Using the parallel access volume option

Before you begin: Be familiar with conventional volume selection for allocation, which is described inSMS volume selection for data set allocation.

If the Enterprise Storage Server® (ESS) PAV option is enabled, you can use the DFSMS storage class parallel access volume (PAV) option to ensure that data sets that require high performance are only allocated to volumes on which the ESS PAV option is enabled.

The DFSMS PAV capability option includes the following settings with these results:

Required: Only volumes with the PAV feature enabled are selected.
Preferred: Volumes with the PAV feature enabled are eligible to be primary volumes. Volumes without the PAV feature enabled are only eligible to be secondary volumes.
Standard: Volumes without the PAV feature enabled are preferred over volumes with the PAV feature enabled and are eligible to be primary volumes. Volumes with the PAV feature enabled are only eligible to be secondary volumes.
Nopreference: Whether the PAV feature is enabled or not for a volume is ignored and has no effect on the volume selection process. This is the default value for this option.