Hi Fish,
The reason I use DASDCOPY64 is because I am then left with an unchanged old BASE and shadow 1 that can be mix/matched with later maintenance to get to just the level of maintenance I want.? I keep all of my old shadow files (every one of them) in a separate set of directories kept by z/OS release and date in the dir-name with the matching BASE.? I also keep all of the bases for almost all z/OS releases, so for instance I have 2.5 as originally released and then every quarterly RSU (as the shadow file 1) up till current that I can apply to that base.? Then I have yearly bases, that start with the final quarterly RSU of the previous year.?
For me it's not just a move forward type of thing, I also need to (occasionally) move backwards.? We do that same thing on the z/16, from time to time we need to mirror the environment of a client site (maintenance wise).? Unfortunately the z/16 can't go back very far (z/OS release wise).? Some people might be at 2.5 (or 2.4 or 2.3, or 2.2 all the way back to OS/390).? If they were z/OS 2.5 RSU2212 with a couple hipers, so I can go back and re-ipl at RSU2212 on the z/16 and apply the hipers (I download but don't necessarily apply every hiper as they are released) they have and we can debug and (hopefully) fix their issue.? But if it's a release that the z/16 doesn't support then the "fix plan" becomes more difficult.? Usually it's to help a software vendor client, but sometimes it's IBM.? But, you are correct, most people won't have to do that, especially at home.? :)
I do it at home more as practice (and habit), but it does come in handy to be able to do things that can't be done otherwise.
Incidentally Amazon has the 8TB Seagate IronWolf for $120 right now, this morning there were 5 10tb ones for $150 each.? You need to be careful though because sometimes they are used, which isn't necessarily bad so long as you still get a 5 year warranty.?? I have all of the hard drives and NVMe drives that I am willing to use set up on the camelizer to tell me when they reach the price I'm willing to pay.? I only care about the warranty and I supposed who the seller it.? Amazon and Amazon Warehouse are okay because you get the warranty, and some "other" sellers also supply you with the warranty, but you have to be careful with them.?
For me, the hard drives are basically fodder, so if one were to break, I would exchange it for another if under warranty, and drop it in the recycle bin if not.? I've been very lucky in that I have only once received a bad 6TB drive (about 7 years ago) and it died after 15 months of use.? Since it was in the NAS, I just replaced it with a spare and sent it back for a replacement.? I received it from Seagate within a week or two.? I had to pay for shipping, but I sent it to them in a padded priority mail fixed price envelope for about $8, and they sent me one back in a nice padded shipping box.? Once I started using 10 and 20TB drives I have yet to get a bad one, but they do happen, and you need to try to be prepared. ?
