>>> On 6/22/2014 at 12:43 AM, Cameron Seay <[email protected]> wrote: 
> So when I see free that is not a sysprog assigned label, but an indication
> of being uninitialized?

Possibly.  The guy who maintains our System z box will run cpfmtxa on a DASD 
volume that has been released from use and assign a volser of FREE to it.  So, 
it can go either way.

The only way to know for sure if a DASD volume is actually free is
1. You (or a someone else) knows for sure exactly which LPARs in which CECs 
have which DASD volumes in use.
2. You look at the CP directory for all the z/VM systems that have access to 
all the DASD volumes.

If a volume is in use by another LPAR (whether in the same CEC or not) or it 
shows up in any of the CP directories for any of the z/VM systems, then you 
can't use the volume.

This doesn't preclude the possibility that someone may have given a guest OS 
more CP privileges than class G, and at some point in the past that guest did 
an ATTACH to a volume, used it, and later logged off.  You won't be able to 
tell, except possibly by the volser (and not even that's a sure thing), but 
they may very well be expecting to use that volume again.  Not your fault if it 
gets clobbered, of course, but it's one reason not to give guests more 
privileges than they truly need.

This is why so many sites pay the measly licensing fee for DIRMAINT.  If 
nothing else, it sets up a framework for the site to exercise some change 
management discipline in this area.


Mark Post

----------------------------------------------------------------------
For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions,
send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit
http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For more information on Linux on System z, visit
http://wiki.linuxvm.org/

Reply via email to