>Would marking the disk as draining in the config file prevent the loss >of anything caused by the timing of the detection of the difference that >you describe? > >Another question, would backing up only files that are at least >partially contained on the disk be sufficient? We are talking about a >spool system that normally fluctuates between 7000 and 18000 files, many >of them quite large, and we are stuck with old tape technology (3 tapes >to contain a DDR of a 3390-03). It would be my luck that it would be the >higher number when my scheduled time arrived so that backing up the >entire spool would take quite a bit of time.
Marking the disk as draining is a good idea if you are going to backup files that are on it, so new spool data isn't written to it while you are doing the backup. It will have no impact on the requirement for a FORCE start or any data in the checkpoint area that might not be restored as a result. The data in the checkpoint area is not related to the spool files. I ran the same tests that Kris did and you *should not* lose any spool file data as a result of the re-label of the volume. I recommended doing a backup as a precaution, as I would for any change like this, but if everything works as expected, you should not need to restore anything. Whether you actually do a backup and how much of the spool you backup is entirely up to you. John Franciscovich z/VM Development
