IBM APAR re: “time out” condition related to LOCK and UNLOCK request processing

IBM has issued APAR OA52691 to address  a “time out” condition related to LOCK and UNLOCK request processing which may potentially cause Catalog Address Space issues.  IBM APAR OA52691 provides specific details relating to the error condition for z/OS 2.2.

 

How does this impact users of T-REX for ICF catalog management?

IMPORT and DRIMPORT Commands

Because T-REX IMPORT BCS and DRIMPORT BCS commands issue LOCK and UNLOCK requests by default, we recommend that you employ the LOCK(NO) keyword for T-REX IMPORT BCS and DRIMPORT BCS commands to suppress the default behavior until the related IBM maintenance is installed on your systems.  Other T-REX commands also support LOCK as an option (ALTER, EXPORT, and SCRUB).  We recommend that those options be avoided until the IBM maintenance is installed.

Please consult IBM support for details of this APAR.

 

 


DINO Catalog Whitepapers


 

Catalog Basics: Part 9 – SMF Forward Recovery

By Blair Svihra, Dino-Software  (10-minute read)
When ICF catalogs were first introduced in the early 1980’s, Integrated Catalog Facility Recovery Unit (ICFRU) was IBM’s recommended tool to recover a damaged catalog. An Access Method Services EXPORT of the broken catalog was required as the starting point for the recovery. Snapshots of catalog records, in the form of SMF records, are applied to the EXPORT to “up-level” the catalog to create a new “recovered” EXPORT copy. ICFRU provides no support for the recovery of a VVDS.This whitepaper discusses the use of SMF data for Integrated Catalog Facility (ICF) catalog recovery and its complexities.  Request PDF version of full whitepaper

 


Catalog Basics: Part 1 – Catalog Components

By Blair Svihra, Dino-Software  (10-minute read)
It could be argued that the catalog environment could be expanded to include a discussion including any one of the five major Tape Management Catalogs (TMCs) and/or IBM’s Hierarchical Storage Manager (HSM) offering, but these topics can be discussed in detail in a later white-paper. A catalog allows access to a data set without having to know its physical location.  This whitepaper, the first in a series of in-depth technical discussions about ICF Catalog Basics, looks at the catalog BCS, VVDS, and VTOC components and how they are related.  Request PDF version of full whitepaper


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