HP P9000 Provisioning for Mainframe Systems User Guide (AV400-96369, October 2011)

Quick Format cannot be performed on the following volumes:
• Any volumes other than internal volumes
• Pool volumes
• Journal volumes
Quick Format specifications
DescriptionItem
The internal volume must be in blocked status. However, you do not need to create the
system disk.
Preparation for executing
Quick Format
Up to 36 parity groups can concurrently undergo Quick Format. There is no limit on
the number of volumes that can undergo Quick Format.
The number of parity groups
that can undergo Quick
Format
While one Quick Format operation is in progress, another Quick Format operation can
be performed. A maximum of 36 parity groups can concurrently undergo Quick Format.
Concurrent Quick Format
operations
At the beginning of the Quick Format operation, Remote Web Console performs
preliminary processing to generate management information. If a volume is undergoing
Preliminary processing
preliminary processing, the Remote Web Console main window shows the status of the
volume as Preparing Quick Format. While preliminary processing is in progress, hosts
cannot perform I/O access to the volume, as is the case with normal formatting.
If a volume undergoing Quick Format is blocked, the storage system recognizes that
the volume is undergoing Quick Format. After the volume is restored, the status of the
volume changes to Normal (Quick Format).
Blocking and restoring of
volumes
If all volumes in one or more parity groups undergoing Quick Format are blocked, the
displayed number of parity groups undergoing Quick Format decreases by the number
of blocked parity groups. However, the number of parity groups that have not undergone
and can undergo Quick Format does not increase. To calculate the number of parity
groups that have not undergone but can undergo Quick Format, use the following
formula:
36 - X - Y
Where:
X indicates the number of parity groups on which Quick Format is being performed.
Y indicates the number of parity groups where all volumes are blocked during the Quick
Format.
Quick Format resumes if you turn the power back on.Storage system is powered off
and on
Restrictions
• Quick Format cannot be executed on external volumes, virtual volumes, system disks,
the journal volumes of Continuous Access Journal Z and quorum disks.
• The volume migration feature or the QuickRestore feature cannot be applied to
volumes undergoing Quick Format. When you use RAID Manager to execute the
volume migration operation or the QuickRestore operation on volumes undergoing
Quick Format, EX_CMDRJE will be reported to RAID Manager. In this case, check
the volume status with Remote Web Console.
• The prestaging feature of Cache Residency Z cannot be applied to volumes
undergoing Quick Format.
Write-to-control Blocks function
The Write-to-control Blocks function overwrites control blocks (the management area) in external
mainframe volumes. If an external volume of the mainframe system is installed, use Write-to-control
Blocks to make the external volumes usable.
Before using this function, make sure that the external volumes have been zero-formatted.
Zero-formatting writes 0’s (zeros) in the entire disk area, formatting the entire disk area. For
40 Configuring custom-sized provisioning