Steve, You can attach or link these packs to a z/OS system and vary them online, and assuming there are no duplicate volumes and assuming the z/OS IODF knows about these addresses, you will then see them in a "D U" display. This allows you to do full-volume dumps from the VM packs to tape using, for example, FDR. No change to the VM volumes are required.
I once worked for a company many years ago and this is how they backed up their VM systems. Minidisk restores were tedious, especially if you had to restore to a different location, because at that time FDR wanted to put individual cylinders back where it got them from (which makes sense from an MVS perspective (I don't know if this is still this way or not, because once I left that company, no one else I worked for tried to do things that way)) but it was perceived cheaper to pay people to spend time doing an easy thing the hard way than to spend money on software that would allow people to do an easy thing the easy way. After all, they already had backup software for MVS, and you +could+ use it for VM, so they did ... it always seemed to me like using the farm horse to go to market instead of buying a truck, but there was no arguing with management at the time - human costs never factored into their cost justification. Regards, Bill Stephens Sr. Technology Analyst, High Availability SunGard Availability Services 10th floor 401 North Broad Street Philadelphia, PA 19108 Phone: (215) 351-1099 Fax: (215) 451-2045 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________ Keeping People and Information Connected (TM) http://www.availability.sungard.com
