Minidisks and How They Are Defined
A minidisk is a location on a real DASD which has been allocated for storage of a user's files. A minidisk can also be formatted for use as an OS or DOS disk. Minidisks are also known as virtual disks.
For CMS applications, you never have to be concerned with the location of your data on minidisks; when you use minidisks, they are, for practical purposes, functionally the same as real disks.
You can have three types of minidisks: permanent
minidisks, temporary minidisks (T-disks),
and virtual disks in storage.
- Permanent minidisks
- last across terminal sessions (logons); they are defined in the z/VM directory entry for your virtual machine.
- Temporary minidisks
- are automatically destroyed at logoff. You can define temporary minidisks for your own virtual machine by using the CP DEFINE command, or they can be attached to your virtual machine by the system operator.
- Virtual disks in storage
- are temporary simulations of minidisks in system storage; they are not allocated on a real DASD. Virtual disks in storage are defined in the z/VM directory entry for your virtual machine, or you can define them using the CP DEFINE command.
All three types of minidisks can be attached to your machine during a terminal session.