What’s New in Rocket Mainstar Database Backup & Recovery for Db2 v3.1

This release adds IBM’s Db2 11 for z/OS support.  Db2 11 for z/OS provides many benefits, including saving money, saving time, and reducing costs. IBM states enhanced continuous availability, scalability, and security for business-critical information. Its sophisticated critical business analytics, along with simpler, faster migration and deep integration between Db2 and System z earned the popular adoption of Db2 IT departments all over the world.

Global variables

Description and value:

• A global variable can be set in a connection and it holds its value through that connection. Global variables can be used to pass values to other users of the same Db2 connection. They are defined much like a data type (i.e. char, integer, timestamp) and are tracked in new catalog table spaces and tables.
• New tables SYSIBM.SYSVARIABLEAUTH, SYSIBM.SYSVARIABLES_DESC, SYSIBM.SYSVARIABLES, and SYSIBM.SYSVARIABLES_TEXT are introduced with this change.

Support

• Database Backup and Recovery Disaster Recovery from Image Copies process for Db2 11 is updated to recover the new table spaces containing the tables above. They are:

  -Table space - SYSTSVAD - SYSTSVAR - SYSTSVAT - SYSTSVAU

  -Indexes - DSNOVX03 - DSNOVX01 - DSNOVX02 - DSNVAX01 - DSNVAX02 - DSNVAX03

Extended RBA Support

• Description and value:
  • Extended support for a 10-byte RBA/LRSN. This added support helps many non-data sharing customers who are approaching the highest RBA/LRSN fairly quickly. In addition it can help many data sharing customers who were seeing multiple log records with the same LRSN.
• Support:
  • Database Backup and Recovery v3.1 is updated to handle the extended RBA. Fields that track, display, or use RBA/LRSN information are extended to handle the increase. Display and input panels allowing for RBA/LRSN information are increased to handle the additional information.

Clean up pseudo-deleted index entries

• Description and value:
  • The function automatically cleans up committed pseudo-deleted index entries. This enhancement can reduce the size of some indexes, which can improve SQL performance and reduce the need to run the REORG INDEX utility.
  • New catalog table space SYSTSIXC is introduced with this change.
• Support:
  • Database Backup and Recovery Disaster Recovery from Image Copies process for Db2 11 is updated to recover the new catalog table space.

Online schema enhancements

• Description and value:
  • Db2 11 introduced several online schema enhancements that allowed users to alter objects and materialize those alters with an ONLINE REORG. When this was done, you could no longer recover to a point in time (PIT) prior to the REORG job.
  • This enhancement removes this restriction. Several new catalog columns have been added that are used to save the old properties and the objects get altered back on a recovery using this information.
  • New catalog table space SYSTSOBX is introduced with this change
• Support:
  • Disaster Recovery from Image Copies is updated to make sure the new table space is recovered.

Extended Optimization client

• Description and value:
  • This enhancement improves the Optimizer’s ability to identify the access path with the least expensive cost. When multiple access path solutions are available, this enhancement also evaluates the runtime overhead associated with each plan.
• Support:
  • Database Backup and Recovery Disaster Recovery processes for Db2 11 are updated to recover the new table spaces introduced with this change.

    -Table space - DSNDB06.SYSTSQRE - DSN- DB06.SYSTSQRS

    -Indexes - SYSIBM. DSNQEX01/02 - SYSIBM. DSNQLX01/02

Multi-task the offload and object collection process

• Description and value:
  • Customers who are backing up large systems, can experience improvements in elapsed runtime for the System Level Backup process.
  • Improves overall elapsed time by running the offload and the object discovery in parallel
• Support:
  • Allows users to defer the collection of object level information from Recovery Expert backup step to the offload step
  • It shortens the backup window time by performing the object discovery during offload
  • Uses the new control card ‘DEFER-OBJ-COLLECTION’ to the ARYIN DD * in the backup job.

Enhance OFFLOAD and RESTORE processing by spawning multiple jobs and performing dynamic volume selection

• Description and value:
  • Reduces the amount of time that is required to perform SLB OFFLOAD and RESTORE from an offloaded SLB.
• Support:
  • This enhancement provides an overall reduction in the wall clock time required to do an OFFLOAD or RESTORE from offload by increasing the total number of tasks which can process and also by allowing the work to be spread across multiple jobs and LPARs.
  • The Master job now submits the second type of jobs (multijobs) and monitors their progress and completion.  Once all multijobs are completed, the Master job verifies that all volumes have been successfully processed and generates the necessary reports.  There are three new parameters which are generated by the ISPF interface that control the multijob processing:
    • USE-MULTIJOB – activates multijob processing
    • MULTIJOB-PREFIX – optional parameter which specifies a jobname prefix for naming the multiple jobs which are spawned
    • LPAR-LIST – required parameter (if USE-MULTIJOB is specified) which specifies the guidelines for submitting the multiple jobs.

Add option to ignore objects that are in RW,UTUT status

• Description and value:
  • When executing a System Level Backup, DBR could stop processing with the message indicating that there were objects in a restricted state found.
  • In busy shops, utilities can be running at all times, and customers need to be able to run the backup job at the same time as utility jobs.
  • This enhancement allows a parm lib change to bypass some restricted statuses.
     
• Support:
  • There is a new option ‘BYPASS_RESTRICTED’ added to the DBR#PARM member of SAMPLIB library that allows you to ignore objects that are in RW,UTUT status when running System Level Backup.
     

Enhancements to Coordinated Disaster Recovery for Db2 and IMS

• Description and value:
  • Many applications on the mainframe have transactions that span Db2 and IMS databases. This feature provides support for the coordinated recovery of the Db2 objects and IMS databases that are used by an application.
     
• Support:
  • Identification of times where all the Db2 objects and IMS databases used by an application are in a consistent state.
  • Analysis of the logs to find quiet times for the application, and builds the jobs to recover.
  • Streamlines the process of recovering applications that use both DBMSs.
     

Option to ignore archives in subsystem analysis

• Description and value:
  • When Subsystem Analysis executes as part of a backup it issues warnings when archive logs are not on volumes that are in the scope of the backup.  This is an acceptable situation in some shops.  The many messages being issued when this situation arises could mask a real problem. 
  • This enhancement gives the user the ability to optionally ignore warnings for archive logs.  Also, as part of subsystem analysis and configuration, we list volumes that contains the archive volumes and archive volume catalog.
  • This also gives the user the ability to not list these volumes only if they contain archive log volumes or the catalog for archive log datasets.
     
• Support:
  • A new option ARCHIVE_WARNINGS is being added DBR#PARM member with a DEFAULT set to Y.

Flexible profile management

• Description and VALUE:
  • This enhancement allows the user to set the profile creator to anything they want when the profile is created.
  • Also allows a method of changing the profile creator in the event that there is no userid that matches the profile creator and it needs to be changed.
     
• Support:
  • A new parameter, ADMIN_USERID, is being added to the DBR#PARM member to allow the customer to define an administration userid which is allowed to change the creator for any profile.
  • The new parameter is placed in the BACKUP_AND_RECOVERY section.  This parameter is optional but if specified, the user ID specified in this parameter has permission to change the creator of a system backup, object, coordinated, or disaster recovery profile. The user with this ID can change the creator during a rename of the profile. The profile must be updatable.