Virtual optical media

Use this information to learn about virtual optical media in your save environment.

You can use virtual optical media to save images directly to system disk units for convenience, flexibility, and in some cases improved performance. The following scenarios will give you some examples of ways that you can utilize virtual optical in your save environment. Virtual optical is beneficial for unattended saves because it eliminates media errors that could stop an unattended save operation. If you do not allocate enough space in the image catalog to save the intended information, virtual optical will use the autoload feature to create additional images with the same capacity as the last image you loaded, provided the disk storage is available. You must specify automatic load in the reply list, MSGID(OPT149F), to avoid receiving a message that interrupts the unattended save operation.

Ability to duplicate to physical media

When a save is complete to virtual optical, you can transfer it to physical media at any time and not interfere with system operations. You also have the capability to send the stream files from the virtual optical save to another system via FTP. If you have multiple systems, your strategy could be to save each system to virtual optical and then FTP the stream files to a single system where the save to physical media could take place. You can save the virtual images to tape in optical format, or you can use the Duplicate Optical (DUPOPT) command to save the image to optical media.

Note: In a disaster recovery situation you must have physical media of the Licensed Internal Code and the operating system to begin your recovery. If you are saving to virtual optical as part of your disaster protection strategy, you must then save your Licensed Internal Code and operating system to physical media from the virtual images. You must also have access to all of your user data, either on a remote system or on physical media.

Save cumulative PTF record

If you receive fixes on CD-ROM, you can install your fixes from an image catalog. To maintain a complete record of all of the fixes that you apply, you can save these virtual PTF images to media. Then, in a recovery situation, you can restore all of the cumulative PTF images and automatically install them from the image catalog.

Saving data to virtual optical media

Perform the following steps to save data to virtual optical media. The device and catalog names used here are examples.

Ensure that the system has enough disk space to hold all the virtual images you are going to create for your save operation.

Create a virtual optical device.

CRTDEVOPT  DEVD(OPTVRT01) RSRCNAME(*VRT) ONLINE(*YES)
           TEXT(text-description)

Vary on the virtual optical device.

VRYCFG  CFGOBJ(OPTVRT01) CFGTYPE(*DEV) STATUS(*ON)

Create an image catalog for your save operation.

CRTIMGCLG  IMGCLG(MYCATALOG) DIR('/MYCATALOGDIRECTORY') CRTDIR(*YES)
           TEXT(image-description)

Add a new image catalog entry with a size of 48 MB to 16 GB. If you are performing a SAVSYS operation, the first volume must be at least 2048 MB to accommodate the Licensed Internal Code. If you plan to save the operating system, add a new image catalog entry with a size of 4 GB. If you plan to duplicate image catalogs to physical media, then ensure you select a virtual image size that matches the size of the media you plan to write to. Issue either the first or second set of commands:
```
ADDIMGCLGE  IMGCLG(MYCATALOG) FROMFILE(*NEW) TOFILE(file-name)
            IMGSIZ(*DVD4700) TEXT(text-description)  
```
or
```
ADDIMGCLGE  IMGCLG(MYCATALOG) FROMFILE(*NEW) TOFILE(file-name)
            IMGSIZ(*CD650) TEXT(catalog-description)
```
Repeat this step for the number of desired images. You should add the images in the same order as you plan to restore from them. The virtual images provide spanning capability, with sequence numbers continuing from one volume to the next.
Load the image catalog. This step associates the virtual optical device to the image catalog. Only one image catalog at a time can be associated with a specific virtual optical device.
```
LODIMGCLG  IMGCLG(MYCATALOG) DEV(OPTVRT01) OPTION(*LOAD)
```
Initialize the new volume.
```
INZOPT  NEWVOL(MYVOLUMEID) DEV(OPTVRT01) TEXT('volume text')
```
Repeat this step for the number of new images you want to initialize. Use the WRKIMGCLGE (Work with image catalog entries) command to select the image to be initialized or use the LODIMGCLGE (Load or unload image catalog entry) command to continue to the next volume to be initialized.
```
LODIMGCLGE  IMGCLG(MYCATALOG) IMGCLGIDX(2) OPTION(*MOUNT)
```
```
LODIMGCLGE  IMGCLG(MYCATALOG) IMGCLGIDX(1) OPTION(*MOUNT)
```
When you have completed initializing the new volumes, leave the first entry in mounted status.
Run the save command for your desired save operation, listing the virtual optical device in the DEV parameter.

Note: After you create virtual optical images, they will automatically be included when you perform a full system save using GO SAVE Option 21. The virtual optical images could significantly increase the time it takes to complete the Option 21 save operation, even if the image catalog entries do not contain data. If you want to exclude the virtual images from a full system save, use one of the following strategies:

Use the Change Attribute (CHGATR) command to mark the image catalog directory as non-saveable. For example:
```
CHGATR  OBJ('/MYINFO') ATR(*ALWSAV) VALUE(*NO) 
```
Use the Load Image Catalog (LODIMGCLG) command to make the image catalog ready. Image catalogs with a ready status will be omitted from the save operation.
In an attended save, you can specify to omit the image catalog directories on the Save Object (SAV) command.