Welcome
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.
Processing your problem
The way your problem is later processed depends on the type of problem. The representative who deals with your problem provides guidance on what is required from you.

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
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.
- Dealing with the IBM® Support Center
  Before you contact your local IBM® Support Center, ensure that the problem is appropriate for the Support Center.
- Supplying information to the IBM® Support Center
  Your first contact with the IBM® Support Center is with the call-receipt operator, who takes initial details and routes your call to the appropriate support group. You are then contacted by a Support Center representative who investigates your problem further.
- Processing your problem
  The way your problem is later processed depends on the type of problem. The representative who deals with your problem provides guidance on what is required from you.
- Dealing with the change team
  You use APARs to communicate a new CICS® VR problem to the change team.
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

Processing your problem

The way your problem is later processed depends on the type of problem. The representative who deals with your problem provides guidance on what is required from you.

Details of your call are passed, using the RETAIN® database, to the appropriate support group. Because your problem is one associated with CICS® VR, it is put in a CICS® VR queue.

A Support Center representative uses the keywords that you provide to search the RETAIN® database. If your problem is already known to IBM®, and a fix exists for it, a program temporary fix (PTF) is sent to you.

Tell the representative if these events happened before the problem occurred:

Changes in software level
PTFs applied
Additional features used
Unusual operator action

You might be asked to give values from a formatted dump or trace table. You might also be asked to perform some special activity; for example, to set a trap or to use trace with a certain type of selectivity, and then to report the results.

You have several follow-up discussions, depending on the complexity of the symptoms and your system environment. In every case, the actions taken by you and the Support Center are entered in the problem management record (PMR). The representative can then be acquainted with the full history of the problem before any follow-up call. If the investigation shows that the problem is already known, and a fix is developed, the fix is sent to you. If the problem is new, an APAR might be submitted. The APAR is dealt with by the CICS® VR change team.