Need help with segments ?

[ldmwndletsm]

I read the IBM document on "query content" in regards to Segment Number, but I'm a bit perplexed. Can someone offer me an explanation of segments in the below scenario ?

1. I ran an SQL select statement as: "select * from contents where volume_name='ABC123L6'" > ABC123L6_select_content.out

2. There are 3672090 blocks of entries but 3672088 unique OBJECT_ID values, so two are duplicates as discussed in 3 below.

3. Four of the blocks of entries consist of two pairs (nonconsecutive in the output file) wherein each block in the pair has identical column values with the exception of the SEGMENT. So one has '2/1' and the other has '2/2'. The FILE_NAME and OBJECT_ID is not the same between the pairs. All four blocks have 'AGGREGATED: Yes' and none reports a value for FRAGMENT.

[Question] What does SEGMENT '2/1' and '2/2' mean in this case ?

I'm confused here because I thought that a value of '2/2' would imply that the given volume contains the second piece of the file, and the first piece (1/2) would be contained on another tape, so the given file would have the last piece (2/2) spanning into this tape and the first piece (1/2) spanning out of another tape. But in this case it's not simply '2/2' by itself reported for this volume but also a '2/1' for the same FILE_NAME, BITFILE_ID, OBJECT_ID, etc. It would appear, therefore, that '2/2' doesn't have to always mean that this is the second piece, with the first piece being on a different tape. It sounds like it can sometimes instead mean that both pieces are on the same tape. That right ? If so, why does that happen ?

Maybe this has to do with aggregates, but I thought that aggregates worked wherein if a file was under a certain size then TSM would combine it with multiple files to create an aggregate versus just sending it by itself but not multiple pieces on the same tape. Maybe I need a better explanation of this. Thank you.

 

[ldmwndletsm]

Actually, I'm even more bewildered than before because I just now ran this: "query content ABC123L6 f=d" > ABC123L6_q_content_details.out

Those two files from the earlier select contents command appear in this output each one time only, but they report:

Aggregated?: 1/2
Segment Number: 2/2
Linked: No
Fragment Number:

and

Aggregated?: 2/2
Segment Number: 2/2
Linked: No
Fragment Number:

So in the "select contents" output we have an 'AGGREGATED: Yes' for both files, and each appears twice with 'SEGMENT: 2/1' and 'SEGMENT: 2/2' respectively, but then in the "query contents f=d" output, each appears once with one having 'Aggregated?: 1/2' and 'Segment Number: 2/2' and the other having 'Aggregated?: 2/2' and 'Segment Number: 2/2'.

It seems as if 'SEGMENT' is different in the select output versus in the query output ? Can someone help me to make sense of this madness ?