Staging Options

The staging process captures the data to be copied to the cloud and creates a backup on DASD; this backup will be written to the cloud later. By staging the data, if there is an issue with connectivity to the cloud server (the network goes down or the server is unavailable), the data can be copied to the cloud at a later time. While this may require additional time and space, it will ensure that data is not lost if a server I/O problem occurs while attempting to copy the data to the cloud.

You may also choose to stage the data if your transfer rate to the cloud is slow, because a slow transfer rate could increase the elapsed time of your batch jobs for writing. Staging the data to DASD can reduce the elapsed time of your batch jobs. If you choose not to stage the data and the "direct" transfer to the cloud is interrupted, the backup will not be written to the cloud. The job will abend if the Abend on Errors field on the Parmlib General Options screen is set to "Yes".

When you choose Option 2, Staging Options, on the Parmlib Options Main Menu, the following screen displays.

Figure 1. Parmlib Staging Options

 CUZ$PRMS V1R1 -------------------- Parmlib Staging Options  -------------------
 Option  ===>                                                                   
                                                                                
                                                         2016/06/29  18:11:08   
                                                         User: USERID  - CUZ    
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Parmlib Dataset: PROD.CLOUD.SCUZPARM                                       
  Parmlib Member : CUZ#PARM                                                     
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Staging a backup to DASD is in place to quickly capture the data being       
   backed up to the Cloud, so the job writing the data doesn't have to          
   wait for server IO. If you turn this on, make sure the Primary and           
   secondary track allocations are large enough to handle any backups.          
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Stage Data on DASD. . . . . .   Y           (Yes / No)                    
      Staging Dataset Alias . . . .   CUZSTAGE    (z/OS Cataloged Alias)        
      Staging Dataset Allocation. .   C           (Cyl / Trks)                  
      Primary Space Allocation. . .   5000        (1 to 99999999)               
      Secondary Space Allocation. .   5000        (1 to 99999999) 
      Staging Dataset Vol Count . .   005         (1 to 256)           
      SMS Storage Class . . . . . .   SCCUZSTG    (Optional)                    
      Error Retry Count . . . . . .   10          (1 to 9999)                   
      Error Retry Interval Secs . .   5           (1 to 999)                    
      Nbr of IO Buffers . . . . . .   50          (1 to 50)                     
   *CMD

The Staging Options for the Parmlib member listed on the screen are described below. The default values are displayed, but you can change those values to suit your environment.

Staging Data on DASD: Indicate whether you want to stage the data (Y) or skip this step and write the data only to the cloud (N). The default is Y.

Staging Dataset Alias: Specify up to an eight-character name for the z/OS catalog alias. The default name is CUZSTAGE. For more information on defining a high-level alias for staging, see Step 7: Create staging and restore aliases and define SMS information (Optional).

Staging Dataset Allocation: Specify the type of allocation you want to use for a staging data set. Valid values are "C" for cylinders and "T" for tracks. The default is C.

Primary Space Allocation: Type a number between 1 and 99999999 for the amount of primary space to allocate. The default is 5000. This allocation parameter must be large enough to handle any size data set being written to the cloud.

Secondary Space Allocation: Type a number between 1 and 99999999 for the amount of secondary space to allocate. The default is 5000. This allocation parameter must be large enough to handle any size data set being written to the cloud.

Staging Dataset Vol Count: Type a number between 1 and 256 for the amount of volumes you need to allocate for a multi-volume data set. The default is 5 volumes.

SMS Storage Class (Optional): This is an optional field. Specify up to an eight-character name for the storage class. The default is SCCUZSTG.

Error Retry Count: Type a number between 1 - 9999 to indicate the maximum number of times you want to try to copy the data sets again after an error occurs. The default is 10.

Error Retry Interval Secs: Type a number between 1 - 999 to indicate the number of seconds to wait between retry attempts. The default is 5.

Nbr of IO Buffers: Type a number between 1 and 50 for the maximum number of I/O buffers that can be used. The default is 10.