Jim wrote:

>
>Ok, I'll admit it.  I've never used user volumes.  I've only been on the
>HP3000 for about 10 years.  I've heard about them, but I've never had them
>explained to me in an elementary way that even the ignorant (that's me!)
>can understand.  So, Bill, care to try and enlighten me? (I'm not being
>facetious, this is an earnest plea for assistance).
>
>1)  What exactly are user volumes?  Are they the same as Private Volumes?
>

Some have called user volumes "Private Volumes" as a throwback to the old
days.  I think that the proper nomenclature is "User Volumes".  The bottom
line is that they are volumes belonging to a non-system_volume_set volume set.

>2)  Why would I want to use them?
>

Several reasons:

1.  Better operational control (after the initial pain to set up).
2.  Better system resiliency.  Some disagree with this but most of the time,
if you lose a volume which belongs to a user volume set the system won't go
down.  Occasionally, it will, but generally it won't.
3.  Better performance in that each separate volume set has its own
transaction manager.  This allows a general "smoothing" of posting to disk.
4.  Easier expansion and contraction of disk farms.



>3)  How hard are they to set-up, and how hard are they to maintain?
>

It's not brain surgery but it is a pain to get going.  BULDACCT.PUB.SYS aids
immensely, especially if you use the ONVS option.  This will take your
current account structure and create a job which will duplicate that
structure.  This program is good to use anyway in case of disaster.  Using
the ONVS option will change the jcl statements to use the appropriate user
volume parms to set them up.

Maintaining means making sure that all new account structure-related tasks
take into account the new structure.  Jeff Vance, and others, made some
command files available to make this easier.  Maybe others have those handy.
You can use a hacked-up copy of the BULDACCT output to make planned changes
a little easier.

>4)  Can I use my normal STORE @[log in to unmask]@ on them?
>

Yes and no.  STORE can handle user volumes just fine.  You just need to be
sure that you do things like store the user volume directory and well as the
system directory.

>5)  What do I get for my trouble?
>

See (2) above.  In addition, if you are planning on mirroring your disks,
you *must* go to user volumes.  Unfortunately, MPE hasn't the ability to
mirror the MPEXL_SYSTEM_VOLUME_SET (or "long_name" as Ken Sletten calls it).


>Thanks for any assistance.
>
You betcha!

Bill
---
Bill Lancaster         Lancaster Consulting
(541)926-1542 (phone)  (541)917-0807 (fax)
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