DASD Device Management

Agama allows you to manage DASD (Direct Access Storage Device) activation and deactivation during an unattended installation. This feature is configured within the dasd section using the devices key.

Configuring DASD Devices

To specify DASD devices and their desired states, use a list of objects under dasd.devices. Each object represents a single DASD device and supports the following options:

• channel: The unique channel ID of the DASD device (e.g., "0.0.0200"). This is a required entry.

• state: Defines the desired state of the device.

  • "active": Agama will attempt to activate the device if it's not already active. This is the default value.
  • "offline": Agama will deactivate the device if it's currently active.

• format: Controls whether the device should be formatted.

  • true: The device will always be formatted, even if it's already formatted.
  • false: The device will never be formatted. Caution: This can result in an unusable device if it's not already formatted.
  • If this option is not specified, Agama will only format the device if it's not already formatted.

• diag: Specifies the value of the diag flag for the device.

  • If this option is not specified, the device's current diag flag setting will be preserved.
  • Warning: Use this option with extreme caution and only if you fully understand its implications. On some mainframes, incorrectly setting the diag flag can lead to unexpected behavior, including device deactivation.

Example Configuration

The following example demonstrates how to activate and format one DASD device, and deactivate another:

{
  dasd: {
    devices: [
      {
        channel: "0.0.0200",
        format: true,
        state: "active"
      },
      {
        channel: "0.0.0201",
        state: "offline"
      }
    ]
  }
}