Expiring ABR records in the BCDS

You can use the EXPIREBV ABARSVERSIONS command to expire ABR records created during aggregate backup or recovery processing.

The ABARSVERSIONS keyword is mutually exclusive from any data set processing performed during EXPIREBV processing. ABARSVERSIONS is also mutually exclusive with the NONSMSVERSIONS parameter. The STARTKEY and ENDKEY parameters can be used with ABARSVERSIONS, as can OUTDATASET | SYSOUT. DISPLAY and EXECUTE are still required parameters and have the same processing affect. .

SETSYS BACKUP | NOBACKUP has no relevance with the ABARSVERSIONS parameter. However, a BCDS must exist or the EXPIREBV ABARSVERSIONS command fails.

When ABARSVERSIONS has been specified, the BCDS is searched and each ABR record is checked to see if the ABARS version has expired. For expired ABARS versions, the control file name is located in the catalog and a list of volume serial numbers that the control file resides on is requested. When necessary, the volumes are deleted from the RACF® HSMABR tape volume list. The control file is uncataloged after the volume serial number list has been exhausted. When the file does not exist in the catalog, it is not an error condition, and the ABR record can still be deleted.

EXPIREBV must obtain the management class definition to determine which ABACKUP copies have expired. The management class definition contains the following:

RETAIN EXTRA VERSIONS—This value is used to expire all versions except the latest version.
RETAIN ONLY VERSION—This value is used to expire the last remaining version.

If, by using the ARCEDEXT installation exit, you have specified special tape management system expiration dates for the ABACKUP output files, the preceding two values should be set to NOLIMIT. This prevents DFSMShsm from attempting to delete ABARS versions during ABACKUP and EXPIREBV processing by using management class criteria.

Note: The preceding two values have total control over deletion of ABARS versions, unless the EXPIREBV command is issued with the RETAINVERSIONS keyword.

If the management class specified in the most current version of the ABR record for a specific aggregate group does not exist, expiration of the aggregate group being processed is skipped. If an aggregate group name has been specified on the EXPIREBV command, the command fails for this case.

If it is active, installation exit ARCTVEXT is called for each volume being processed, indicating to the exit that the volume being expired is an ABARS tape volume.

This process is repeated for the data files and the instruction/activity log files.

After the control file, data files, and instruction/activity log file have been uncataloged and removed from the HSMABR tape connected set, the ABR record is deleted and processing continues with the next ABR record available in the BCDS.

Note: It is possible to code SMS ACS routines that will direct ABARS files to DASD. If this is done, and the files are migrated to DASD, an DFSMShsm DELETE will be issued to remove them during expiration processing. If that delete fails, the file may remain cataloged with no ABR record pointing to it. If this happens, the data set should be manually deleted. See Directing ABARS files to DASD for more information.

When you use EXECUTE with the ABARSVERSIONS parameter, message ARC6377I is issued to show the status of each file in the ABR record. Message ARC6376I is also issued to show whether the ABR record was deleted.

When you use DISPLAY with the ABARSVERSIONS parameter, a report is generated that lists information about the ABR records that would have been omitted had EXECUTE been specified. The file status shows whether the file will be uncataloged when EXECUTE is run, or whether the file does not exist in the catalog (“Not in Catalog”). If “Catalog Error” is in the file status, an error has occurred when DFSMShsm retrieved the catalog information, and the ABR record cannot be deleted.

A sample of the output obtained when the ABARSVERSIONS parameter is used with DISPLAY is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Example of DISPLAY ABARSVERSIONS Parameter Output

DISPLAY OF ABARS VERSIONS ELIGIBLE FOR EXPIRATION AT 08:36:24 ON 1995/02/07 FOR XA2

     COMMAND INPUT: ABARSVERSIONS

     SUBMITTER'S USERID: B999999

     AGNAME = agname1    VERSION = 0001

       AGGREGATE VERSION KEY = agname1.1995102000101   DELETED*
       (* DETERMINED ON 1995/02/07)
         AGGREGATE GROUP FILES       FILE STATUS
            prefix.C.C01V0001        Uncataloged
            prefix.D.C01V0001        Uncataloged
            prefix.O.C01V0001        Not in Catalog
            prefix.I.C01V0001        Uncataloged

       AGGREGATE VERSION KEY = agname1.1995102000102   NOT DELETED*
       (* DETERMINED ON 1995/02/07)
         AGGREGATE GROUP FILES       FILE STATUS
            prefix.C.C02V0001        Uncataloged
            prefix.D.C02V0001        Not in Catalog
            prefix.O.C02V0001        Uncataloged
            prefix.I.C02V0001        Catalog Error

     AGNAME = agname2    VERSION = 0003     EXP DATE = 1995/05/17

       AGGREGATE VERSION KEY = agname2.1995137000301   DELETED*
       (* DETERMINED ON 1995/02/07)
         AGGREGATE GROUP FILES       FILE STATUS
            prefix.C.C01V0003        Not in Catalog
            prefix.O.C01V0003        Uncataloged
     END OF DISPLAY - 00000002 ABARS VERSIONS ELIGIBLE FOR EXPIRATION

Expiring ABR records in the BCDS

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