Running DFSMSrmm catalog synchronization

DFSMSrmm always tracks tape data set catalog activity independently of the CATSYSID parameter. When you enable catalog synchronization, DFSMSrmm synchronizes the DFSMSrmm control data set and available user catalogs. Enabling catalog synchronization is normally a one-time task. Once the catalog status is synchronized, DFSMSrmm continually tracks and updates the catalog status. You enable catalog synchronization by specifying the DFSMSrmm EDGRMMxx OPTION CATSYSID operand described in Defining System Options: OPTION Defining system options: OPTION. When you specify the CATSYSID operand, DFSMSrmm uses the catalog search interface to obtain catalog information used for DFSMSrmm vital record processing. DFSMSrmm performs checking to determine that the catalog search interface catalog environment does not have any errors that might prevent successful processing. DFSMSrmm issues messages EDG2235E, EDG2236I, or EDG2237E when an error is encountered. If you do not specify the DFSMSrmm EDGRMMxx OPTION CATSYSID operand, DFSMSrmm vital record processing uses catalog locates to determine if data sets are still cataloged.

You must re-synchronize the DFSMSrmm control data set and user catalogs under these conditions:

You ran EDGHSKP with CATSYNCH and VERIFY, and differences in catalog status were found that you believe should be corrected. After you have made any corrections to the catalogs, either run CATSYNCH without VERIFY or use the EDGUTIL utility with the UPDATE option to reset the catalog synchronization date. EDGUTIL clears the catalog synchronization date and time to force you to run CATSYNCH.
DFSMSrmm is not active when catalog activity for tape data sets is taking place. DFSMSrmm issues messages EDG8200E and EDG8201E when DFSMSrmm cannot track catalog updates.
A DFSMSrmm failure occurs during catalog processing. DFSMSrmm issues EDG8200E and EDG8201E when an error is detected in processing.
You connect or disconnect user catalogs, that contain entries for tape data sets, to the master catalog.

When you use IDCAMS REPRO MERGECAT for catalog maintenance, you do not need to run a job to re-synchronize the DFSMSrmm control data set and catalogs.

Recommendation: Use EDGUTIL with the UPDATE parameter and with the SYSIN command CONTROL CDSID(cdsid) CATSYNCH(NO) parameter when you think the DFSMSrmm control data set and the catalogs are no longer synchronized. This prevents DFSMSrmm from relying on the catalog information in the control data set. Later you can re-synchronize the information or DFSMSrmm will synchronize the information automatically at inventory management time when the catalogs are fully shared.

You can automate the response to the DFSMSrmm messages EDG8200E and EDG8201E to force re-synchronization before any inventory management functions dependent on catalog information are run. Run EDGUTIL UPDATE with the SYSIN command CONTROL CDSID(cdsid) CATSYNCH(NO) parameter to set up this automation.

There are some limitations to using DFSMSrmm catalog synchronization. Some of the limitations include these conditions:

You must define data sets to DFSMSrmm before you create catalog entries for them.
If either of these statements applies to you, do not rely on DFSMSrmm for maintaining catalog synchronization. However, you can exploit the status tracking DFSMSrmm performs, by always specifying the EDGHSKP CATSYNCH option when running expiration processing or vital record processing functions.
- If you use the DFSMSrmm TSO subcommands to add data sets to the DFSMSrmm control data set, you should do so before cataloging the data sets. If you have to add cataloged data sets you can run EDGHSKP with CATSYNCH to synchronize the catalogs with DFSMSrmm.
- If you create cataloged tape data sets by writing to tape volumes but do not allocate the file using the catalog entry, DFSMSrmm cannot track the catalog status. DFSMSrmm relies on intercepting the catalog and uncatalog activity and the data set information being already recorded by DFSMSrmm at the time of the catalog activity.

Control how DFSMSrmm performs catalog synchronization by using the EDGRMMxx parmlib OPTION CATSYSID operand. If you specify the CATSYSID(*) operand, you must ensure that the catalog environment is shared. If you specify CATSYSID(*) without ensuring that catalogs are shared, you can lose data. If you specify the CATSYSID operand with system IDS, you cannot run DFSMSrmm inventory management until the DFSMSrmm control data set and user catalogs are synchronized.

If catalogs are not fully shared, and you specify the EDGRMMxx parmlib OPTION UNCATALOG(Y/S) operand, you must run expiration processing on each system. This ensures that DFSMSrmm uncatalogs data sets in the correct catalogs on return to scratch. You must run expiration processing on each system to avoid running low on scratch volumes because DFSMSrmm only returns volumes to scratch when processing in the correct catalog environment.

To ensure that DFSMSrmm processes the return to scratch, you must also specify the EDGRMMxx parmlib OPTION CATSYSID operand with the system IDs on which the volumes were created. DFSMSrmm uses the CATSYSID operand to determine the systems to which volumes can be returned to scratch status. DFSMSrmm checks the system creation ID for the first file on the volume with the list of IDs that are specified for the CATSYSID operand. If there is a match, DFSMSrmm processes the return to scratch.