Appending to Media

You should set up a media class with only one ACTIVE volume, multiple EXPIRED volumes are acceptable, specific to the media class associated with the media policy that will be used for the control group or SAVxxxBRM command.

This allows the save operation to use the volumes of the same media class when APPEND *YES is set up in the control group attributes and appends to the first EXPIRED tape and selects that volume again until the tape is full.  Then, the second volume is selected.  Once the first volume is full, other expired volumes can be added to the media class.

Do not use a media policy that is associated with this media class if you do not want to append to these volumes.

NOTES:

1.  The default on the SAVxxxBRM commands allows BRMS to append to media.  If you do not want to append, users must change the Sequence number parameter (SEQNBR) from *END to 1.

2. When *SAVSYS is specified in a control group, BRMS always writes the backup to an expired volume. This behavior is required because a SAVSYS backup must begin at media sequence number 1 to be valid for a D-manual system recovery.

   • NOTE:  BRMS does not prevent a SAVSYS save from being appended to an existing volume when using the DUPMEDBRM command. However, an appended SAVSYS save will not start at sequence number 1 and therefore cannot be used for a D-manual system recovery.

3. It is not possible to append saves from different systems in a BRMS network to the same volume.  To append to media, the volume must be owned by the system doing the save.

4.  It is not possible to append to media owned by another system.  BRMS selects an active volume with attributes that match those in the appropriate media policy.  

   •  When you select *YES at the Append to media prompt, BRMS takes the following steps to select the volumes to append: 

     • When selecting volumes for media libraries, BRMS determines if the last volume that is used can also be used for the append operation. The media class is the determining factor. When selecting volumes for stand-alone drives, BRMS issues message BRM1472, which nominates suitable candidate volumes.

     • BRMS selects an active volume with attributes that match those in the appropriate media policy. BRMS uses the following to check if the volume is available for appending:

       • Same media class

       • Same storage location

       • Same expiration date

       • Owned by the requesting system

       • Same move policy

       • Same move policy

       • Same secure attribute

     • If BRMS cannot find a volume that meets the criteria above, it selects a volume with an earlier expiration date, starting with the earliest.

     • If BRMS cannot select a volume with an earlier expiration date, it selects an expired volume from the system.

     • If BRMS fails to find a volume up to this point, it will try to select an expired volume from another system.

     • BRMS will never select a volume that has been flagged in error (expiration of volume is *ERR).

5. The above rules also apply for DUPMEDBRM when duplicating media.