How to define creation date for GDG generations

rechie jocson · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 9:16 am

Hi All,

I am creating a test regarding GDGs and have a requirement to create a GDG generation that is 2 years old from now. Let's say Today's date is 10/13/2008,I need to create a generation that has a creation date of 10/12/2006.

Any tool i could use? or sample Job that would be very helpful!

Rechie

gcicchet · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 11:12 am

Hi,

why would you want to do that ?

I'm sure the date can be zapped but why?

Gerry

rechie jocson · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 11:17 am

Hi Gerry,

I need to test the retention period of the GDG that will stay for two years. In order to test that, I should create a gneration that is 2 years old from today. Upon doing that, I could verify that the GDG will be rolled off after 2 years.

Is there a utility for this?

Thanks Gerry.

Rechie

gcicchet · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 11:25 am

Hi,

how many GDG's will be crated in a 2 year period ?

Gerry

gcicchet · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 11:26 am

Hi,

correction, I meant created .

Gerry

rechie jocson · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 11:29 am

Hi Gerry,

24 GDGs all in all. 1 generation per month. All should have a retention period of two years.

Rechie

gcicchet · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 12:05 pm

Hi,

if you build the GDGbase with 24 entries( with scratch and noempty options), the oldest one will not roll off until the 25th one is created.

For tape files you need to create the files with LABEL=EXPDT=99000 ie.

under catalog control.

Gerry

rechie jocson · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 12:40 pm

HI Gerry,

The issue is because of the retention period, even when the 25th generation is created, the first generation is still available.

All the GDGs are created with the retention period of 2 years (RETPD=730). So the when the 25th generation is created, the first generation is still there. I need to test these GDGs with the retention period of 2 years. That is why I need to mock the creation date itself.

Do you know how could I alter the Creation Date?

Thanks,

Rechie

dick scherrer · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 1:08 pm

Hello Rechie and welcome to the forums,

Suggest you talk with your storage management people. Your environment most likely has many datasets that should "roll off" when they are past their expiration. I'd suggest you define your datasets the same way others with a similar retention requirement are defined.

If you want to perform a simple test, define some test files that retain 3 generatoins and create one per day and you should be able to see today's roll off by the end of the week. Again, i'd talk with the storage management people even to do this test.

rechie jocson · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 2:52 pm

Thanks Dick and Gerry,

Yup, I'll talk to them. I'm glad for the urgent response.
I never expected to have all this help just for a day.
Thank you very much guys!

More power!

gcicchet · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:15 pm

Hi,

if you have a retention specified, when the 25th GDG is created, the first GDG will be scratched and uncatalogued if the retention has expired,

if the retention has not expired the gdg will appear in
STATUS--------ROLLED-OFF

Gerry

expat · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 3:18 pm

Is it tape or DASD ?

If DASD and you have good storage people any expiry date or retention will be ignored under SMS

If tape, make sure that the dataset is retained under catalog control so when G0025V00 is created, gen 1 gets deleted and the tape returned to scratch.

rechie jocson · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 4:18 pm

Thanks Guys,

It is DASD.

Thanks for your inputs regarding this.

So the Hierarchy on this is RETPD is higher than GDG limit?

We should wait for the file to expire before it can be uncatalouged?

expat · Posted: Mon Oct 13, 2008 8:48 pm

No, not at all. It all depends on how your storage people have set things up. Do they allow RETPD to be honoured or ignored.

For all datasets I set up and use a MGMTCLAS to do exactly what I want to do, and do not permit user specified RETPD or EXPDT to be honoured.

Also, there is a patch in HSM to scratch GDG datasets regardless of EXPDT or RETPD specified.