A Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Your BRMS Network

This example shows how to establish a BRMS network between two System i platforms, SYSTEM01 and SYSTEM02. To achieve the best performance, follow the steps in the order in which they appear, and complete each step before moving on to the next. Be sure that you perform all of the steps when setting up your network.

Save library QUSRBRM on SYSTEM01.
Save library QUSRBRM on SYSTEM02.
Ensure that the communications link on SYSTEM01 for SYSTEM02 is active.
Perform the following steps:

For TCP/IP

Use WRKTCPSTS OPTION(*IFC) to determine the status of the TCP/IP interfaces.

For APPC

Use the WRKCFGSTS command to determine status for line (*LIN), controller (*CTL), and device description (*DEV).
Designate SYSTEM01 to be your initial system.
Ensure there is no BRMS activity on either system.

On SYSTEM01, type WRKPCYBRM *SYS to get to the system policy menu. Once there, take the following steps:

Select option 4 (Change Network Group) and press Enter.
The Communication method parameter is set with *AVAIL for a default, but if you only want BRMS to use one communication method, then change it to the appropriate value.

To add SYSTEM02 to the master system to create the network, type SYSTEM02 in the Remote location field. Then type the name of the remote network in the Remote Network ID column.

                          Change Network Group                 SYSTEM01 APPN   
                                                                                
 Network group . . . . :  *MEDINV           Position to  . . . . :              
 FlashCopy state . . . :  *ENDPRC                                               
 Communication method  :  *IP               *AVAIL, *IP, *SNA, *NONE            
 Notify period . . . . :     30             30-99999 seconds                    
 Type options, press Enter.                                                     
   1=Add   4=Remove   8=Set time                                                
                                                                                
      Remote Local    Remote     System            Network                      
 Opt Location Name  Network ID   Status            Status                       
                                                                                
  1     SYSTEM02     APPN        Online            Inactive                     
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                        More... 
                                                                                
 F3=Exit    F5=Refresh    F11=BRMS Media Information   F12=Cancel

Press Enter. BRMS searches the network for the system name that you specified. Depending on the network configuration and the number of systems in the network, this can take a few minutes. When BRMS finds the system name (in our example, SYSTEM02), BRMS adds it to *MEDINV (the BRMS network group name). SYSTEM02 is still an inactive member of the network group and does not share its media inventory with other active systems in the network. To change the inactive status to active, media inventory must be copied to the system being added to the network group. The process to copy the media inventory and media history information occurs in Step 10.

On SYSTEM02, use the Work with Media (WRKMEDBRM) command to see if any media information exists. If media information does not exist, go to step 9. Because BRMS is fully operational, media information exists on SYSTEM02. Perform the following steps to copy media information from one file to another:
1. Use the CPYMEDIBRM OPTION(*TOFILE) (Copy Media Information to file) command to copy the contents of the media inventory file. You can copy the information to a temporary file (QA1AMED) or to a file name you create. BRMS creates this temporary file in your Current Library. You can also copy media information from the Copy media information parameter on the Copy Media Information display. Use the default value of *NO unless you plan to restore media information to a non-networked system.
Notes:
1. You do not need to perform step 8 if the system you want to add to the network does not contain media information.
2. The CPYMEDIBRM command copies the files for the following: media class, locations, media policy, containers, container classes, move policies, move policy rules, media, and possibly history.
3. If you put the *FROMFILE value in the Type of copy field, BRMS changes the system name for media and history records to the new system name. The *TOFILE value copies the media and history records that are on the current system.

Now activate SYSTEM01 in the BRMS network with SYSTEM02. Enter the following command from SYSTEM02.

INZBRM OPTION(*NETSYS) FROMSYS(APPN.SYSTEM01)

BRMS clears the media management files on the inactive system (SYSTEM02) during the copy process and replaces them with the network media management files. BRMS sends a message when it overwrites the SYSTEM02 files with files that come from SYSTEM01.

                          Display Program Messages                            
                                                                              
 Job 047122/A960103D/QPADEV0001 started on 05/31/99 at 09:15:55 in subsystem: 
 Entries exist for Media.  (R I C)                                            
 Entries exist for Media policy.  (R I C)                                     
 Entries exist for Media class.  (R I C)                                      
 Entries exist for Location.  (R I C)                                         
 Entries exist for Move policy.  (R I C)                                      
                                                                              
                                                                              
                                                                              
                                                                              
 Type reply, press Enter.                                                     
 Reply . . .________________________________________________________________  
 ___________________________________________________________________________  
                                                                              
                                                                              
 F3=Exit   F12=Cancel

BRMS copies the following media management files to the inactive system:

QA1ACN: Container status inventory
QA1ACT: Container class
QA1ADXR: Media duplication reference
QA1AHS: History information

Note:

This file is only copied when you specify *LIB in the Receive media information field on the Change Network Group display.
QA1AMM: Media inventory
QA1AMP: Move policies
QA1AME: Media policy attributes
QA1AMT: Media class attributes
QA1ASL: Storage locations
QA1ARMT: Network group
QA1A1MP: Move policy entries
QA1A1RMT: Remote system name entries

After BRMS copies the network media inventory to the inactive system (SYSTEM02), the status of the inactive system changes to active. Then its media inventory becomes part of the network media inventory.

On SYSTEM02, select the option to ignore all of the messages by replying with an "I." These messages indicate that you are about to overwrite files on SYSTEM02.

Notes:

When BRMS networking is working, these physical files are journaled to QUSRBRM/QJ1ACM *JRN. These files should never be journaled to any other library or journal.
You need to ensure that the QBRMS and QUSER user profiles are not in a *DISABLED state. Communication entries in subsystem Q1ABRMNET use the QBRMS user profile, and if it is disabled, you cannot establish a DDM connection.

After you add the new system to the network, the Network Status for SYSTEM01 shows active status indicating that it has been activated on the network, and the System Status for SYSTEM01 shows online status if SYSTEM02 and SYSTEM01 are communicating.

Note:

System Status is the state of the network system the last time the current system attempted communication. The status is updated periodically as determined by the current setting of the Shared inventory delay prompt in the System Policy.

Because this example uses only two systems, you can only see the status for the system you are currently adding, in this case SYSTEM01. This display does not show an entry for the system you are on.

                          Change Network Group                 SYSTEM02 APPN    
 Network group . . . . :  *MEDINV           Position to  . . . . :              
 FlashCopy state . . . :  *ENDPRC                                               
 Communication method  :  *IP               *AVAIL, *IP, *SNA, *NONE            
 Notify period . . . . :     30             30-99999 seconds                    
 Type options, press Enter.                                                     
   1=Add   4=Remove   8=Set time                                                
                                                                                
      Remote Local    Remote     System            Network                      
 Opt Location Name  Network ID   Status            Status                       
                                                                                
        SYSTEM01       APPN      Online            Active                       
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                                
                                                                         Bottom 
                                                                                
 F3=Exit    F5=Refresh    F11=BRMS Media Information   F12=Cancel

In addition, the process of connecting the two systems automatically starts a new subsystem that is called Q1ABRMNET. You can find a description of Q1ABRMNET in library QBRM. BRMS also adds an autostart job entry for this subsystem to the QSYSWRK library on both systems.

                             Work with Subsystems                  SYSTEM01
                                                                           
 Type options, press Enter.                                                
                                                                           
 4=End subsystem   5=Display subsystem description                         
 8=Work with subsystem jobs                                                
                                                                           
                                                                           
                        Total     -----------Subsystem Pools------------   
 Opt  Subsystem   Storage (K)   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10      
 __   QBATCH              0     2                                          
 __   QCMN                0     2                                          
 __   QCTL                0     2                                          
 __   QINTER              0     2   4                                      
 __   QSERVER         64000     2   5                                      
 __   QSNADS              0     2                                          
 __   QSPL                0     2   3                                      
 __   QSYSWRK             0     2                                          
 __   Q1ABRMNET           0     2

On SYSTEM02, check the system value QDATE and make corrections as needed.
On SYSTEM01, check the system value QDATE and make corrections as needed.
Go to SYSTEM02. Now you can merge the media inventory data that BRMS saved prior to adding the system to the network under Step 9. Enter the following command on SYSTEM02: CPYMEDIBRM OPTION(*FROMFILE).

Note:

You must perform this step if the old system contained BRMS media inventory.

BRMS ignores media information that is inconsistent with the new network level media information. BRMS adds all entries except duplicates to the network media inventory. If duplicate media contains active files, you must keep track of the information. If the media does not contain active files, you should re-initialize the tape with a new volume ID.

Note:

When you copy the media inventory from the temporary file (QA1AMED or a file name you created), review the common classes for inconsistencies. For example, the media class SAVSYS on one system might use a media density of *QIC120, while the same media class on another system uses *FMT3490E. All media density now belongs to the network class SAVSYS.
Enter the WRKMEDBRM command on SYSTEM02. There you can see the media inventory for SYSTEM01 and SYSTEM02.
Enter the WRKMEDBRM command on SYSTEM01. There you can see the media inventory for SYSTEM02 and SYSTEM01.

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