Welcome
Problem determination procedures
If you have to contact IBM® personnel about a CICS® VR problem, you must classify and describe the problem.
Tracing in the CICS® VR server address space
DFSMSdfp™ provides a trace service for use with CICS® VR server. A special trace table is created in CICS VR server address space and in each address space where CICS VR client applications are run and tracing is selected.
Formatting the CICS® VR Server Component Trace Table
CICS® VR cannot flush trace buffers in storage to the trace writer data sets. So, in addition to having trace writer data sets available, storage dumps of the CICS VR server address space and CICS VR client's address spaces are required.

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.
- Classifying a problem
  The first step in diagnosis is classifying the type of problem. Symptoms that suggest the presence of a problem can be valuable clues in diagnosing and solving the problem.
- Collecting information about any problem
  Follow these procedures to collect information about any problem and to collect information about an unidentified problem.
- Collecting diagnostic information
  You can improve the efficiency of this process by preparing and sending the correct diagnostic information when you initially report the problem. Depending on the type and complexity of a problem, the IBM® Support Center might require you to send certain information to help diagnose and resolve the problem.
- Tracing in the CICS® VR server address space
  DFSMSdfp™ provides a trace service for use with CICS® VR server. A special trace table is created in CICS VR server address space and in each address space where CICS VR client applications are run and tracing is selected.
  - TRACE command for CICS® VR server component trace
    Use the TRACE command to set up the tracking option and trace table sizes.
  - Trace options
    This table lists the valid options for use with this trace facility.
  - Turning off the trace facility
    Use this command to turn off the trace facility.
  - Trace examples
    Some examples of trace activation that trace entry and exit for record management and the VRLL subcomponent
  - Formatting the CICS® VR Server Component Trace Table
    CICS® VR cannot flush trace buffers in storage to the trace writer data sets. So, in addition to having trace writer data sets available, storage dumps of the CICS VR server address space and CICS VR client's address spaces are required.
- Collecting information about specific problems
  After you have chosen a problem-type keyword, use the following procedure to collect problem documentation.
- Collecting documentation about all problems
  Gather certain information for any problem, even when you cannot identify the type of problem. Record the information on a copy of the worksheet.
- Problem description worksheet
  You can print this worksheet for your use.
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

Formatting the CICS® VR Server Component Trace Table

CICS® VR cannot flush trace buffers in storage to the trace writer data sets. So, in addition to having trace writer data sets available, storage dumps of the CICS® VR server address space and CICS® VR client's address spaces are required.

If the problem being traced does not result in a dump you can use the MVS™ DUMP command to produce an SVCDUMP-type dump containing the trace buffer data. See z/OS® MVS™ IPCS Commands for a complete description of this service.

It is possible that, with a sufficiently large trace table (8 MB recommended, use 16 MB if possible), no data is in the trace writer data sets.

Use the IPCS CTRACE command to format and view the information in the component trace writer data sets and the trace buffers in storage:

CTRACE COMP(SYSSMS) FULL OPTIONS((COMP(CICS VR)))

  COMPONENT TRACE FULL FORMAT                                                 
  SYSNAME(MVV1)                                                               
  COMP(SYSSMS)                                                                
  OPTIONS((COMP(CICS VR)))                                                     
  **** 06/29/2008                                                             
                                                                              
  SYSNAME   MNEMONIC  ENTRY ID    TIME STAMP     DESCRIPTION                  
  -------   --------  --------  ---------------  -------------                
                                                                              
  MVV1      ENTRY     00000000  16:54:43.930123  Module Entry                 
                                                                              
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
  ASID: 000A  COMP: CICS VR  (DF001)  SCMP: VRSS (115)  FNID: 010  MDID: 012   
  MDNM: DWW1SSSR  TCBA: 008D1E88  RETN: 8256EF5C DINM: 0001   HASID:  0201    
  --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
  KEY:  730E   LEN:  0004                                                     
   +00000000: 00000013                             *....             *