Welcome
Reference information
The reference sections of the information contain reference information that you need when you use CICS® VR.
CICS® VR commands
A table of descriptions of CICS® VR functions and commands used with CICS TS.
VSAMSTART: Start passing AMS commands to VSAM
Use the VSAMSTART command to tell CICS® VR to start passing AMS commands to VSAM after a VSAM sphere has been recovered.

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
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.
- CICS VR command reference
  Descriptions of the CICS VR command rules and how to read the syntax diagrams.
- CICS® VR commands
  A table of descriptions of CICS® VR functions and commands used with CICS TS.
  - ALLOCATE: Allocate a log
    Use the ALLOCATE command to identify the CICS® log or log stream copy that you want CICS VR to read.
  - BATCHBACK: Remove updates to VSAM spheres
    Use the BATCHBACK command to remove updates that were made to VSAM spheres by one or more steps in a batch job.
  - BLDVRP: Build the VSAM resource pool
    Use the BLDVRP command to request CICS® VR to issue the build VSAM resource pool (BLDVRP) VSAM macro for a forward-recovery run.
  - CA: Process all the log records
    Use the CA command to define an existing change accumulation group and create or update the change accumulation data set for that group. Use an automated timer process, such as OPC, to regularly submit your change accumulation job.
  - CHECK: Prevent duplicate recovery runs
    Use the CHECK command to prevent a recovery job from running twice in a row.
  - DEFEXIT: Define CICS® VR exit names for batch backout
  - DEFEXIT: Define CICS® VR exit names for the log stream copy utility
    Use the DEFEXIT command to request CICS® VR archive or the log stream copy utility to call one or both of the exits.
  - DEFEXIT: Define CICS® VR exit names for forward recovery
    Use the DEFEXIT command to request CICS® VR to call one or more of the exits.
  - EXCLUDE: Exclude specific log records
    Use the EXCLUDE command to eliminate specific log records, after images, from the forward recovery processing, logstreamcopy processing or journal print processing.
  - INCLUDE: Only use specific log records
    Use the INCLUDE command to selectively include specific log records, after images, in the forward recovery processing, logstreamcopy processing or journal print processing.
  - INVENTORY: Start automatic deregistration
    Use the INVENTORY command to start CICS® VR automatic deregistration function.
  - LOGOFLOGS: Process a log of logs
    Use the LOGOFLOGS command to scan a CICS® TS log of logs, register the VSAM spheres in the RCDS, and store other essential recovery information in the RCDS.
  - LOGOFLOGS REPORTONLY: produce a report of log of logs information
    Use the LOGOFLOGS REPORTONLY command to produce a report of the contents of the log of logs. The LOGOFLOGS REPORTONLY command does not update the RCDS with recovery information or run automatic deregistration.
  - LOGSTREAMCOPY: Copy an MVS™ log stream
    Use the LOGSTREAMCOPY command to copy an MVS™ log stream to a sequential access method (SAM) data set. Information about the copy is stored in the RCDS.
  - MIGRATE RCDS: Specify migration option
    The MIGRATE RCDS command specifies whether you want the CICS® VR Server AS defaults to be migrated from the RCDS of a previous CICS VR release.
  - MVSLOG: Specify an MVS™ Log Stream
    Use the MVSLOG command to specify the name of an MVS™ log stream to CICS® VR.
  - NOTIFY: Notify CICS® VR when a VSAM sphere backup is created
    This command notifies CICS® VR when a backup for a VSAM sphere is created by an IBM® or non-IBM product.
  - PRINT: print information about records logged on an MVS™ log
    Use the PRINT command to print the contents of MVS™ logs, and to find information about records logged on them.
  - RCDS: Create a RCDS copy
    Use the RCDS command to create a copy of the RCDS that can be sent (exported) to a remote site and used to update (import) the RCDS at the remote site, to keep the remote site RCDS in synchronization with the RCDS at the primary site.
  - RCDS: Create a RCDS report
    Use the RCDS REPORT keyword to create a detailed report containing the information requested by options of the command.
  - RCDS: Reset RCDS error flags
    During various CICS® VR processing, the Recovery Control Data Sets (RCDSs) are checked for various error conditions to help ensure integrity of the data within the RCDSs. If an error condition is found, CICS VR reports the error and sets an error flag in the RCDS that marks it as unusable. CICS VR processing can no longer access an RCDS that has an error flag set on.
  - RECOVER: Forward recover a VSAM sphere
    Use the RECOVER command to tell CICS® VR to forward recover a VSAM sphere.
  - RESETBWO: Reset BWO bits to zero
    Use the RESETBWO command to reset BWO bits to zero in the ICF catalog for selected VSAM spheres.
  - SPHERE: Define spheres
    Use the SPHERE command to define which spheres are in the CA group.
  - TEST: Run without updates to VSAM spheres
    Use the TEST command to run a forward recovery or backout job, without doing any updates to the VSAM spheres or the RCDS. The TEST command produces a report.
  - VSAMSTART: Start passing AMS commands to VSAM
    Use the VSAMSTART command to tell CICS® VR to start passing AMS commands to VSAM after a VSAM sphere has been recovered.
  - VSAMEND: Stop passing AMS commands to VSAM
    Use the VSAMEND command to tell CICS® VR to stop passing AMS commands to VSAM.
- CICS® VR Messages and abend codes
  This section includes the messages and abend codes that are used by CICS VR, and also includes instructions to successfully complete the recovery of CICS VSAM data.
- CICS® VR ddnames
  A table that contains the ddnames for CICS® VR.
- UNDO log structure overview
  Every undo log block consists of a Block Header (MVSLogBlockHeader type), followed by log records. Every log record includes a standard General Log Header (GenLogRecord type), followed by record data.
- DWWBKNT REXX
  The REXX procedure DWWBKNT performs multiple calls of the CICS VR NOTIFY utility DWWNT for IDCAMS REPRO backups listed in the input data set. It can be used in TSO and in a batch environment.
- Customization parameters
  The table lists parameters that you can specify on the DWWCST01 panel to customize members of &HLQ.SDWWCNTL.OUT and &HLQ.SDWWSENU/SJPN.OUT data sets.
- User replaceable JCL skeleton
  You can replace the CICS® VR supplied JCL skeleton DWWUJOB with one of your own ones that satisfies your requirements.
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

VSAMSTART: Start passing AMS commands to VSAM

Use the VSAMSTART command to tell CICS® VR to start passing AMS commands to VSAM after a VSAM sphere has been recovered.

The VSAMSTART command has no synonyms.

Format

VSAMSTART DSN(data set name)

Keywords

DSN(data set name)

Specifies the data set for which recovery must be successfully completed before the AMS commands are passed to VSAM. The DSN keyword is required. You can only specify this keyword once per VSAMSTART command.

data set name: Specifies the data set name, which is 1–44 characters.

Usage notes

Consider the following when using the VSAMSTART command:

The DSN keyword must be on the same line as the VSAMSTART command.
You can use the VSAMSTART/VSAMEND combination to rebuild alternate indexes after a successful forward recovery.

Examples

  VSAMSTART  DSN(TEST.PAYROLL.BASE)
    BLDINDEX                           -
       INDATASET(TEST.PAYROLL.BASE)    -
       OUTDATASET(TEST.PAYROLL.PATH)
  VSAMEND    DSN(TEST.PAYROLL.BASE)

This pair of VSAMSTART and VSAMEND commands tells CICS® VR to pass the AMS BLDINDEX command to VSAM when the recovery of TEST.PAYROLL.BASE has successfully completed. The alternate index for TEST.PAYROLL.BASE is built by VSAM when CICS® VR has recovered TEST.PAYROLL.BASE.

For details of the VSAMEND command, see VSAMEND: Stop passing AMS commands to VSAM.