CA Ramis BACKCICS Utility to Back Up Databases in CICS

Products

• Ramis Reporter

Issue/Introduction

While CA Ramis databases must be backed up using the Ramis BACKUP utility, the BACKUP utility is not permitted when any concurrent user or batch job has acquired a lock on the database.
This is to ensure that no updates are made to the database during the backup process. The use of the BACKUP utility is thus inhibited from execution when in a Ramis CICS session.

 

Environment

Release:  7.4

CA Ramis
CA Ramis Reporter

Cause

There may be occasions when a backup is desired for a database that is open in an active CICS region, such as for those applications that need 24-by-7 availability.

Resolution

A special utility, BACKCICS, is provided to allow for this. The BACKCICS utility does not require an exclusive lock on the database.

How to Set Up and Run BACKCICS

The BACKCICS data set (RAMBACKU) that will be the target backup must be allocated with DCB attributes RECFM=VB, LRECL=7204, and BLKSIZE=7208. Unlike the BACKUP utility, BACKCICS requires that the amount of space allocated for RAMBACKU must be the same as the total amount of disk space currently used by the database. The number of database blocks written to the BACKCICS data set will be equal to the number of blocks indicated by the BASESIZE field, as shown by the QUERY STAT command. This includes all blocks that are AVAILABLE in the database. (This is different from the process used by the BACKUP utility where AVAILABLE blocks are not backed up).

After allocating the RAMBACKU data set, the Ramis CICS administrator needs to make it available to the user that will run the BACKCICS utility. The BACKCICS data set (RAMBACKU) must be defined as a file in the Ramis CICS Interface File Information table (USERINFO) and assigned to the user who will perform the backup in the Ramis CICS Interface User Information table (USERINFO). Refer to the publication CICS Interface System Administrator Guide for instructions on adding or modifying files and users accessible to the CICS Interface.

To run BACKCICS, the Ramis user in CICS must first ensure that they are using (command USE) the database they wish to back up. Then, simply enter the command:

BACKCICS

After the backup, the BACKCICS utility displays a message indicating the return code and the number of blocks backed up:

RETURNCODE=         n AND BLOCKS_BACKEDUP = nnnnnnn

Only a return code of 0 should be accepted.

The BACKCICS data set can be read with the RELOAD command in a Ramis batch job or TSO session to restore a database from the backup copy. RELOAD is not permitted in a Ramis CICS session.

Additional Information

Note: It is the responsibility of the user to ensure that, for the duration of the BACKCICS backup process, another user or job is not updating the database.

For more information on CA Ramis BACKUP, RELOAD, USE, and BACKCICS, refer to Utilities publication.
For more information about the CA Ramis CICS Interface, refer to the publication CICS Interface System Administrator Guide

The CA Ramis Version 7.4 set of documentation can be found at CA Ramis Bookshelves and PDFs.