Requirements for protecting a tape volume

A DD statement that contains a PROTECT parameter to establish RACF® protection for a tape volume must:
  • Specify or imply VOLUME=PRIVATE.
  • Specify or imply DISP=NEW.
  • Specify in the LABEL parameter a label type of:
    • SL or SUL for IBM® standard labels.
    • AL or AUL for ISO/ANSI Version 1 or ISO/ANSI/FIPS Version 3 tape labels.
    • NSL for nonstandard labels. In this case, the NSL installation exit routine must issue a RACDEF or RACROUTE TYPE=DEFINE macro instruction.
    • NL for no labels.
    • BLP for bypass label processing.
    • LTM for leading tapemark.

Note that RACF cannot fully protect unlabeled tapes because RACF cannot verify the volume serial number directly; the operator must verify the volume serial number when mounting the tape volume.

Parent topic: PROTECT parameter