Enhancement Request: Preserve Tape Attributes During CPYRFSH

Why is it useful?

During a TS7700 Copy Refresh (CPYRFSH), data is migrated from an existing cluster (for example, VED) to a new cluster (for example, VEF). Currently, the target cluster treats the copied logical volumes as newly created volumes, causing expiration-hold lifecycles to restart from the copy refresh date

Preserving the original tape attributes would provide several benefits:

• Maintains retention integrity by keeping the original expiration and hold dates intact.
• Prevents unexpected scratch tape shortages caused by retention periods being reset.
• Reduces administrative effort required to compensate for reduced scratch availability.
• Ensures that migration activities do not unintentionally change tape lifecycle behavior.
• Provides a more predictable and transparent migration experience for customers.

Who would benefit from it?

This enhancement would benefit:

• Enterprise customers performing TS7700 hardware refreshes or cluster migrations.
• Mainframe storage administrators responsible for scratch tape capacity management.
• Tape operations teams managing large virtual tape environments.
• Organizations with strict retention, compliance, and archival requirements.
• Customers performing periodic migrations between TS7700 models or generations

How should it work?

When CPYRFSH creates logical volumes in the target cluster:

1. The logical volume data should be copied as it is today.
2. The original tape metadata should also be preserved, including:
   • Expire-Hold period
   • Hold start date
   • Expiration eligibility date
   • Retention-related attributes
3. The target volume should inherit the source volume's lifecycle status rather than starting a new lifecycle.
4. Optionally, IBM could provide a CPYRFSH parameter allowing customers to choose:
   • Preserve Original Attributes (recommended default for migrations)
   • Reset Attributes (current behavior)

This would ensure that a migrated tape behaves exactly as the original tape and does not have its retention timeline extended simply because it was moved to a new TS7700 cluster