Initializing the CSE Area on the Shared Minidisk Volumes

Use the XLINK FORMAT utility to format the CSE area on each DASD volume that cross-system link will control. You must format the CSE areas before the cross-system link function can be activated.

To initialize the CSE area on a shared minidisk volume:

1. Connect the volume to be formatted to the virtual machine by one of the following methods:
   1. Use the LINK command, in R/W mode, to link to a minidisk that defines a portion of the volume from cylinder 0 to where the CSE area is assigned. The default assignment for the CSE area is on cylinder 0. This method is preferred because it does not expose any data beyond the CSE area.
      Note: The CSE area on some devices will reside on multiple cylinders. If you are using one of those devices, your minidisk must include all of those cylinders. See Table 1 for devices that use multiple cylinders for the CSE area.
   2. Use the LINK command, in R/W mode, to link to a minidisk that defines the entire real volume (a full-pack minidisk).
   3. Use the ATTACH command to attach the real volume to the virtual machine.

   For information about the LINK and ATTACH commands, see z/VM: CP Commands and Utilities Reference.

2. Enter an XLINK FORMAT command that specifies the virtual address and the real volume identification of the volume to be formatted:

   XLINK FORMAT vaddr volid

   The volume label on the disk must match the volume name given on the command. This command is run under CMS. Therefore, it does not require that you have any special CP privilege class. However, the command does require write access to the specified device.

You should run the XLINK FORMAT utility before you load the new CP module. However, if you wish to initialize the CSE area to something other than the defaults, you must IPL the system prior to running XLINK FORMAT.

For more information about the XLINK FORMAT utility, see z/VM: CP Commands and Utilities Reference.