Hi Mike,
I do not have the ability to get the cpformat exec as the book explains. Is this exec available somewhere else where I can just down load using IND$FILE to my desk top and then from there I can upload it to my z/VM system. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks, Terry ________________________________ From: The IBM z/VM Operating System [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael MacIsaac Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 11:48 AM To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU Subject: Re: CPFMTXA Multiple drives David, You asked. > When building new Linux boxes, I have to format several drives. > I normally log as Maint and do them one at a time. Is there a > way to do multiple drives simultaneously, or log to Maint > sessions multiple times? And David Boyes answered: > You can only do them serially, or you need to use multiple userids. So yes, multiple, *different* user IDs. The most I use is two at a time (besides MAINT, I use SYSMAINT). At three sessions, I start getting confused hopping between sessions (OK, maybe I can handle 3, but not 4 :)) But whether it is one or three sessions, what gets to me is the repetition - repitition leads to mistakes. Then you wrote: > Any ideas as always are greatly appreciated. OK, I think this counts as "any idea" :)) The question that you didn't ask is, "Is there are way to format disks serially on a single ID?". I wrote a REXX EXEC named CPFORMAT (Disclaimer: it is *not* supported, but seems to work. It has been tested somewhat through usage, but not rigorously as it would if it were part of z/VM). It does this: -) Is a wrapper around CPFMTXA -) Chugs through a range of DASD and formats -) Allows you to specify spool, page, or perm (minidisks) -) Uses a volser-naming scheme of digit (1) hard coded, (2) disk usage, (3-6) the 4 digit real address For example, if you had to format 96 3390s at addresses 6000-605F for use as minidisks you would type: ==> cpformat 6000-605F as perm (and then go to lunch and don't worry about finger checks :)) Here's the usage and synopsis of the syntax: Format one or a range of DASD as page, perm, spool or temp disk space The label written to each DASD is V<t><xxxx> where: <t> is type - P (page), M (perm), S (spool) or T (Temp disk) <xxxx> is the 4 digit address Syntax is: .-PAGE-. >>--CPFORMAT--.-rdev--------------.--AS---+-PERM-+--------->< | <---------------< | '-SPOL-' '-rdev1-rdev2-------' It is described in section 4.6.1 of the latest Virtualization Cookbooks - for SLES at http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247493.html?Open The associated tar file has the code at ftp://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/SG247493/ (There is a similar for RHEL (replace 7493 above with 7492) but the VM sections are identical.) Hope this helps. "Mike MacIsaac" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (845) 433-7061