FORCE: Forcing DFSMShsm to permit a tape recycle

Explanation: FORCE is a parameter specifying whether to permit the specified 3480 single-file tape or equivalent to be recycled even though the tape contains data checks or invalid file block identifiers. The FORCE optional parameter is valid only when used with the specific RECYCLE command for a single volume request. The only connected volume set that will be processed, is a connected set containing the specified volume.

When the FORCE parameter is in effect, RECYCLE works the same as when FORCE is not specified, except when a data check or an invalid file block identifier is encountered. DFSMShsm invalidates the data set being processed before continuing with the next data set on the tape. Migrated data sets are deleted, including the catalog entry. In this case, it is the storage administrator’s task to recover the data set from another source. For backup copies, the version with the error is invalidated. Because the records necessary to access the data will be lost when using the FORCE parameter, it should be specified only when no alternate volume previously generated by the TAPECOPY command is available.

When processing tape volumes with known errors, use the following steps:

1. If an alternate tape volume exists, use the tape replace function (see TAPEREPL command: Replacing cartridge-type tape volumes with their alternate volumes) instead of recycling the volume.
2. If you do not have an alternate volume, the following steps are recommended to reduce the exposure of deleting accessible data when an error occurs—such as a hardware malfunction:
   1. Use the RECYCLE command without the FORCE parameter to move all data without errors to another tape volume.
   2. Now use the RECYCLE command with the FORCE parameter to effectively remove all references to any data that is still inaccessible. After this process, the tape volume is deleted.

For a full discussion of recovery situations, refer to Aggregate backup and recovery support (ABARS).

Defaults: None.