This is probably one of those cases most people will *never*
have to worry about, but to perhaps spare you the hours I
and the HP RC spent trying to figure out what was going on:

The NEWSET command in VOLUTIL (and the corresponding
NEWMIRRSET command in MIRVUTIL) has an optional
parameter called "gen-number";  which can take on any value
from 0 to 32767.  It can be used for....... well, anything that
strikes your fancy, apparently:  Number of volume sets;
number of times this volume set has been created;  whatever.
Default is zero....  and per HP RC, almost all sites they know of
accept that "0" default for all their volume sets.

Being the type of person who has a natural inclination to turn
right if I'm part of a group that is given the order to "left face",
mostly on a whim (and because we are now up to four volume
sets on our 959KS/400), I punched in a "4" for the gen-number
parameter.   Created volume set;  all appeared to be well.....

Then I did:          DISCFREE C

All 29 of our DISC LDEVs are correctly listed out;  including
the new mirrored volume set where I used gen-number = 4.

Still looking good, me thinks...  Then I just happen to try:

DISCFREE       (no parameter - results in DISCFREE prompt):

Enter [<format>] [,<ldev>] [,<vsname>]

If I enter (for example):     C,,USER
all is well (USER has gen-number = 0).

*BUT*:  If at same prompt I enter:       C,,XXXX
where XXXX is new user volume with gen-number NOT = 0,
then:    BZZZZZST !!!!..:   DISCFREE does NOT see it at all.

< interlude:  maybe tables messed up ??  SCRATCH and
rebuild volume set just to be sure;  etc.....  >


SUMMARY:  After RC and I checked and double checked
everything we could think of, HP figured it out:  DISCFREE
has a bug;  it will NOT see any volume set that has gen-number
not equal to zero;  if you choose a DISCFREE option where
you put in a volumeset name.  SR has been generated:  SR #
is:  GAD25523  (first "new format" number I've gotten, since
RC shifted over to new system).

Since my volume set was brand new and empty, I took the
easy path:  Redo NEWMIRRSET one more time;  this time with
gen-number = 0.  DISCFREE is happy.

THE HANGING QUESTION:   What else if anything besides
DISCFREE might not see a volume set if gen-number is NOT
equal to zero ??.

The easy workaround:  Stay with gen-number = 0  (if it hurts
when you hit your head against the wall, then don't do that...).

As you might expect, fixing this is likely to get a LOW priority.

So it goes....

Ken Sletten