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Introducing Recovery Simulation

  • 1.  Introducing Recovery Simulation

    Broadcom Employee
    Posted Nov 11, 2019 08:41 AM

    As a DBA, we often face the hardest questions on a recovery scenario, whether it's for auditing, testing or an emergency situation:

    • I need you to tell me with all certainty that you can recover to X point in time. (Where X is a random time or random previous copy).
      • And if you can… then how long is it going to take?

     

    But before answering to that question, as a DBA we need to answer this first:

    • What do I need to recover to an X point?
      • Do I have all of that?

     

    What if we told you that you can do all that while your target object remains online? That's correct, you can now assess this situation online with your target objects untouched.

     

    With our latest feature from CA Fast Recover, we can provide the answers to your concerns in those scenarios. With Recovery Simulation, you can now safely answer and obtain more information:

    • Whether you want to know how much time it will take to recover your objects.
    • Whether you want to list the resources needed for a particular recovery.
    • Whether you need to prove that an existing JCL actually works.
    • Whether you need to prove in an auditing that you're ready to recover to any point mentioned.
    All of this is performed while the original Db2 objects remain untouched and there are no modifications to the Db2 catalog from this.

    How do you use it? Simple:

    • Take a CA Fast Recover JCL statement.
    • Include the following keywords into the SYSIN: PREVIEW SIMULATE.

    Example:

    //SYSIN DD *                                     
      RECOVER TABLESPACE MYDB.MYTS  DSNUM ALL   
      TOCOPY HLQ.DB.ICS.MYTS             
      PREVIEW SIMULATE                               
    /*

     

    What happens when I run it?

    We recover a shadow object with the specifications provided in the SYSIN. Keep in mind that since the original Db2 object is untouched, not all keywords from CA Fast Recover are compatible with Recovery Simulation. For the full details and listing, please refer to the official documentation in http://techdocs.broadcom.com/

     

    In the SYSOUT messages, you will see key differences within the messages:

     

    At the end of the processing, you'll notice that we have actually recovered into a shadow object, which acts as the evidence and it can be further explored by other utilities and methods as a means of recovery proof.

    If you would like to learn more about Recovery Simulation or if you want to discuss how we can meet your needs, we're here for you.

     

     

     

     



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    Javier Estrada Benavides
    Product Owner for Backup and Recovery Suite for Db2 for z/OS
    Mainframe Division | Broadcom
    javier.estradabenavides@broadcom.com
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