FASTCOPY of z/OS disk

[Tony Thigpen]

Has anyone used FASTCOPY "DUMP VOLUME" to backup and restore z/OS disks?

This specific customer has both a z/OS and a z/VSE CPU. Due to many
factors, their z/OS CPU is 'out of steam' while their z/VSE box has
plenty of time and CPU left. So, the question has been raised: "Can we
flash the z/OS volumes and let VSE back them up?"

Due to the fact that many of the z/OS volumes are half full, we don't
want to consider (yet) DUMP ALL, nor DDR.

--
Tony Thigpen

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[Kris Buelens]

z/VM has problems with z/OS disks since the arrival of indexed VTOCs (age ago already).  So z/VSE would it understand those?

Kris Buelens,
     --- freelance z/VM consultant, Belgium ---
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

[Robert Botsis The Kroger Co. via VSE-L]

Interesting idea. Too bad I can't test something like.

[Mick Poil]

A zOS vtoc does not have the dos bit,  there is a VVDS for VSAM and non-VSAM (?) dataset info, a BCS for a  VSAM catalogue a VTOC index, VSAM datasets are defined in the VTOC. Pretty much incompatible from memory. Even if you were able to back it up, how would you restore?                        Not forgetting format 5 vtoc records map free space in zOS. Possibly other things I forgot.

[Ken and Mary Meyer]

Unless you could clone the disk, there is no way. I wonder if a flash
copy could
do anything..

I have used DDR for that purpose. :)

Ken


snip..

[Robert Botsis The Kroger Co. via VSE-L]

If the z/OS volume did NOT contain a indeed VTOC it might still be possible

 

As for restoring it the only way I know is by using SA-RESTORE

[Kris Buelens]

This morning I also thougth about a solution based on Stand Alone tools:

If you've got z/VM you could IPL a SA version of a z/OS backup utitlity in one or a few virtual machines and take the backup that way.

To avoid needing someone to enter the backup commands on the console (if that's required), you could use SCIF, that is: send the console messages of the virtual machines to soms server running PROP, WAKEUP, Pipelines and you can automate  the console input for the SA backup tools.

(I was guessing you don't run some z/OS on the CEC that has CPU cycles available, else that z/OS could be used, but you would have thought of tis yourself).)

Kris Buelens,
     --- freelance z/VM consultant, Belgium ---
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

[Tony Thigpen]

DDR would work, but it copies all tracks, even those not in use. When a
pack is only 20% used, there is still residual data on the drive in the
unused tracks that has to be transfered and put on the tape.

I considered that if I had a utility to low-values all unused space on
the drive, plus if I tell DDR to compress inside CMS, then I would only
have to transfer read the data and could skip the write to tape. But(!),
then the clear-disk utility would spend just as much I-O to erase the
disk. No real savings.

Tony Thigpen

Kris Buelens wrote on 10/11/2015 08:04 AM:
> This morning I also thougth about a solution based on Stand Alone tools:
> If you've got z/VM you could IPL a SA version of a z/OS backup utitlity
> in one or a few virtual machines and take the backup that way.
>
> To avoid needing someone to enter the backup commands on the console (if
> that's required), you could use SCIF, that is: send the console messages
> of the virtual machines to soms server running PROP, WAKEUP, Pipelines
> and you can automate the console input for the SA backup tools.
> (I was guessing you don't run some z/OS on the CEC that has CPU cycles
> available, else that z/OS could be used, but you would have thought of
> tis yourself).)
>
>
> Kris Buelens,
> --- freelance z/VM consultant, Belgium ---
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 2015-10-11 12:53 GMT+02:00 Robert Botsis The Kroger Co. via VSE-L

> <vs...@lists.lehigh.edu <mailto:vs...@lists.lehigh.edu>>:

>
> If the z/OS volume did NOT contain a indeed VTOC it might still be
> possible
> As for restoring it the only way I know is by using SA-RESTORE
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mick Poil <michael...@gmail.com
> <mailto:michael...@gmail.com>>
> To: rbotsis <rbo...@aol.com <mailto:rbo...@aol.com>>; VSE
> Discussion List <vs...@lists.lehigh.edu <mailto:vs...@lists.lehigh.edu>>
> Sent: Sat, Oct 10, 2015 4:00 pm
> Subject: Re: FASTCOPY of z/OS disk
>
> A zOS vtoc does not have the dos bit, there is a VVDS for VSAM and
> non-VSAM (?) dataset info, a BCS for a VSAM catalogue a VTOC index,
> VSAM datasets are defined in the VTOC. Pretty much incompatible from
> memory. Even if you were able to back it up, how would you restore?
> Not forgetting format 5 vtoc records map
> free space in zOS. Possibly other things I forgot.
>
> On Sunday, October 11, 2015, Robert Botsis The Kroger Co. via VSE-L

> VS...@lists.lehigh.edu <mailto:VS...@lists.lehigh.edu>

[Frank M. Ramaekers]

FASTCOPY? (Flash copy knows not of VTOCs nor any FS.)

Frank M. Ramaekers Jr.

-----Original Message-----
From: VSE-L
[mailto:vse-l-bounces+framaekers=ailif...@lists.lehigh.edu] On Behalf
Of Ken and Mary Meyer
Sent: Saturday, October 10, 2015 3:54 PM
To: VSE Discussion List
Subject: Re: FASTCOPY of z/OS disk

[Ken and Mary Meyer]

Exactly, so a FLASH copy could deal with the backup, but then you would need to
decide how to handle the raw data from the flash.

Ken