EXEC EXPUTIL BACKUP Message FILE EXPCARC OPEN ERROR X'A8'(168) ... if I shutdown Explore/CICS no error message

Products

• Explore Performance Management for z/VSE

Issue/Introduction

I have a z/VSE 6.1 system with CA-EXPLORE/CICS 7.0 02 0611 SP4.

We had an issue this morning which I have not seen before.  We ran a weekly backup of the EXPCARC file and we received message:

FILE EXPCARC OPEN  ERROR X'A8'(168)

I checked and there were no batch jobs running against any Explore/VSE or Explore/CICS files.  I tried to rerun the weekly backup of the EXPCARC file and encountered the same error.  I then shutdown the Explore/CICS partition, ran the weekly backup, and it worked!  I am perplexed, the manual states:

Unicenter CA-Explore for CICS can be running when you execute the BACKUP utility option. It can continue to collect statistics during the backup.

Normally I would write this off as a one-off fluke, but, on another VSE system with completely different files, the Explore/CICS weekly backup failed there as well.  Same circumstances; no batch jobs running against any Explore/VSE or Explore/CICS files.  I brought down Explore/CICS, reran the job, and success!

We have a THIRD VSE system with Explore/CICS ... guess what ... no errors there with the Explore/CICS weekly backup.  The JCL on all systems is the same (with the exception of the file id of the tape output).  We use standard labels for Explore/VSE and Explore/CICS files on all three VSE systems.

 

Environment

Release : 7.0

Component : CA Explore Performance Management for z/VSE

Resolution

Usually, this is caused by the JCL not being correct. Please check the following:

(1)  The MASTER(....) parm must be correctly specified in the backup  utility - this needs to be the Master name as specified in $MIT  and this must be the DOS job name.                                      
(2)  Please ensure that the master partition is run in a separate partition and NOT attached as a subtask of Explore-VSE.                 
(3)  Please ensure that the backup is run on the SAME machine as the Master partition.                          

 

Typically, topic #1 is the cause. Once corrected all should run properly