Working with HALDB partitions and DEDB areas

FM/IMS can process data stored in HALDBs (High Availability Large Databases) and DEDBs (Fast Path Data Entry Databases). Data in these databases is stored in partitions (HALDB) and areas (DEDB).

A HALDB partition or a DEDB area might not be available, for example, when it is stopped so that IMS utilities can be run, or when there are errors associated with the partition or area. However, this does not prevent FM/IMS from processing data in partitions or areas that are available.

If FM/IMS encounters an unavailable partition or area while you are browsing or editing, an unavailable partition/area line is displayed to show that data is unavailable. If the data subsequently becomes available, FM/IMS replaces the unavailable partition/area line with the data. If you are doing a global edit change (such as a CHANGE ALL), then the change is not applied to data that is not available.

If FM/IMS encounters an unavailable partition or area during the execution of a load or extract job, FM/IMS continues processing the database, loading from or extracting to available partitions or areas. The job completes with a return code of 4, and the report from the job indicates that data was unavailable while processing the database. If you wish to load or extract the complete database, you have to take steps to make all data available, and then rerun the load or extract.

If FM/IMS encounters an unavailable partition or area during the execution of a batch print job, FM/IMS prints an unavailable partition/area line and continues processing the database. The job completes with a return code of 4, to indicate that data was unavailable while processing the database.

The user specifies the action required when FM/IMS encounters an unavailable HALDB partition or DEDB area while running an IMS batch (IEB) job. If FM/IMS encounters an unavailable HALDB partition or DEDB area while running the DELIMS, GETIMS, ISRTIMS or REPLIMS functions, the function receives a return code of 8 and the ISPF variable FMSTATUS has an IMS status code of:

  • FH for an unavailable DEDB area.
  • BA for an unavailable HALDB partition.