Change Data Capture (CDC) recovery center

Mainframe CDC Monitoring, Recovery, and Validation Resource Center 

Your Change Data Capture (CDC) pipeline doesn't have to fail to create risk. Delays, gaps, latency issues, and small replication problems can quietly undermine data quality, operational processes, and trust in the data used for analytics and AI long before a failure occurs. This resource center provides practical guidance across the full CDC recovery lifecycle, from identifying early warning signs and addressing emerging issues to preparing for recovery and building the business case for improvement.
 
 
 
 
 


 

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Where are you in the CDC recovery journey?

 

CDC Recovery Journey

Find the guidance you need

01 MONITOR

Your CDC pipeline isn't down. Are you sure it's healthy?

A running CDC pipeline can still be headed toward failure. Learn how to identify growing lag, stalled processing, stale-data exposure, and changing recovery conditions before a small issue turns into a missed SLA, outage, major recovery event, or business disruption.

KEY QUESTIONS AT THIS STAGE

  • Is replication running, and is it actually keeping up?
Insight

Your CDC Pipeline Isn't Down. Are You Sure It's Healthy? 

A running CDC pipeline can still be heading toward a recovery problem.

/en-us/insights/cdc-pipeline-isnt-down-are-you-sure-healthy

02 ASSESS

Before you restart, do you know what the failure affected?

Before you restart, understand exactly what the failure affected. Define the incident window, identify affected data and downstream consumers, quantify the gap, and determine the most effective recovery approach.

KEY QUESTIONS AT THIS STAGE

  • Do you have enough information to choose the right recovery path?
Insight

Before You Restart, Do You Know What the Failure Affected? 

Assess the data gap, downstream exposure, and recovery constraints before choosing what happens next. 

/en-us/insights/you-restart-do-you-know-what-failure-affected

03 RECOVER

The most dangerous CDC recovery mistakes often happen after the initial failure.

Before restarting replication, answer seven critical questions about pipeline state, source history, catch-up requirements, recovery options, and downstream impact to validate your recovery approach and avoid turning a manageable failure into a major recovery event.

KEY QUESTIONS AT THIS STAGE

  • How do we know we're choosing the right recovery approach?
Insight

The Most Dangerous CDC Recovery Mistake Happens After the Failure

Before you restart, answer seven questions that determine whether recovery succeeds or creates a bigger problem.

/en-us/insights/most-dangerous-cdc-recovery-mistake-happens-after-failure

04 VALIDATE

The pipeline is running again. Can you trust the data?

Recovery isn't complete just because replication is running again. Learn how to investigate discrepancies, validate recovery results, and verify that recovered data is complete, current, and trustworthy before declaring the incident resolved.

KEY QUESTIONS AT THIS STAGE

  • What evidence supports the all-clear decision?
Insight

The Pipeline Is Running Again. Can You Trust the Data?

The backlog may be clearing. The dashboard is green. Records are moving again. The bridge call is already ending. But one question remains unanswered: Can we trust the target?

/en-us/insights/pipeline-running-again-can-you-trust-data

05 IMPROVE

When does a CDC recovery problem become a platform problem?

Recovering your Change Data Capture (CDC) pipeline shouldn't feel like a one-off project every time. Learn how to recognize when recurring recovery delays, manual effort, and reliance on specialists point to a broader platform issue.

KEY QUESTIONS AT THIS STAGE

  • Is this an incident or a pattern?
Insight

When Does a CDC Recovery Problem Become a Platform Problem? 

Every replication team experiences interruptions. The real question is how much effort, uncertainty, and risk follows afterward.

/en-us/insights/cdc-recovery-problem-become-platform-problem

06 EVALUATE

How do you know a CDC vendor's recovery claims will hold up?

Recovery capabilities are easy to promise and hard to prove. Learn which recovery scenarios vendors should demonstrate, and how to structure a proof of concept that validates recovery performance under real-world failure conditions.

KEY QUESTIONS AT THIS STAGE

  • Has the vendor demonstrated their platform can recover from real-world failures?
Insight

How Do You Know a CDC Vendor’s Recovery Claims Will Hold Up? 

Test restart state, catch-up, validation, replay behavior, diagnostics, and recovery limits before choosing a CDC platform. 

/en-us/insights/how-do-you-know-cdc-vendors-recovery-claims-will-hold
Worksheet

Worksheet CDC Recovery POC Evaluation Worksheet 

Use evidence, limitations, and configuration dependencies to support the decision.

/sites/default/files/media/documents/cdc-recovery-poc-evaluation-worksheet.xlsx

07 JUSTIFY

Recovery risks are obvious during an incident and hard to explain afterward.

Learn how to translate Change Data Capture (CDC) recovery issues into operational risk, business impact, measurable cost, and investment outcomes management can evaluate.

KEY QUESTIONS AT THIS STAGE

  • What is the cost of carrying this risk versus addressing it? 
Insight

How to Build a Business Case for CDC Recovery Investment

Translate recovery gaps into business risk, cost of inaction, alternatives, and measurable investment outcomes. 

/en-us/insights/how-build-business-case-cdc-recovery-investment
Worksheet

CDC Recovery Business Case Worksheet 

Translate CDC recovery evidence into risk, cost, alternatives, measurable outcomes, and an executive recommendation.

/sites/default/files/media/documents/cdc-recovery-business-case-worksheet.xlsx

CDC recovery issues rarely exist in isolation.

The manual effort, specialist dependency, custom processes, and operational inefficiencies that complicate recovery often reflect the broader challenges of delivering mainframe data across the enterprise. Use the Mainframe Data Operations Cost Calculator to estimate the broader operational impact and identify opportunities for improvement.

Calculator

Common CDC Recovery Terms

TermDefinition
Replication LagThe elapsed time or processing distance between current source activity and the data reflected at the target.
BacklogAccumulated changes that have not yet been processed or applied.
Retained Source HistoryLogs, journals, archived logs, or other source information that may be required during recovery.
Recovery WindowThe time period affected by a replication interruption that must be analyzed, recovered, or validated.    
Restart StateSaved processing information that helps determine where replication may resume.
Catch-Up The process of closing the gap between source activity and target state.
ResynchronizationA process used to reconcile source and target data when standard catch-up is insufficient.
 ValidationThe process of confirming recovered data is complete, current, and trustworthy before declaring recovery complete.            
Retained Source HistoryLogs, journals, archived logs, or other source information that may be required during recovery.
RBARelative Byte Address, a Db2 for z/OS log-position concept used in recovery investigations.
LRSNLog Record Sequence Number used in Db2 for z/OS data-sharing environments.

About This Resource Center

Content in this CDC Recovery Center is written and reviewed by Rocket Software's Data Replicate & Sync product, engineering, and solution engineering teams.

Rocket Data Replicate & Sync (RDRS) supports bidirectional enterprise replication across mainframe, distributed, and cloud environments. Evaluate RDRS using the same standards described throughout this resource center

The important question isn’t simply whether replication can restart. It’s whether the operating team can understand what happened, recover confidently, and establish when the resulting data is ready to trust.

Questions you may have

View all CDC recovery guidance