To manually recover VSAM data sets, you must prepare several jobs. All the information you require must be quickly and easily available.
This can be a table that lists, for each base cluster, the alternate-index (AIX®) data set names and the path names. You need this information for the job that re-creates your VSAM sphere.
Finding the information when you need it at recovery time might be an alternative to maintaining this table. If the disk is not lost, you can use the access method services (AMS) LISTCAT command. Alternatively, you can use the printed output from the latest backup job for the sphere.
CEMT INQUIRE FILE (*) DSNAME(dsname)
You need this information during recovery, to close relevant files and to inquire about the status of files.
This can be a table that lists all VSAM base clusters, and shows which log or log stream the after-images are on. You need this information to help you find the relevant MVS™ log stream or archived log.
CEMT INQUIRE DSNAME(base dsname)
This information lets you find the correct backup volume and specify the required keywords in the recovery job.
In order to create a CICS VR forward recovery job manually for a VSAM sphere you must have the following information about the forward recovery log for the VSAM sphere that you want to recover.
The CICS VR archive utility report or the log of logs scan utility report provides most of this information. This information lets you find the correct archived logs or MVS log streams and specify their data set names in the recovery job.
For more information about the CICS VR archive utility see Using the CICS VR archive exits, and information about scanning the log of logs see Using selective scan.