C. Should I make one HLQ.BAR.COMMON and alias it as .A, .B and
.C? Or is that overkill for a simple one-person situation? Should I just make
three identical PDSes and not over-complicate the problem?
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