Welcome
Getting Started
Activating the CICS® VR server address space
The CICS® VR server address space provides a communication vehicle for CICS VR and other applications. It must be active if you want to use any of these CICS VR functions.
Setting up PARMLIB for the CICS® VR server address space
Prior to activating the CICS® VR server address space there are parameters that you must specify.
Defining a CICS® VR XCF group
In a sysplex environment an instance of the CICS® VR server address space must be installed and running on particular systems.
Production and test groups
Another use of the CICS® VR XCF group name suffix might be to logically group the CICS VR instances into production and test groups.

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
- Introducing CICS® VR
  CICS® VSAM Recovery Version 6 Release 1 (CICS VR) recovers your lost or damaged VSAM data.
- Overview of CICS VR installation
  This information describes all the necessary steps to successfully set up CICS VR 6.1. It includes a detailed description of the various CICS VR components and how to set them up. The CICS VR server address space is required for batch logging, backup notification, and backout failure notification.
- Migration considerations
  Consider these general migration considerations when you migrate to CICS® VR V6.1 from an earlier release.
- Activating the CICS® VR server address space
  The CICS® VR server address space provides a communication vehicle for CICS VR and other applications. It must be active if you want to use any of these CICS VR functions.
  - Understanding the CICS® VR server address space requirements
    To enable the CICS® VR server address space, these are the requirements that must be met.
  - Setting up PARMLIB for the CICS® VR server address space
    Prior to activating the CICS® VR server address space there are parameters that you must specify.
    - Initializing the CICS® VR server address space
      The behavior of command and parameters during initialization of the server address space.
    - Defining a CICS® VR XCF group
      In a sysplex environment an instance of the CICS® VR server address space must be installed and running on particular systems.
      - Production and test groups
        Another use of the CICS® VR XCF group name suffix might be to logically group the CICS VR instances into production and test groups.
    - Defining a CICS® VR prefix
      When the CICS® VR server address space activates, it attempts to allocate the CICS VR message, trace and dump data sets using a predefined naming convention.
    - Defining a CICS® VR RCDS prefix
      The CICS® VR recovery control data sets (RCDSs) are three linear VSAM data sets used by CICS VR as a data repository. Necessary recovery information is both written to and read from the RCDSs by various CICS VR processes.
    - Defining a CICS® VR general control parameter
      The CICSVR_GENERAL_CONTROL parameter is used to control the execution of various CICS® VR functions. Before starting the CICS VR server address space, you can specify the CICSVR_GENERAL_CONTROL parameter in the active IGDSMSxx parmlib member of SYS1.PARMLIB.
    - Defining a CICS® VR ZZVALUE parameter
      CICS® VR ZZVALUES are flags that can be set within the CICS VR code to produce additional tracing and dump information to help resolve errors. However, these flags can be turned on only when instructed by IBM® support to help diagnosis errors that occur.
    - Dynamically changing a CICS® VR PARMLIB setting
      You can dynamically change the value of any of the CICS® VR PARMLIB parameters specified in the active IGDSMSxx member without updating the member itself.
    - Dynamically executing functions controlled by the CICS® VR general control parameter
      You can dynamically start any function controlled by the CICSVR_GENERAL_CONTROL parameter by issuing the SETSMS CICSVR_GENERAL_CONTROL(string) operator command from the console.
    - Example IGDSMSxx member
  - Allocating data sets required by the CICS® VR server address space
    During activation of the CICS® VR server address space, CICS VR attempts to allocate data sets to various ddnames. For some of the ddnames, CICS VR attempts to dynamically create, catalog and allocate a data set if one was not created prior to activation.
  - Identifying preallocation errors
    The message that the CICS® VR server address space issues if the DWWMSGx or DWWCONn data sets are not preallocated correctly.
  - Using the DISPLAY command
    You can use the DISPLAY command to display the status of the CICS® VR server address space, logstreams, and RCDS on a single system or all systems that belong to the same CICS VR XCF group.
  - Using the VARY command to activate or terminate the CICS® VR server
    You can use the VARY command to activate or terminate the CICS® VR server on a single system.
  - Assigning CICS® VR access authority
    By default, all processes started by the CICS® VR server address space run under an undefined RACF® user ID.
  - Authorizing user IDS to issue DFSMShsm™ commands
    If you want to use DFSMShsm™ as your backup utility and the CICS® VR server address space is enabled, you must request that your user ID be authorized to issue DFSMShsm-authorized commands.
  - Understanding the CICS® VR scavengers
    Descriptions of the three scavengers that the CICS VR server address space runs: the history, server and inventory scavengers.
- Setting up CICS® VR VSAM batch logging
  CICS® VR VSAM batch logging, referred to as batch logging, provides logging of updates made to VSAM data sets by batch jobs. Two types of batch logging are available, forward recovery logging and undo logging.
- CICS® VR security
  Security has been enhanced to protect the RCDS from being updated by any user. It is possible to specify that the users security profile must be checked before allowing certain information in the RCDS to be added, changed, or deleted.
CICS® VR and CICS® TS
CICS VR Exits
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

Production and test groups

Another use of the CICS® VR XCF group name suffix might be to logically group the CICS® VR instances into production and test groups.

For example, all CICS® VR instances in a sysplex that update production data could have the same CICS® VR XCF group name suffix defined, for example, PROD. Then, you can create one or more CICS® VR instances for testing purposes only. The CICS® VR testing instances could be assigned a different CICS® VR XCF group name suffix, for example, TEST.

You could then assign separate levels of the CICS® VR libraries to each CICS® VR XCF group. This you would then allow you to change or update the CICS® VR load libraries assigned to the test group without affection production activity. For example, you could apply and test an APAR on the CICS® VR load libraries assigned to the test group prior to applying it to the CICS® VR load libraries assigned to the production group.