Index Only SARTAPE

[Vanessa Ortiz]

I've done a tape consolidation and I've noticed I have a bunch of INDEX ONLY SARTAPE that have zero reports in them.  For example:

Tseq Data Set Name Volser Total Groups cent Create Yrs Dplx Lines Yes/No, Remarks
----- ---------------------------------- ------ ------- ------- ---- ---------- --- ---- ----------- ----------------------
2 DC.CICS.VIEW.SARTAPE.T0000002 905349 141 0 0 06/07/2016 4 YES 0 N, INDEX ONLY
3 DC.CICS.VIEW.SARTAPE.T0000003 905024 222 0 0 07/19/2016 4 YES 0 N, INDEX ONLY
4 DC.CICS.VIEW.SARTAPE.T0000004 902005 240 0 0 09/01/2016 4 YES 0 N, INDEX ONLY
5 DC.CICS.VIEW.SARTAPE.T0000005 901656 160 0 0 10/12/2016 4 YES 0 N, INDEX ONLY
6 DC.CICS.VIEW.SARTAPE.T0000006 903168 210 0 0 11/20/2016 4 YES 0 N, INDEX ONLY
7 DC.CICS.VIEW.SARTAPE.T0000007 904806 228 0 0 01/01/2017 3 YES 0 N, INDEX ONLY
8 DC.CICS.VIEW.SARTAPE.T0000008 912849 33 0 0 02/12/2017 3 YES 0 N, INDEX ONLY
9 DC.CICS.VIEW.SARTAPE.T0000009 912905 148 0 0 02/19/2017 3 YES 0 N, INDEX ONLY
10 DC.CICS.VIEW.SARTAPE.T0000010 901205 204 0 0 03/31/2017 3 YES 0 N, INDEX ONLY
11 DC.CICS.VIEW.SARTAPE.T0000011 902446 174 0 0 05/12/2017 3 YES 0 N, INDEX ONLY
12 DC.CICS.VIEW.SARTAPE.T0000012 903091 260 0 0 06/22/2017 3 YES 0 N, INDEX ONLY
13 DC.CICS.VIEW.SARTAPE.T0000013 905836 224 0 0 08/02/2017 3 YES 0 N, INDEX ONLY
14 DC.CICS.VIEW.SARTAPE.T0000014 906722 168 0 0 09/14/2017 3 YES 0 N, INDEX ONLY
15 DC.CICS.VIEW.SARTAPE.T0000015 902750 230 0 0 10/25/2017 3 YES 0 N, INDEX ONLY
16 DC.CICS.VIEW.SARTAPE.T0000016 912424 127 0 0 12/06/2017 3 YES 0 N, INDEX ONLY
17 DC.CICS.VIEW.SARTAPE.T0000017 906726 149 0 0 01/16/2018 2 YES 0 N, INDEX ONLY

How do I consolidate Index so these tapes can be released?

------------------------------
Vanessa
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[ERIC Foecking]

Vanessa,
     Consider the INDEX on the backup tape is a snapshot of the INDEX at the time of backup.  It would be used as input in the case a recovery needed to be done and, by its nature, reduces value with each new backup as more new reports are archived.  
     While I have no recommendations of your data retention requirements, I rarely keep more than 5-7 "generations" of INDEX backups (NGENI) as the scale of most of my databases would render a week old INDEX pretty much useless.  Also, keep in mind that these old INDEX ONLY volumes will age off with each new backup cycle so keeping a week of INDEX's will flush out after NGENI generations of backups.

[Troy Wegener]

The CA-View Initialization Parameters NGENI controls the Index as the other response stated.  However, if you omit NGENI when you submit your Init parms then it will default with NGENT value.  If you omitted NGENT as well, it will default both values to 90.  This is generations and not days so, the previous response of NEW backup specifically means Standard Backup because the Generation is incremented at end of phase 2 and Interim backups have no effect.

Init Pams from CA-View Manual:

"NGENI
This parameter specifies the number of master indexes maintained on storage group 0. All storage
group 0 tapes containing generations within the last NGENI generations are kept. Other storage
group tapes are kept only if they contain reports that are kept.
Syntax:
NGENI=nnnnn
The default is the value of NGENT.
Valid values are 1-32767.

NGENT
This parameter specifies the number of total generations to be maintained on tape.
Syntax:
NGENT=nnnnn
The default is 90.
Valid values are 1-32767."