Remote Duplication of Media

Beginning with V5R3M0, you can use the From system (FROMSYS) parameter on the Duplicate Media using BRM (DUPMEDBRM) command to specify a remote system in the BRMS network that owns the volumes to be duplicated by another system in the network.

Suppose you have SYSTEM_A and SYSTEM_B both in the same BRMS network and both sharing the same media library and media. SYSTEM_A uses a media policy which specifies that volumes are to be marked for duplication. After the backups complete on SYSTEM_A, you can run the following command from SYSTEM_B to offload the media duplication task from SYSTEM_A:

DUPMEDBRM VOL(*SEARCH) FROMDEV(library-device-name) 
                         TODEV(library-device-name) 
                       FROMSYS(SYSTEM_A)

The above command will search for all volumes owned by SYSTEM_A that are marked for duplication. SYSTEM_B performs the duplication on behalf of SYSTEM_A.

There are a few simple rules that must be followed when performing remote duplication of media.

• The value of the Shared media attribute of the media class used for input and output volumes must be *YES so these volumes can be shared between the two systems.
• The value of the Receive media information network attribute for the system performing the remote duplication must be *LIB.
• Assure all backup activity on the system specified in the From system (FROMSYS) parameter has ended before initiating the remote duplication operation.
• Optical media duplication only supports *LCL for a value on the From system (FROMSYS) parameter. A remote duplication is not an option for optical media.