Backing up the CA Dispatch IDMS database and LDS files

Products

• Dispatch Output Mgmt

Issue/Introduction

Besides the backup utilities supplied with the CA Dispatch product, is it OK to use other utilities such as ADRDSSU, FDR or HSM to backup the LDS and DATABASE files as well as the CA Dispatch associated LIBRARIES?

Environment

Release: DISPAX00200-11.7-Dispatch
Component:

Resolution

Yes, utilities that work based on the specification of a high level qualifier such as as ADRDSSU, FDR and/or HSM are OK to use for this type of thing. 

The following items should be backed up on a regular basis:

1. The Dispatch DATABASE files.
2. The corresponding LDS files.
3. The Dispatch running/execution LIBRARIES.

However, there are some KEY points to keep in mind to ensure that you have a "good" backup and a successful recovery process:

 

• Run the backup ONLY after a clean shutdown of all of the associated CA Dispatch tasks including CADSDISP, CADZSPLx and CADZSAPx

 

• Running the backup against both the LDS and DATABASE files at the same time is the best way to keep the LDS and DATABASE files in sync. Ideally, at the time the backup is run, there should be no "unprocessed" data in any of the CA Dispatch RIDF queues (RPI,MSG,ARCH,ARCHDUP,ARCHRES) and there should be no active bundles.

 

• The most important KEY to successfully recovering the files is that the backup/restore process that you use restores everything to the SAME TYPE of DASD device (i.e. 3380 to 3380 OR 3390 to 3390), and that none of the DCB attributes (LRECL,BLKSIZE,RECFM,# of blocks allocated/initialized, etc...) get changed. All DCB attributes for the LDS and DATABASE files MUST remain the same.

 

• When restoring, the NAME of the LDS files MUST remain the same.