To ensure the integrity of VSAM spheres, CICS® VR runs a key set of RLS protocols
during recovery processing of RLS-accessed VSAM data sets.
The protocols operate in these ways:
- Using the Unbind and Bind services to transfer the RLS locks to the recovered
sphere. At the start of recovery, CICS VR unbinds the locks, and, after a
successful recovery, CICS VR rebinds all locks.
- Setting the RLS Recovery Required bit (RR bit) on and off in the ICF catalog.
At the start of recovery, CICS VR sets this bit on to prevent all other applications
from accessing the data set while CICS VR performs recovery. After a successful
recovery, CICS VR
turns this bit off to allow other applications access to the data set.
Recovery failure
If a CICS VR recovery fails for a VSAM sphere, CICS VR
does not bind the locks and the RR bit remains on, preventing all other applications
from updating the sphere until a recovery is successful.
If you want to force access to a VSAM sphere that failed recovery,
you can manually bind the locks and then turn the RR bit off by selecting
the VSAM sphere from the CICS VR VSAM sphere list and selecting the appropriate
action from the Tools menu.
Recovery to a new name
If you have successfully recovered
a VSAM sphere, but the recovery was performed against a VSAM sphere with a
new name, the optional NEWNAME parameter is specified, CICS VR assumes that the original VSAM
sphere is still corrupted. CICS VR therefore does not bind the locks or turn off
the RR bit for the original VSAM sphere after a successful recovery to a new
name.
If you want to force access to a VSAM sphere that was recovered to
a new name, you can manually bind the locks and then turn the RR bit off by
selecting the original VSAM sphere from the CICS VR VSAM sphere list and selecting
the appropriate action from the Tools menu.