Planning for single system independent disk pools

Several requirements must be satisfied to use single system independent disk pools.

An independent disk pool in a single-system environment, with no clustering and no switchable devices, is said to be a dedicated, private, stand-alone, or single system independent disk pool. While you cannot switch the access to the independent disk pool amongst systems in this environment, you can still isolate data in an independent disk pool, keeping it separate from the rest of the disk storage on the system. The independent disk pool can then be made available (brought online) and made unavailable (taken offline) as needed. This might be done, for example, to isolate data associated with a specific application program or to isolate low-use data that is only needed periodically. Dedicated independent disk pools might also be used to consolidate data from several small systems at branch offices to one or more larger systems at a central location, while still keeping the data separate for each branch.

Independent disk pools allow you to isolate certain maintenance functions. Then, when you need to perform disk management functions that normally require the entire system to be at DST, you can perform them by merely varying off the affected independent disk pool.

Creating a stand-alone, or dedicated, independent disk pool does not require as much planning as a switchable independent disk pool. However, you should still take the time to make sure that your future needs will not require you to be able to switch the independent disk pool.

When independent disk pools are used, you should configure a storage pool for the independent disk pools separate from the base storage pool (pool number 2) and separate from storage pools configured for jobs that are not using independent disk pools.