Adding a volume to a storage group

Before you begin

1. Define a BMC AMI Storage pool of spare or candidate volumes by using the SMPOOL PARMLIB member.

   These volumes must be online to the local system, and, if the local system is a member of a sysplex, these volumes must be online to all systems where the volume is defined in the sysplex. Because the device number will be used to reference the volume, it must be the same on all systems in the sysplex.

   Specify the name of the candidate pool in the SMMSYS ADDV_CANDP= keyword.

2. Create your own JCL or customize the distributed JCL examples to be used to reinitialize a device.

   Sample skeleton JCL is distributed in members SRMJOB09 and SRMJOB10 of the BBSLIB data set. The sample jobs use the IBM ICKDSF utility to perform the initialization.

   The JCL can include variables to be filled in at execution time for the device address, candidate VOLSER, target VOLSER, and other values. See Understanding variables.

3. Define the storage group with additional VOLSERs, which serve as empty slots or spare VOLSER values to be used by this facility.

   This process is initiated with the AUTOADDV command. The command can be issued from an automated operations package, manually on the console, manually from the BMC AMI Storage SVOSCMD dialog, scheduled with the BMC AMI Storage Scheduled Services facility, or initiated as the result of an AUTO function solution.

   Example

   The following AUTOPOOL SET statement solution issues the AUTOADDV command for any storage group that is greater than 95% full:

   SET SVOSCMD='AUTOADDV GROUP=&GROUP'

   INC AP_PERFL>95 AP_TYPE='STORGRP'

   With the AUTOADDV function, you select a volume from the candidate pool based on device geometry, RAID device type, manufacturer, storage group, target VOLSER, candidate VOLSER, and so on. This feature allows you, for example, to ensure that for storage group x, only 3390-27 device types are added.

   You can also use the AUTOADDV function to specify the skeleton JCL member to use when initializing the selected candidate volume, which allows you to use different sets of JCL depending on the specified filters. The JCL can contain any number of job steps and can perform any processes that you need to perform when initializing a new volume. For example, you might want to do the INIT in one job step, vary the volume online in the next, and allocate a VVDS data set on the volume.

   Actions taken by the AUTOADDV command can be seen in the Automation Audit Log. Log records are written when the command is received, when the command is completed, when the candidate volume is varied online and offline, and when the INIT JCL job is submitted and when it ends.

   In summary, log records are written at the following points:

   • The command is received.

   • The command is completed.

   • The candidate volume is varied online.

   • The INIT JCL job is submitted.

   • The INIT JCL job ends.

To add a volume to a storage group

1. Select a spare volume to be added to the storage group from the BMC AMI Storage pool of candidate volumes.
2. Determine an appropriate target volser value.

   The storage group definition must include volume serial numbers that do not currently exist. These VOLSER values will be used when adding a volume to the storage group.

3. Use the VARY command to take the candidate volume offline.

   If the local system is a member of a sysplex, the volume must be taken offline on all systems in the sysplex.

4. Submit a batch job to initialize the candidate device by using the INIT command.

   This command reinitializes the device, changing the VOLSER from the candidate VOLSER to the target VOLSER.

5. Use the VARY command to bring the volume back online to all systems.

   The volume will then be recognized by the new target VOLSER and available to SMS or BMC AMI Storage during allocation requests to the storage group.

Varying the candidate volume offline

After the volume is selected, it is checked to ensure that it is empty. The only data sets that can exist on a candidate pool volume are the VVDS and the VTOC index data sets. If the volume is not empty, it will not be used, and the next candidate volume in the pool is run through the AUTOADDV function.

After it is determined that the volume is empty, the volume is varied offline by using the VARY OFFLINE command. If the local system is a member of a sysplex, the volume is varied offline to all systems in the sysplex. If the local system is not a member of a sysplex the volume is varied offline to the local system only.

Because the MVS VARY command is used to perform this function, in a JES3 environment the candidate volumes must be managed by MVS. A candidate pool volume cannot be managed by JES3, attached to JES3, or commonly managed. If the VARY command is not successful on all systems in the sysplex, the selected volume is not used and the AUTOADDV request fails.

In certain circumstances, the VARY command can be delayed. For example, if an IEF283D WTOR is outstanding, the VARY OFFLINE command cannot be completed. In this situation, the device is put in a pending offline status until the WTOR is no longer outstanding. BMC AMI Storage will wait for up to one minute for completion of the offline request on all systems. If the offline status cannot be achieved in the one minute time frame, the volume is not used and the current AUTOADDV request fails.

If the local system is a member of a sysplex, the ROUTE command is used to issue the VARY command. The ROUTE command will cause the VARY command to be issued on all systems in the sysplex.

INIT skeleton JCL

Samples of this JCL are distributed in BBSLIB members SRMJOB09 and SRMJOB10.

This JCL can contain skeleton tailoring variables as described in AUTOADDV function. These variables are replaced prior to job submission and can specify the target VOLSER, candidate VOLSER, device address, storage group, and so on.

The sample jobs use the ICKDSF utility to perform the volume INIT. When using this utility, note the following information:

• The utility will issue a WTOR requiring operator intervention to complete the ICKDSF job step. This WTOR can be prevented by specifying PARM='NOREPLYU' on the EXEC statement of the job step and by using the VERIFY keyword in the SYSIN statements. The VERIFY keyword causes the utility to first verify that the device is defined with the specified VOLSER before reinitializing the volume to the new VOLSER value. The &CANDVOL variable can be used for this keyword because it contains this VOLSER value. The sample jobs make use of this ability and can be used as an example.

• The &TARGVOL skeleton tailoring variable should be used for the VOLID keyword in the ICKDSF utility SYSIN statements. The VOLID keyword specifies the VOLSER to which the device is initialized. The &TARGVOL variable contains this value.

• The &UNIT skeleton tailoring variable should be used for the UNIT keyword in the ICKDSF utility SYSIN statements. The UNIT keyword specifies the unit address, also referred to as UCB address or device address, of the device to be initialized.

This INIT job can contain any steps required to initialize a volume in your environment. The only requirement is that when the job is complete, the device address involved is initialized to the target VOLSER.