Replacing volumes—manual action

You can set the release action for a volume so that the volume is replaced when the volume becomes eligible for release.

You replace volumes when the volumes have permanent I/O errors or when the volumes reach the end of their useful life. DFSMSrmm tracks the number of I/O errors recorded for a volume and, by default, identifies it as needing to be replaced as long as you have not manually released the volume and are running DFSMSrmm expiration processing. You can tailor this process by setting up your own volume replacement policies in PARMLIB. You can use your volume replacement policies to specify the limits for I/O errors, for Write Mount Counts, and for Age of the volumes. During DFSMSrmm expiration processing, the volumes are checked against these policies and when one or more of the limits is of reached or exceeded, the volumes' release action is set to REPLACE. DFSMSrmm also automatically sets the release action of a volume to REPLACE when the tape drive issues an alert that the volume should be replaced. Tape librarians must manually replace these volumes and confirm to DFSMSrmm that the action has taken place.

See z/OS DFSMSrmm Implementation and Customization Guide for more information on setting up volume replacement policies and on the tape drive SARS MIM alerts.

You can request that DFSMSrmm create a list of volumes to be replaced, using one of these:

The Volume Action Status panel.
Specify S against the REPLACE action in the list of actions.

or
The SEARCHVOLUME subcommand, as follows:
```
RMM SEARCHVOLUME VOLUME(volser) ACTION(REPLACE) LIMIT(*) OWNER(*)
```
See SEARCHVOLUME: Creating a list of volumes for more information on the SEARCHVOLUME subcommand.

Once you have replaced a volume, you must confirm the action to DFSMSrmm. This ensures that the control data set is updated with the most current information, and allows other release actions, such as returning the volume to scratch status, to be processed. When the replace action is confirmed, DFSMSrmm automatically sets the initialize action for the volume so that the new volume can be labeled correctly.