Because operators might release a reserve or assign on a device and cause a data integrity exposure, they should use the VARY OFFLINE and CONFIG OFFLINE commands with FORCE only in emergency situations.
When the boxing problem is fixed, operators can take the device out of the boxed state at any time by issuing VARY device ONLINE. Once the VARY command takes effect, the device is again available for I/O and allocations. Operators cannot take a boxed device out of the boxed state by replying with the device name to the allocation recovery message, IEF238D.