Processing

The ZONEEXPORT command makes a backup or transportable copy of a specified distribution, target, or global zone.

Before doing the export, SMP/E checks that the correct parameters were entered and that the export request is valid. If any of the checks fail, SMP/E issues an error message, and the ZONEEXPORT command fails. SMP/E checks that:

The zone name on the SET BOUNDARY command matches the input zone name.
If the zone to be exported is the global zone, the PURGE operand is not specified.

If all the validity checking is successful, the zone can be exported. SMP/E opens the input zone and reads the first record. If the input zone is not the global zone, this first record is the zone definition record. (For the global zone, SMP/E must generate a zone definition record.)

SMP/E then opens the output data set and writes the zone definition record to the output data set. Next, SMP/E reads the data from the input zone and writes it to the output data set using sequential reads and writes. After reading all the records from the input zone, SMP/E writes a record containing hex FFFF to the output data set. This record defines the end of data for a successful zone export.

SMP/E then closes the output data set and writes a message to indicate that the data has been written out successfully. If PURGE was specified, the records in the zone are deleted by ZONEDELETE. If INDEX was specified on the PURGE operand, and the global zone is available, the associated zone index is also deleted. Otherwise, the zone index is not changed. Finally, SMP/E closes the input zone.

If the exported zone contained cross-zone subentries, SMP/E issues warning messages. If SMP/E cannot open the input data set or the receiving zone, it issues an error message, and the ZONEEXPORT command fails.