FORMSSI

Purpose

Use the FORMSSI utility to create, update, unlock, or display a persistent data record (PDR) on cylinder zero of a disk.

Operands

CREATE

specifies that a PDR is to be created. Any existing PDR that does not appear to be in use is overwritten.

vdev1

specifies the virtual device number representing the dedicated volume, full-pack minidisk, or regular minidisk on which the PDR is to be created or modified. The disk must be a 3390 or on a 3390 DASD.

ssiname

specifies the name of the single system image (SSI) cluster. The name can be up to eight characters long and can contain the following characters:

• A-Z
• 0-9

UPGRADE

specifies that an existing PDR is to be upgraded (for example, when a new release of z/VM® is to be installed).

UNLOCK

specifies that an existing PDR that was left locked by a previous unsuccessful invocation of the FORMSSI utility is to be unlocked.

DISPLAY

specifies that an existing PDR SSI cluster name and state are to be displayed.

Options

FORCE

specifies that a PDR is to be created even if the target device contains a PDR that might be in use.

Usage Notes

1. By default, the FORMSSI utility is located on the cross release utilities disk (PMAINT 551). This disk must be accessed to run the FORMSSI utility.
2. No special privileges are required to run the FORMSSI utility. However, the utility issuer must have read/write access to the volume on which the PDR resides when using any operand other than DISPLAY. The issuer must have read access to the volume on which the PDR resides when using DISPLAY.
3. The PDR structure allows complete forward and backward compatibility among different releases of z/VM. This compatibility allows the sizes of record structures to increase over time using the UPGRADE function. However, the UPGRADE function does not accommodate decreasing these structure sizes, and produces an error message if such a change is attempted. z/VM will upgrade the PDR automatically during IPL if the system being IPLed determines that the record structure supported by the system is larger than the record structure in the PDR on disk.
4. The PDR resides on cylinder zero and its location is compatible with the CP allocation record and other data that might also reside on cylinder zero.
5. The PDR must reside on a volume that has been allocated for CP use (through CPFMTXA) and cylinder zero must be allocated as PERM.
6. During system installation, a full-pack minidisk is defined for the DASD volume where the PDR is created. That minidisk address is 141 and is owned by user PMAINT.
7. The "last change:" field in the FORMSSI DISPLAY output will equal a constant of $LCLSYS$ when a member is attempting to join the SSI cluster. When set to $LCLSYS$, the last change to the current slot was made by the member in that slot.

Messages

• HCP1635I Persistent data record (PDR) on volume label for SSI ssiname automatically upgraded
• HCP6601E No function specified
• HCP6601E No Persistent Data Record device number specified
• HCP6601E No SSI name specified
• HCP6602E Function name not recognized
• HCP6603E "name" is not a supported SSI name
• HCP6603E "vdev1" is not a supported Persistent Data Record device
• HCP6604E Parameter "name" not expected
• HCP6605E Error number reading Persistent Data Record device label
• HCP6605E Error number reading/writing Persistent Data Record
• HCP6606E Device vdev1 is not CP-formatted or cylinder zero is not allocated PERM
• HCP6607E Device vdev1 does not contain a Persistent Data Record
• HCP6608E Persistent Data Record on device vdev1 is locked, possibly by system
• HCP6609E Existing Persistent Data Record cannot be upgraded because a newer PDR version was found on device vdev1
• HCP6610E Device vdev1 contains Persistent Data Record for ssiname
• HCP6611E Persistent Data Record on device vdev1 not locked
• HCP6612E Persistent Data Record on device vdev1 for ssiname may be in use
• HCP6613R Device vdev1 label is label - continue (Yes/No)?
• HCP6614I Persistent Data Record created on device vdev1
• HCP6615I Persistent Data Record upgraded on device vdev1
• HCP6616I Persistent Data Record unlocked on device vdev1
• HCP6617I Persistent Data Record on device vdev1 not changed
• HCP6618I Persistent Data Record on device vdev1 (label label) is for ssiname
• 
HCP6619I PDR              state: state1
HCP6619I             time stamp: timestamp1
HCP6619I cross-system timeouts: {Enabled|Disabled}
HCP6619I            replacement: {None|volid}
HCP6619I PDR slot slot   system: system1
HCP6619I                  state: state2
HCP6619I             time stamp: timestamp2
HCP6619I            last change: system2
• HCP6620E Persistent Data Record on device vdev1 is obsolete
• HCP9052W Error upgrading PDR on volume label for SSI ssi_name