Categories

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Use the Categories page of the management interface to add, modify, or delete a Fast Ready scratch category of virtual volumes. You can also use the Categories page to view the total number of volumes that are defined by custom, inserted, or damaged categories.

A category is a grouping of virtual volumes for a pre-defined use. A Fast Ready scratch category groups virtual volumes for non-specific use. This grouping enables faster mount times because the IBM® TS7700 can order category mounts without recalling data from a stacked volume.

Table 1. Categories table values and descriptions
Column Name Description
Categories The type of category that defines the virtual volume. Possible values include the following:
Scratch
Categories within the user-defined private range 0x0001 through 0xEFFF that are defined as Fast Ready scratch.
Click the + icon to expand this heading and reveal the list of categories that are defined by this type.
Expire time and hold values are shown in parentheses next to the category number. Refer to Table 2 for descriptions of these values.
Private
Custom categories that are established by a user, within the range of 0x0001 through 0xEFFF.
Click the + icon to expand this heading and reveal the list of categories that are defined by this type.
Damaged
A system category that is identified by the number 0xFF20. Virtual volumes in this category are considered damaged.
Insert
A system category that is identified by the number 0xFF00. Inserted virtual volumes are held in this category until moved by the host into a scratch category.
If no defined categories exist for a category type, then that type is not displayed on the Categories table.
Owning Cluster The cluster that owns the volumes in the shown category. Expand a category type or number to display. This column is visible only when the accessing cluster is part of a grid.
Counts The total number of virtual volumes according to category type, category, or owning cluster.
Scratch Expired The total number of scratch volumes per owning cluster that are expired. The total of all scratch expired volumes is the number of ready scratch volumes.
Note: The total number of virtual volumes cannot be arrived at by adding all volumes that are shown in the Counts column. Some rare, internal categories are not displayed on the Categories table. Additionally, movement of virtual volumes between scratch and private categories can occur multiple times per second and any snapshot of volumes on all clusters in a grid would be obsolete by the time a total count completed.
You can use the Categories table to add, modify, or delete a scratch category, or to change the way information is displayed.
Table 2. Actions available on the Categories table
To... Do this:
Add a scratch category
  1. Select Add Scratch Category.
  2. Define the following category properties:
    Category
    A four-digit hexadecimal number that identifies the category. Valid characters for this field include the following:
    A-F, 0-9
    Do not use category name 0000 or "FFxx", where xx equals 0–9 or A-F. 0000 represents a null value, and "FFxx" is reserved for hardware.
    CAUTION:
    Data loss can occur if you add a scratch category that was previously designated as a private volume category at the host. Data on these volumes is overwritten on the next write operation.
    Expire
    The amount of time after a virtual volume is returned to the Fast Ready scratch category before its data content is automatically delete-expired.1
    Select an expiration time from the drop-down menu.
    Note: If you select No Expiration, then volume data never automatically delete-expires.
    If you select Custom, enter values for the following fields:
    Time
    Enter a number in the field according to these restrictions:
    • 1-2,147,483,647 if unit is hours
    • 1-89,478,485 if unit is days
    • 1-244983 if unit is years
    Time Unit
    Select a corresponding unit from the drop-down menu.
    Set Expire Hold
    Check this box to prevent the virtual volume from being mounted or having its category and attributes changed before the expire time has elapsed.2
    Checking this field activates the hold state for any volumes currently in the given Fast Ready scratch category and for which the expire time has not yet elapsed. Clearing this field removes the access restrictions on all volumes currently in the hold state within this Fast Ready scratch category.
    Attention: When creating a category, if Dual Control is enabled, Hold Expire (the Hold Expire check box), will be disabled for security reasons.
Modify a scratch category You can modify a scratch category two ways:
  1. Select a category on the table. Then select Actions>Modify Scratch Category.
  2. Right-click on a category on the table and either hold, or select Modify Scratch Category from the menu.
You can modify the following category values: You can modify one category at a time.
Delete a scratch category You can delete a scratch category two ways:
  1. Select a category on the table. Then select Actions>Delete Scratch Category.
  2. Right-click on a category on the table and select Delete Scratch Category from the menu.
You can delete only one category at a time.
Hide or show columns on the table
  1. Right-click on the table header.
  2. Click the check box next to a column heading to hide or show that column in the table. Column headings that are checked display on the table.
Filter the table data You can use a string of text to filter table data:
  1. Click in the Filter field.
  2. Enter a search string.
  3. Press Enter.
To filter by column heading:
  1. Click the down arrow next to the Filter field.
  2. Select the column heading to filter by.
  3. Refine the selection:
    Categories
    Enter a whole or partial category number and press Enter.
    Owning Cluster
    Enter a cluster name or number and press Enter. Expand the category type or category to view highlighted results.
    Counts
    Enter a number and press Enter to search on that number string.
    Scratch Expired
    Enter a number and press Enter to search on that number string.
To create a query to filter by more than one variable:
  1. Click the down arrow next to the Filter field.
  2. Select Advanced.
  3. Click the connective AND or OR to toggle between the two terms.
  4. Select a column heading to filter by using the drop-down menu.
  5. Select an operator using the drop-down menu.
  6. Enter a string to search by in the Value field.
  7. Click + to add an argument to the query, or × to delete an argument.
  8. Click Apply to apply the filter to the Categories table. Click Reset to clear the filter results.
Reset the table to its default view
  1. Right-click on the table header.
  2. Click Reset Table Preferences.
Notelist:
  1. A volume becomes a candidate for delete-expire when all the following conditions are met:
    • The amount of time since the volume entered the Fast Ready scratch category is equal to or greater than the Expire Time.
    • The amount of time since the volume's record data was created or last modified is greater than 12 hours.
    • At least 12 hours has passed since the volume was migrated out of or recalled back into disk cache.
    Up to 1000 delete-expire candidate volumes can be deleted per hour; those volumes within the Fast Ready scratch category the longest are deleted first. If a volume is selected for a Fast Ready scratch mount before it has delete-expired, the volume's previous data is deleted immediately at first write.
  2. If Expire Hold is set, then the virtual volume CANNOT be mounted during the expire time duration and will be excluded from any scratch counts surfaced to the IBM Z® host. The volume category can be changed, but only to a private category, allowing accidental scratch occurrences to be recovered to private. If Expire Hold is not set, then the virtual volume CAN be mounted or have its category and attributes changed within the expire time duration. The volume is also included in scratch counts surfaced to the IBM Z® host.