Question:  

We ran the DSCULP21 ARCHIVE VOLSER REPORT but the output is not showing the correct retention values for all of the reports. Many of the report retentions are being shown as a value of all 9's in both the DAYS and GENS fields. How do we determine what the actual retention values are?

Answer: 

The archive retention records that will be used each time the DSEXTMIG or DSEXPSAR job is executed are those shown on the VARMU100 screen (option A.1.S from the main menu).

The values shown on the VARMU100 screen in the DAYS and GENS fields are either going to reflect the reports "MANUALLY SET" retention values. Or, they are going to show a value of "SD" indicating that the SYSTEM DEFAULT retention value is going to be used.

The SYSTEM DEFAULT archive retention value is defined on the VSGMU210 screen (option 9.A from the main menu).

All reports that show a value of "SD" in the DAYS and GENS fields on the VARMU100 screen will be reflected in the DSCULP21 output with a value of all 9's in the DAYS and GENS fields. This is a NORMAL CONDITION.

It is shown this way in the CULPRIT output because this is how we actually store the retention value for these entries on our database. A value of all 9's in these fields on the database is what triggers the DSEXTMIG/DSEXPSAR job to apply the VSGMU210 screens SYSTEM DEFAULT retention values to determine if the entry should be deleted or not.