David,
You asked.
> When building new Linux boxes, I have to format several drives.
> I normally log as Maint and do them one at a time. Is there a
> way to do multiple drives simultaneously, or log to Maint
> sessions multiple times?
And David Boyes answered:
> You can only do them serially, or you need to use multiple userids.
So yes, multiple, *different* user IDs. The most I use is two at a time
(besides MAINT, I use SYSMAINT). At three sessions, I start getting
confused hopping between sessions (OK, maybe I can handle 3, but not 4 :))
But whether it is one or three sessions, what gets to me is the
repetition - repitition leads to mistakes.
Then you wrote:
> Any ideas as always are greatly appreciated.
OK, I think this counts as "any idea" :)) The question that you didn't ask
is, "Is there are way to format disks serially on a single ID?".
I wrote a REXX EXEC named CPFORMAT (Disclaimer: it is *not* supported, but
seems to work. It has been tested somewhat through usage, but not
rigorously as it would if it were part of z/VM).
It does this:
-) Is a wrapper around CPFMTXA
-) Chugs through a range of DASD and formats
-) Allows you to specify spool, page, or perm (minidisks)
-) Uses a volser-naming scheme of digit (1) hard coded, (2) disk usage,
(3-6) the 4 digit real address
For example, if you had to format 96 3390s at addresses 6000-605F for use
as minidisks you would type:
==> cpformat 6000-605F as perm
(and then go to lunch and don't worry about finger checks :))
Here's the usage and synopsis of the syntax:
Format one or a range of DASD as page, perm, spool or temp disk space
The label written to each DASD is V<t><xxxx> where:
<t> is type - P (page), M (perm), S (spool) or T (Temp disk)
<xxxx> is the 4 digit address
Syntax is:
.-PAGE-.
>>--CPFORMAT--.-rdev--------------.--AS---+-PERM-+---------><
| <---------------< | '-SPOL-'
'-rdev1-rdev2-------'
It is described in section 4.6.1 of the latest Virtualization Cookbooks -
for SLES at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247493.html?Open
The associated tar file has the code at
ftp://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/SG247493/
(There is a similar for RHEL (replace 7493 above with 7492) but the VM
sections are identical.)
Hope this helps.
"Mike MacIsaac" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (845) 433-7061
