IPL'ing a Host from a MAS Virtual Tape

IPL'ing the Host from a MAS Virtual Tape

Since the MAS virtual tape drives appear to the Host as real tape drives, it is possible to IPL a mainframe Host from a virtual tape volume on the MAS.

This document describes how to:

Create a stand-alone IPL tape volume on the MAS
IPL from a stand-alone IPL tape that resides on the MAS

Create a stand-alone IPL tape on the MAS

Note: If writing the stand-alone IPL tape to EMC Centera storage, skip the "init" command. A volume does not need to be pre-initialized on Centera storage before being loaded; it will be created automatically when it is loaded.

At the MAS console, initialize a non-labeled tape on the MAS:

init vol=SAIPL label=nl dev=E980 scratch=no

The example above will create a non-labeled tape called SAIPL in the tape library assigned to the virtual tape drive named E980. You may use any other volser of your choosing. Replace E980 with the name of a virtual tape drive configured on your MAS. Specify the "scratch=no" parameter so that there is no possibility that any scratch tape mount request could acquire the volume before you are ready to use it.

At the MAS console, manually mount this tape on any virtual tape drive assigned to the tape library where you initialized your stand-alone IPL tape volume:

load SAIPL E980

The command above will cause the virtual tape volume SAIPL to be mounted on MAS virtual tape drive E980. You would replace E980 with the name of a virtual tape drive configured on your MAS. It can be any MAS virtual tape drive that is assigned to the tape library where the stand-alone IPL tape volume resides.

From the mainframe, write the stand-alone IPL tape to the virtual tape drive where the target tape is mounted. Explicitly specify the volser you mounted in the previous step.

Once the stand-alone IPL tape has been created it is ready to use at any time.

IPL from the Stand-Alone IPL tape

At the MAS console, manually mount the stand-alone IPL tape on any virtual tape drive assigned to the tape library where the tape resides:

load SAIPL E980

At the mainframe console, select as IPL device the MAS virtual tape drive where the stand-alone IPL tape is mounted, and perform the IPL.

The mainframe will IPL from the stand-alone IPL tape mounted on the MAS.

Note 1: Stand-alone restore programs will probably not send a Load Display Mount message which would cause the MAS to automatically mount the desired volume. If you are using a stand-alone program to restore volumes that reside on the MAS, you may have to perform a manual Load command on the MAS for each of the volumes requested.

Note 2: If you need to re-IPL from the stand-alone IPL tape, you will need to make sure that the tape is rewound to loadpoint first. You can achieve this by entering the commands "Unready" and "Rewind" at the MAS console.

Note 3: Stand-alone programs typically do not unload the tape from which they are IPL'ed. You may need to perform manual "Unready" and "Unload" commands at the MAS console to unload the stand-alone IPL tape when you are done.