CICS® VR RLS processing (RR bit)

To ensure the integrity of VSAM spheres, CICS® VR runs a key set of RLS protocols during recovery processing of RLS-accessed VSAM data sets.

The protocols operate in these ways:
  • Using the Unbind and Bind services to transfer the RLS locks to the recovered sphere. At the start of recovery, CICS® VR unbinds the locks, and, after a successful recovery, CICS® VR rebinds all locks.
  • Setting the RLS Recovery Required bit (RR bit) on and off in the ICF catalog. At the start of recovery, CICS® VR sets this bit on to prevent all other applications from accessing the data set while CICS® VR performs recovery. After a successful recovery, CICS® VR turns this bit off to allow other applications access to the data set.

Recovery failure

If a CICS® VR recovery fails for a VSAM sphere, CICS® VR does not bind the locks and the RR bit remains on, preventing all other applications from updating the sphere until a recovery is successful.
If you want to force access to a VSAM sphere that failed recovery, you can manually bind the locks and then turn the RR bit off by selecting the VSAM sphere from the CICS® VR VSAM sphere list and selecting the appropriate action from the Tools menu.

Recovery to a new name

If you have successfully recovered a VSAM sphere, but the recovery was performed against a VSAM sphere with a new name, the optional NEWNAME parameter is specified, CICS® VR assumes that the original VSAM sphere is still corrupted. CICS® VR therefore does not bind the locks or turn off the RR bit for the original VSAM sphere after a successful recovery to a new name.
If you want to force access to a VSAM sphere that was recovered to a new name, you can manually bind the locks and then turn the RR bit off by selecting the original VSAM sphere from the CICS® VR VSAM sphere list and selecting the appropriate action from the Tools menu.