Welcome
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.
Using keywords to describe a problem
Use keywords to describe all aspects of a problem, from identifying the CICS® VR program number to identifying the area of failure. A keyword is a word, acronym, or abbreviation used to describe one aspect of a CICS VR failure. Use the appropriate procedures to document the problem and build a keyword string.

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.
  - Using keywords to describe a problem
    Use keywords to describe all aspects of a problem, from identifying the CICS® VR program number to identifying the area of failure. A keyword is a word, acronym, or abbreviation used to describe one aspect of a CICS VR failure. Use the appropriate procedures to document the problem and build a keyword string.
  - Searching the software support database (RETAIN®)
    Use the keyword string you create to search the RETAIN® database. The database helps you to find out if the problem has already been reported.
  - Identifying symptoms and selecting keywords
    Make a note of all the keywords that describe the symptoms so that you can find the symptoms that most closely match the symptoms you are experiencing.
- 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.
- 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

Using keywords to describe a problem

Use keywords to describe all aspects of a problem, from identifying the CICS® VR program number to identifying the area of failure. A keyword is a word, acronym, or abbreviation used to describe one aspect of a CICS® VR failure. Use the appropriate procedures to document the problem and build a keyword string.

For example, if CICS® VR abends with a user abend code, the keyword is ABENDU. Other keywords are also formed to describe particular aspects of the abnormal end, such as the name of the module where the abend occurred. You combine these keywords to form a keyword string like this:

   5655H9101 R320 ABENDU3005 DWWCMMAI

In this example, 5655H9101 is the component ID (5655-H91 is the CICS® VR program number), R320 identifies the release number, ABENDU is the type of problem, and 3005 is the abend code. DWWCMMAI is the module where the abend occurred.

The component ID is the first keyword in the string. It identifies the IBM® licensed program that failed.

The name of the module where the abend occurred can be found in the DWWDUMP data set, described in Diagnosis file and user ABEND 3999.