Welcome
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.

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
- 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.
- 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 6.3, 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

When to run CICS VR

Use CICS VR to recover from any of the following problems in a CICS® TS or batch environment.

Physical VSAM damage or loss

Use the CICS VR panel interface to construct a recovery job when your VSAM data has been physically damaged or lost. In a CICS® TS or batch environment, CICS VR forward recovery performs the same set of tasks:

Restores the VSAM sphere from a logical backup, if available
Forward recovers all updates made by CICS® and batch applications since the backup was taken

In a CICS® TS environment: After forward recovery completes successfully, CICS can reopen the data set. CICS® removes any incomplete units of work that exist in the forward recovered VSAM data set.
In a batch environment: CICS VR treats each batch job step as a logical unit of work. CICS VR forward recovery forward recovers updates made by completed batch job steps only. CICS VR does not leave your VSAM data in an inconsistent state; for example, when only some updates made by a batch job step are forward recovered successfully.

Logical VSAM damage caused by CICS® transactions

Use the CICS VR panel interface to recover VSAM data from damage caused by logical corruption. Use the panel to build a forward recovery job. Specify forward recovery criteria to exclude any updates have been made, but are not required, to your VSAM data by CICS® transactions.

Failed batch job step

A batch job that updates VSAM data but encounters a failure might leave VSAM data in an inconsistent state. Use CICS VR batch backout to remove updates made to VSAM data by a batch job step that failed.