FDRPAS ANNOUNCEMENTS

V5.4 level 15 is now available

SUMMARY OF MODIFICATIONS FOR VERSION 5.4 LEVEL 15

FDRPAS V5.4 level 15 contains significant enhancements: which

• improve usability (concurrent swap support, ISPF panel enhancements, and e-mail notification)

• improve support (large disk support and channel extender recovery)

• improve control (dynamic I/O pacing, security enhancements and target volume verification)

A single FDRPAS swap task (a batch job specifying SWAP or SWAPDUMP TYPE=FULL) can now process up to 32 volumes concurrently. This makes it practical to swap a large number of volumes concurrently, since a separate swap task is no longer required for each volume. This is particularly useful for SWAPDUMP, where you may want to create point-in-time backups of a large number of disks, all synchronized at a single time.

FDRPAS supports "large disks", up to 32760 cylinders in size, if the appropriate IBM maintenance to support them is installed. You can swap to and from such large disks. If the LARGERSIZE=OK operand is specified, you can swap from a smaller disk (such as a 3390-3 or a 3390-9) to a large disk. Volumes larger than 10017 cylinders (the size of a 3390-9) will be identified as "3390-27" in FDR messages.

FDRPAS now has an option, PACING=DYNAMIC, to dynamically modify its I/O pacing in response to I/O activity and I/O queuing on the source device. I/O pacing inserts delays between WRITEs to the target device, which also delays READs on the source device. Dynamic I/O pacing will vary that delay based on the apparent impact of the FDRPAS I/Os on other activity on the source volume. Static I/O pacing (the PACEDELAY= option, which can be changed interactively from the ISPF panels) is still available.

You have the option of sending e-mail messages when a FDRPAS operation is unsuccessful (and if you like, for successful operations as well). An optional FDREMAIL DD statement in a FDRPAS step will invoke the facility; it points to control statements defining the message and its recipients. A mail server that supports SMTP (Simple Mail Transport Protocol) is required. Messages can also be sent to alpha-numeric pagers and cell phones.

The FDRPAS ISPF panels have been significantly enhanced:

• For each volume, they can now display the SMS storage group of the volume, its device type and size in cylinders, and the SSID (subsystem ID) and serial number of the control unit.

• You can select volumes for display by volser, unit address, storage group, SSID or control unit serial. Wild card characters can be used during selection.

• The display can be sorted by all of the above attributes and others.

• There are now alternate display formats which display only 1 or 2 lines per volumes, allowing more volumes to be displayed at once.

• The display will indicate if a swap is waiting for an operator reply (for messages FDRW01 or FDRW68) and will allow you to reply from the panel. This reduces operator involvement and enhances remote operation of FDRPAS.

FDRPAS will now issue RACROUTE calls to check for FACILITY class authority for FDRPAS operations. The user must have at least READ authority to resource names:
FDRPAS.SWAP for SWAP operations FDRPAS.SWAPDUMP for SWAPDUMP operations FDRPAS.SWAPBUILDIX for SWAPBUILDIX operations in security class FACILITY. Check the documentation for your security system for details on defining FACILITY class protection. If the resources are not protected, the operation will continue.

FDRPAS has a new option to check the target volume in a SWAP or SWAPDUMP operation to insure that it is empty. If the option is selected, and the volume contains any datasets other than a VTOC, VTOC index and VVDS, the swap will fail.

FDRPAS has the ability to swap a volume to a target disk with a smaller capacity (fewer cylinders), such as from a 3390-3 to a 3390-2. However, FDRPAS cannot relocate data sets, so no data sets can exist on cylinders that are beyond the size of the target, and you must insure that no new data sets get allocated in the upper cylinders during the swap. A special operand is required to enable a swap to a smaller disk, so if you have a need to do so, contact Innovation for details and advice.

FDRPAS has an option designed for use with target disks attached over a channel extender (remote link). If SWAPIOERR=RETRY is specified, and a WRITE error occurs on the target disk, FDRPAS will enter a retry mode where it will retry the failing I/O every 5 seconds until it is either successful or the swap is manually terminated. If the remote link fails, FDRPAS will wait for it to be repaired and will automatically continue.