dasdfmt

The default disk layout for dasdfmt is CDL. Volumes in the original format, Linux disk layout (LDL), are not compatible with the z/OS® system and cannot be accessed and backed up by z/OS. Below is an example of how to format a disk with dasdfmt at address 0198, having a byte block size of 4096, and a volser of LNX200:

dasdfmt -n 198 -b 4096 -l lnx200

A screen appears like the one below:

Drive Geometry: 3339 Cylinders * 15 Heads =  50085 Tracks
I am going to format the device 198 in the following way:
    Device number of device : 0x198
    Major number of device  : 94    
    Minor number of device  : 8    
    Labelling device        : yes
    Disk label              : VOL1
    Disk identifier         : LNX200
    Extent start (trk no)   : 0    
    Extent end (trk no)     : 50084
    Compatible Disk Layout  : yes
    Blocksize               : 4096

 --->> ATTENTION! <<--- All data in the specified range of that device
will be lost. Type "yes" to continue, no will leave the disk untouched:

You can see a 3339 cylinder volume that is attached to Linux at address 198 in the screen capture above. The volume serial number (volser) is LNX200, and its block size is 4096 bytes—the optimal and recommended block size. The volser must be six characters in length. If the output reads: Disk label: VOL1, then a z/OS system can process this volume.