Welcome
CICS VR Overview
Introducing CICS VR
With CICS VR, you can recover your VSAM data without specialist knowledge or expertise.
How you interact with CICS VR
Interaction with CICS VR is usually performed using panel interfaces. Each panel in the interface consists of several components.
Online help
Press F1 for Online help. The help information provided is context-sensitive and depends on the task being performed at the time, and the current position of the cursor.

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
- Introducing CICS VR
  With CICS VR, you can recover your VSAM data without specialist knowledge or expertise.
  - When to run CICS VR
    Use CICS VR to recover from any of the following problems in a CICS® TS or batch environment.
  - How you interact with CICS VR
    Interaction with CICS VR is usually performed using panel interfaces. Each panel in the interface consists of several components.
    - Pull-down menus
      When you select a choice from the menu bar and a pull-down menu is displayed. The pull-down menu overlays a part of the panel under the choice.
    - Secondary windows
      After selecting an option from a pull-down menu, a secondary window is displayed. Secondary windows do not have a menu bar.
    - Pop-up messages
      When using a CICS VR panel interface, various pop-up messages might be displayed providing additional information.
    - Function keys and shortcuts
    - Shortcut commands
      Some actions available on a menu have equivalent commands. Entering the command on the command line causes the action, without selecting the action from the menu. The commands are available on specific panels.
    - Online help
      Press F1 for Online help. The help information provided is context-sensitive and depends on the task being performed at the time, and the current position of the cursor.
- Using the main menu
  When you start CICS VR, the CICS VR main menu panel is displayed.
- Customizing the JCL skeleton
  How to edit the JCL skeleton.
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.
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

Online help

Press F1 for Online help. The help information provided is context-sensitive and depends on the task being performed at the time, and the current position of the cursor.

If the cursor is on a part of a panel or secondary window, the help gives general information about the tasks that can be performed at this point in the ISPF dialog interface. If a message is displayed, press F1 to obtain help for that message. For additional help on the panel or secondary window, press F2 from the message help.

Help is also displayed on the menu bar of these panels:

CICS® VR main menu
CICS® VR VSAM sphere list
CICS® VR log of logs list
CICS® VR log streams list
CICS® Backout Failed sphere list
CICS® VR Settings

In the help pull-down menu, the choices are as follows:

Using help: Tells you how to use CICS® VR online help.
General help: Provides general information about the panel and the tasks that you can perform on the panel.
Index: Contains a list of available help information, in alphabetical order.
Keys help: Displays a list of function key assignments for a panel.
Command help: Displays a list of available CICS® VR line commands.
Product information: Provides product copyright information.

For a detailed example, see Using the VSAM sphere list Help pull-down menu.