EDGINERS requests volume mounts only on those drives on which the volumes can be mounted, by testing volume eligibility and using dynamic allocation to obtain a suitable drive for each volume to be processed.

DFSMSrmm uses the pre-allocated drive if it is available. If the pre-allocated drive is not available, EDGINERS dynamically allocates a drive using the first volume obtained from the control data set. Further processing checks that the subsequent volumes are eligible for use on the same drive. If the pre-allocated drive is not in a system-managed tape library, DFSMSrmm uses it for all volumes selected that are not resident in a system-managed tape library.

When dynamic allocation of a tape drive fails, EDGINERS sets return code to 4 and skips processing of the current volume. Messages describing the failure are issued. These might include messages prefixed with IKJ and CBR. In most cases you will see a return and reason code returned from OAM. For example, OAM issues return code 8 and reason code 51 to indicate that the requested volume is in scratch status. This error might be the result of a mismatch between the DFSMSrmm control data set and TCDB volume status. You can correct this by updating the status in the TCDB to match that known by DFSMSrmm. Refer to z/OS DFSMSdfp Diagnosis for information about OAM return and reason codes.