Releasing tapes: EDGTVEXT

DFSMSrmm provides the programming interface EDGTVEXT that is used from DFSMShsm, OAM, or any other APF-authorized program that needs to obtain the same services as the DFSMShsm ARCTVEXT exit.

If you have a product with similar requirements for releasing tapes as DFSMShsm, you can use the EDGTVEXT program interface. You can also use the EDGDFHSM interface. The difference between EDGTVEXT and EDGDFHSM is that EDGTVEXT accepts the ARCTVEXT parameter list and the EDGDFHSM interface accepts only a single volume at a time in the parameter list.

Any caller of EDGTVEXT must be defined to RACF. If the caller is a started task, define the user ID with the STARTED class. Your application must also be authorized to release its own tape volumes.

Related reading: Refer to Running DFSMSrmm with DFSMShsm for information about setting up DFSMShsm with DFSMSrmm. You can use this information as an example for setting up other applications, including OAM, that manage tape. Refer to Authorizing DFSMSrmm users and ensuring security for information about the authorization support available with DFSMSrmm.

You must also consider how volumes are retained until the application calls the EDGTVEXT exit to release the volumes. You could retain tapes by defining vital record specifications like the ones shown in these examples. The examples define policies to retain all the data until a volume is released by the application.

RMM ADDVRS DSN('**') JOBNAME(jobname) LOCATION(CURRENT) DAYS COUNT(99999)
RMM ADDVRS DSN('ABEND') JOBNAME(jobname) LOCATION(CURRENT) DAYS COUNT(99999)
RMM ADDVRS DSN('DELETED') JOBNAME(jobname) LOCATION(CURRENT) DAYS COUNT(99999)
RMM ADDVRS DSN('OPEN') JOBNAME(jobname) LOCATION(CURRENT) DAYS COUNT(99999)

You can use DFSMSrmm parmlib option TVEXTPURGE to control the processing that EDGTVEXT performs. You can release volumes or set the volume expiration date either to the current date or based on a number of days from the current date. The effect of setting the expiration date depends on the retention method (EXPDT or VRSEL) already specified for the volume. Refer to TVEXTPURGE in Defining system options: OPTION.