Making a disk pool available

To access the disk units in an independent disk pool, you must make the disk pool available (vary it on).

To access the disk units in an independent disk pool and the objects in the corresponding database, you must make the disk pool available (vary it on). If you are using geographic mirroring, you must make the production copy of the disk pool available. You can only make the mirror copy available if it is detached. For a geographically mirrored disk pool, you must also make sure that the switchable hardware group is started before you attempt to make the disk pool available unless geographic mirroring is suspended.

In a multisystem clustered environment, you can make the disk pool available to the current node or to another node in the cluster. The independent disk pool can only be varied on for one node at a time. When you want to access the independent disk pool from a different node, you must switch the independent disk pool to the backup cluster node. See Performing a switchover for details on switching a device CRG (referred to as a switchable hardware group in IBM® Navigator for i) to the backup node.

Note: If you make a primary or secondary disk pool available, all of the disk pools in the disk pool group are also made available at the same time.

Start of changeIf the name of a library or spool file within the independent disk pool is a duplicate of one in the system disk pool, the vary-on process is paused and an inquiry message is sent to the QSYSOPR message queue. This message identifies the duplicate library or spool file. You can then correct the problem and continue the vary-on process.End of change

Start of changeWhen you make a disk pool available or perform disk configuration changes on an independent disk pool, processing can seem to stop. If you are doing other device description activities, then make the disk pool available and wait to make the disk configuration changes.End of change

Failures early in make available processing of a geographically mirrored disk pool might cause a full synchronization on the next make available or resume.

Start of changeTo make an independent disk pool available using the PowerHA® graphical interface, follow these steps:End of change

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  1. In a web browser, enter http://mysystem:2001, where mysystem is the host name of the system.
  2. Log on to the system using your user profile and password.
  3. Click PowerHA in the IBM Navigator for i window.
  4. On the PowerHA page, click Independent ASPs.
  5. On the Independent ASPs page, click Show All Others… to show any independent disk pools that are not currently highly available.
  6. Select Vary On from the context menu of the independent disk pool that you want to make available.
  7. A progress panel is displayed that shows the current step in the process.
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Start of changeTo make an independent disk pool available using your IBM Navigator for i, follow these steps:End of change

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  1. Select Configuration and Service from your IBM Navigator for i.
  2. Select Disk Pools.
  3. Right-click the unavailable disk pool and select Make Available.
    You can select multiple disk pools to make available at the same time.
  4. Click Make Available on the dialog box that is displayed to make the disk pool available.
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You can use the Vary Configuration (VRYCFG) command in the character-based interface to make the disk pool available.

Use the Display ASP Status (DSPASPSTS) command to identify where a step is in the process.