Welcome
CICS VR Exits
Implementing exits for forward recovery and backout
Description of intended Programming Interfaces that allow you to write exits for CICS® VR forward recovery and backout.
What you can use the exits for
The special processing that the CICS® VR exits allow you to perform at four different exit points.
Logical recovery
The preapply exit is taken for each after-image that is applied to a VSAM data set, before CICS VR applies the change, for data sets that are recovered in this CICS VR run.

What's new in CICS VR 6.1
CICS® VR 6.1 contains these changes.
Operating environment
CICS® VR uses logs to recover your VSAM data.
CICS VR Overview
Getting Started
CICS® VR and CICS® TS
CICS VR Exits
- Using the CICS® VR archive exits
  Documentation of intended Programming Interfaces that assist you to write exits for CICS® VR archive and log stream copy utilities.
- Implementing exits for forward recovery and backout
  Description of intended Programming Interfaces that allow you to write exits for CICS® VR forward recovery and backout.
  - What you can use the exits for
    The special processing that the CICS® VR exits allow you to perform at four different exit points.
    - User processing after an I/O error
      You can use the error exit if an uncorrectable data validity error occurs when CICS® VR is reading a log, or if an error occurs when CICS VR is accessing a VSAM data set.
    - Recovering an ESDS
      You must specify the ESDS delete exit if you use the CICS® VR batch backout function to back out records that were added to one or more VSAM ESDSs.
    - Logical recovery
      The preapply exit is taken for each after-image that is applied to a VSAM data set, before CICS VR applies the change, for data sets that are recovered in this CICS VR run.
    - Changing the CICS® VR return code
      You can use the termination exit to change the CICS® VR completion code just before CICS VR terminates.
  - How the exits work
    Before you start using an exit, you must know how it works with CICS® VR.
  - Error exit: pass I/O error information
    You can use the error exit to make CICS® VR continue processing after an I/O error.
  - Batch backout ESDS delete exit: pass ESDS deletion records
    You must use a CICS® VR batch backout ESDS delete exit when you request CICS VR batch backout to back out one or more records that were added to a VSAM ESDS by a batch job.
  - Preapply exit: pass Log Records and VSAM Records
    You can use the preapply exit to modify an after-image that is applied to a VSAM data set.
  - Termination exit: pass CICS® VR return code
    You can use the termination exit to modify the CICS® VR return code.
Running CICS® VR forward recovery
CICS® VR forward recovery consists of a restore and then forward recovery.
Running CICS® VR backup
The information in the following topics describe how to take a backup using CICS® VR. The panels and secondary windows are in the sequence that they are displayed during a backup job generation.
Running CICS® VR reorganization
You can reorganize a VSAM sphere using CICS® VR. VSAM sphere reorganization can increase the space of a sphere and its alternate indexes. It can also change the control interval sizes for a sphere's components.
Working with other VSAM sphere list pull-down menus
The CICS® VR recovery and backup functions are typically accessed using the Utilities pull-down menu after selecting VSAM spheres.
Working with CICS® Backout Failed spheres
The CICS® Backout Failed sphere list shows the CICS spheres registered for manual recovery or reorganization after CICS notification of a backout failure.
Working with logs
Using ISMF data set lists with CICS® VR
CICS® VR is integrated with ISMF so that you can create a CICS VR recovery job for the data sets in an ISMF data set list by entering the VSAMREC line operator or list command. When you enter the VSAMREC line operator or list command, the necessary CICS VR panels are called and you can create a recovery job for the VSAM sphere.
Running CICS® VR manually
IBM® recommends that you use the CICS® VR panel interface to create recovery jobs for your VSAM spheres. Using the CICS VR panel interface eliminates the need for you to manually keep track of daily update activity, logs, backups, etc. Also, the CICS VR panel interface automatically creates the recovery JCL for you.
Running CICS® VR batch backout
The CICS® VR batch backout utility allows you to remove updates that were made to KSDS, ESDS, RRDS, and VRRDS VSAM spheres by steps in a batch job. This section describes how to run the CICS VR batch backout utility.
Understanding CICS® VR reports
The CICS® VR forward recovery and batch backout utilities produce a set of reports upon successful completion. The reports are written to the data set allocated to the DWWPRINT ddname. However, the set of reports written for the forward recovery backout utilities differ from the set of reports written for the batch backout utilities.
Understanding IBM® program support
The IBM® Customer Engineering Program Support structure helps you resolve problems with IBM products, and ensures that you can make the best use of your IBM computing systems.
Problem determination procedures
If you have to contact IBM® personnel about a CICS® VR problem, you must classify and describe the problem.
Diagnosing the causes of abends
You can determine the cause of a CICS® VR abend in a number of ways.
Reference information
The reference sections of the information contain reference information that you need when you use CICS® VR.
Glossary
The terms in this glossary are defined as they pertain to the CICS VSAM Recovery documentation.
Edition notice
This is the information for CICS VSAM Recovery for z/OS. It applies to CICS VSAM Recovery for z/OS Version 6.1, and to all subsequent versions, releases, and modifications until otherwise indicated in new editions. Make sure you are using the correct edition for the level of the product.
Download PDF
Download the PDF format documentation for CICS VSAM Recovery for z/OS 6.1

Logical recovery

The preapply exit is taken for each after-image that is applied to a VSAM data set, before CICS VR applies the change, for data sets that are recovered in this CICS VR run.

For forward recovery, it is taken for every update, if the original VSAM record has been successfully read, or for every add that falls within the default or specified start and stop times.

CICS® VR passes the record that is read from the log and, where applicable, the VSAM record that is updated, to the exit program. The exit program can modify the log record. It can also tell CICS® VR to ignore the log record and continue with the next record.

This exit gives you the opportunity to perform selective processing of records, depending on your special requirements. This type of processing is useful to help in logical recovery; that is, recovering from logical errors in the VSAM data set that are caused by an application, or by transactions that did not work correctly. The preapply exit lets you use CICS® VR for this purpose.

If you try to perform logical recovery, there are situations that cannot be corrected by this exit. Although logical recovery might have recovered the data set to the state you require, other applications, online or offline, might have accessed the data set during the time it contained incorrect data.

You can use the preapply exit to:

Tell CICS® VR not to process certain after-images.
You can do this to avoid updates that were made by an application or a transaction, or that were made during a specific time period.
Modify certain after-images before CICS® VR applies them to the VSAM data set.
You can check the content of the log record and the content of the VSAM record to be updated, and then modify the VSAM data and key fields in the log record in the way you require.