Welcome
Getting Started
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.
Understanding CICS® VR forward recovery logging
CICS® VR forward recovery logging writes an after-image log record to a forward recovery log stream for every update made to a VSAM data set by a batch job. Therefore, if a VSAM data set become corrupt, you can use CICS VR forward recovery processing to recreate the batch updates.
Planning log streams for forward recovery logging
When a batch job is started, CICS® VR obtains the name of the forward recovery log stream defined for each VSAM data set that is updated by the batch job and is defined with FRLOG REDO or ALL. However, CICS VR can write log records reflecting updates made to one or more VSAM data sets to the same forward recovery log stream.

What's new in CICS VR 6.3
CICS® VR 6.3 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 3 (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 6.3. 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 6.3 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.
- 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.
  - Activating CICS® VR batch logging overview
    The steps required to activate three types of batch logging for VSAM data sets, forward recovery logging, undo logging, and forward recovery and undo logging.
  - Using CICS® VR VSAM batch logging
    You can use batch logging to log changes to VSAM data sets that are not accessed in record level sharing mode (RLS mode) when the VSAM data set is not being used by CICS®.
  - Enabling CICS® VR VSAM batch logging
    To enable CICS® VR VSAM batch logging for a VSAM sphere, you must update the FRLOG parameter in the ICF catalog definition of the base cluster to an appropriate value.
  - Setting up the environment for CICS® VR VSAM batch logging
    After enabling your VSAM spheres for CICS® VR VSAM batch logging, some additional steps need to be performed to set up the CICS VR VSAM batch logging environment.
  - VSAM batch logging units of work
    CICS® VR ensures that a batch, non-transactional, job step is consistent, that is, it ensures that recoverable VSAM data sets are in a consistent state when a job step starts and when it successfully ends.
  - Detecting batch logging error conditions
    If CICS® VR detects a problem with the MVS™ system logger, CICS VR attempts to trap the error and issue a 3999 condition code. The 3999 condition code indicates that no batch logging occurred for that sphere.
  - Understanding CICS® VR forward recovery logging
    CICS® VR forward recovery logging writes an after-image log record to a forward recovery log stream for every update made to a VSAM data set by a batch job. Therefore, if a VSAM data set become corrupt, you can use CICS VR forward recovery processing to recreate the batch updates.
    - Planning log streams for forward recovery logging
      When a batch job is started, CICS® VR obtains the name of the forward recovery log stream defined for each VSAM data set that is updated by the batch job and is defined with FRLOG REDO or ALL. However, CICS VR can write log records reflecting updates made to one or more VSAM data sets to the same forward recovery log stream.
    - Logging the real DD name
      CICS® VR provides support to implement the real DD name logging to the logstream. This function can be turned on by setting the REALDDN parameter to YES.
    - CICS® and CICS® VR forward recovery logging considerations
      Points to be considered when enabling forward recovery logging for a VSAM data set that is also defined to CICS®.
  - CICS® VR undo logging
    CICS® VR undo logging writes a before-image log record to a log stream for every update made to a VSAM data set by a batch job. If the batch job encounters an abend, CICS VR batch backout processing can use these records to remove the updates made by the failed batch job or batch job step.
  - CICS® VR replication logging
    CICS® VR replication logging writes before-image and after-image log records to the replication log stream for every update made to a VSAM data set by a batch job. CICS VR batch logger shares forward recovery and replication logs if both forward recovery logging and replication logging are requested.
- 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 6.3, 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 6.3

Planning log streams for forward recovery logging

When a batch job is started, CICS® VR obtains the name of the forward recovery log stream defined for each VSAM data set that is updated by the batch job and is defined with FRLOG REDO or ALL. However, CICS® VR can write log records reflecting updates made to one or more VSAM data sets to the same forward recovery log stream.

When deciding how many forward recovery log streams to create and how to define them to your VSAM data sets, you must consider such factors as transaction performance, work load, and recovery performance.

The MVS™ logger merges all the forward recovery log records from the various CICS® VR instances onto the shared forward recovery log. Some points to consider are:

All data sets used by one batch job must use the same log stream, to reduce the number of log streams written to at sync point.
Share a forward recovery log stream between data sets that:
- Have similar security requirements
- Have similar backup frequency
- Are likely to need restoring in their entirety at the same time
Log stream names must relate to the data sets. For example, PAYROLL data sets could be mapped to a forward recovery log named PAYROLL.FWDRECOV.PAYLOG.
Do not mix high update frequency data sets with low update frequency data sets because this causes a disproportionate amount of unwanted log data to be read during recovery of low frequency data sets.
Do not put all high update frequency data sets on a single log stream because you could exceed the throughput capacity of the log stream.
If you define too many data sets to a single log stream, you could experience frequent structure-full events when the log stream can not keep up with data flow.
Delete redundant data from log streams periodically so that the log streams do not become excessively large. Typically, for a forward recovery log, deletion of old data is related to the data backup frequency. For example, you might keep the four most recent generations of backup so that when you delete a redundant backup generation, you can also delete the corresponding redundant forward recovery log records. These are the records older than the redundant backup and they are no longer needed for forward recovery.