how to delete datasets without knowing if vsam, gdg or seqds

boyti ko · New User Joined: 03 Nov 2014 Posts: 78 Location: Malaysia

Hello to all,

I have a thousands of datasets like the one below, but in it, there's a gdg, vsam (data and index) and seqds. I need to delete them but is there a way to delete those even if I don't know what kind of datasets are they?

steve-myers · Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 9:17 am

There are issues, of course, with all of them. You need a more complete list.

GDG - Individual GDG data sets are ordinary non-VSAM data sets. You delete them just like any other non-VSAM data set. However, if it is your goal to delete all of them you probably want to delete the GDG index, too.
Non-VSAM - If you are confident they are cataloged AND they exist on the volume where they are cataloged you can delete then in JCL or in IDCAMS using DELETE dataset-name NONVSAM PURGE. The PURGE option deletes the data set if it has an expiration date and the expiration date has not expired. The problem here is if the data set does not exist on the volume the catalog entry will not be deleted. Another problem is if the data set is on tape. For both you use DELETE dataset-name NOSCRATCH
VSAM - Again you use the IDCAMS DELETE cluster-name CLUSTER PURGE. As with non-VSAM if the components have disappeared you have trouble.

boyti ko · New User Joined: 03 Nov 2014 Posts: 78 Location: Malaysia

Thank you for your reply Steve!

The list given is only the datasets to be deleted. If I would complete the list, then I can listcat all the datasets, but still, the GDG will be treated as non-VSAM (or VSAM).

Right now, my plan is to delete all and assume that it's all non-VSAM using IDCAMS. In the SYSPRINT, I'll collect all those return code that are not equal to zero. Then will delete again as a VSAM. But I think, there must be a way much better than this.

After all this, I'll check all of our GDG, if the base doesn't have any generations, then we will delete these too.

I'm just thinking that there might be a utility that I don't know that can solve my problem.

prino · Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 1:34 pm

You might be able to use ADRDSSU to make a backup with scratch to a dummy dataset.

steve-myers · Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 5:28 pm

boyti ko · New User Joined: 03 Nov 2014 Posts: 78 Location: Malaysia

Thanks Prino, i'm still new to ADRDSSU, but have used this one:

Terry Heinze · Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2015 6:54 pm

For what it's worth, active GDG bases can have no generations. Some jobs accumulate generations, then are concatenated via the GDG base name, are processed, then are deleted or backed up, then the GDG base is available for the next round of "accumulations".

Pete Wilson · Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 10:14 am

The only issue with the DFDSS (ADRDSSU) approach is that it will not delete any files migrated by DFHSM or any written direct to TAPE.
It also won't delete GDG bases, so while it is a simple approach it may not achieve fully what you want.

Normally you would specify the Cluster name for the VSAM delete and DFDSS would delete that and any related components/AIX/Path if you specify the SPHERE keyword, which is what you probably want anyway.

What you need is a means to identify files unreferenced for 7 years and feed that list through to a standard IDCAMS DELETE. You could look at Naviquest (Batch ISMF), FDREPORT or some other ISV product that can select on the name masks and produce a list of specific files to delete.