Saving Libraries by Size

Staring at IBM i 7.2, it is now possible to save libraries by size when using the SORT parameter in  BRMS control groups or SAVLIBBRM command.

Using the Sort By (SORT) parameter specifies the order in which the libraries specified for the Library (LIB) parameter are saved.  If *NONSYS or *ALLUSR is specified for the LIB parameter, libraries QSYS2, QGPL, QUSRSYS, and QSYS2xxxxx (where xxxxx is an independent ASP number) are saved first, if they are located on the ASPs specified by the ASPDEV parameter.   

*NAME                                                    
    Libraries are saved in the order the names are specified for the LIB parameter.  For each generic or special value, libraries on independent ASPs are saved  before libraries on the system and basic user ASPs. Libraries on the same ASP are saved in alphabetical order by the library name.
                               
*SIZE                          
    Libraries are saved in the order of the total library size, from largest to smallest.  This may improve the  performance of the save operation when using multiple tape drives.     

Restrictions   

• When using *ASPnn, *ALLPROD or *ALLTEST, the save will be broken into groups of 300 libraries. The first group of libraries will be saved by size while subsequent groups will be saved by name. The groups of libraries are selected before the size of the libraries is considered. This may result in larger libraries not being saved in the first group of libraries.  

• The first save of libraries in BRMS will always be done alphabetically.  To help improve performance, BRMS uses previous saved details to determine the size of libraries. If library sizes change drastically between saves , libraries may not be saved in the correct order.

• *SIZE is ignored for cumulative and incremental saves.