MVS Stand-Alone Restore Procedure

A Stand-Alone Restore (SAR) is performed whenever the MVS system is both not operational and not ipl-able. SAR is done only by someone from Technical Services.

Preliminary Guidelines for Problem Reporting

Before any type of recovery action such as a Stand-Alone Restore is performed, as much information as possible must be gathered for the Systems staff to be able to debug the problem. This information is to be recorded in our REMEDY database. When MVS crashes, the operator should minimally record specific items. Some of these items are:

  1. What is on the master console? What message identifiers and messages are present?

  2. Is the console operational?

    3. Are there any "symptom" symbols in the lower left-hand corner (boxed 4 with an "A" over a dash connected to a solid box is normal; all other symbols are abnormal)?

    If console is not operational, is the alternate MVS console operational?

  3. What was the last MVS action by an operator andhow close was this action to the outage?

  4. Are there (or were there) any hardware device problem messages on the VM console?

Preparation for Initating the Stand-Alone Restore

General Information about Daily Backups:

Incremental backups are taken daily and full-volume backups are taken weekly. In addition, the sysres volume, OS9RES, is full-volume-dumped daily in job BKPRES00. Stand-Alone Restore uses only full-volume dumps.

Which Backup Cartridges Contain the Latest Full Volume Dump:

Backup listings may, depending on the time of day, be located in the first floor printer area (office 116C).

Job BKPRES00 is run daily and full-volume dumps the sysres volume. If you are restoring the sysres volume it is usually best to find the most recent BKPRES00 listing and determine which backup cartridges to use for the SAR. Copy the tape volume numbers (keep them in sequence) from this listing.

If you choose not to use BKPRES00 output to restore from job BKPFDR contains a listing of the latest FDR/ABR backup tapes for each dasd volume. Locate the dasd volume (to be restored). Copy the tape volume numbers (keep them in sequence) from the same line (top line) as the dasd volume; this is always the most recent full-volume backup (but it may be as much as a week old).

Ask the computer operator to retrieve the desired cartridges.

Location of Backup Cartridges:

Weekly full-volume dumps (i.e., the cartridges) are stored in a safe in Fronczak Hall. All other backups (including the daily BKPRES00 cartridges) are in the tape library.

Location of the SAR IPL TEXT:

MVSP03 (F1E), ADMN03 (F16), BSON33 (D03), RFP003 (FC2) & RF0003 (FE2) contain SAR IPL text.

SAR IPL text is also on the FDR/ABR installation tape maintained in office 335 with the FDR/ABR documentation. It is much easier and faster, however, to use the customized SAR IPL text on dasd.

PROCEDURE:

  1. Logon UBMVS from the UBVM logon screen (use console-area VM terminal) and enter the following commands. Type:

  2. At least one cartridge drive is required. 791 & 792 (991 & 992) are specified in the SAR IPL text but may be changed during the SAR IPL; they must be assigned to the SAR IPL from the UBVM console. On the UBVM console (if 991/992 are in-use, select different drives), type:

    3. Sometimes this command fails with a reason of "unauthorized", do not worry about it. Continue with:

    This keeps VM from trying to use the drives during the SAR.

  3. Insert the first of the cartridges being restored in the allocated tape drive.

  4. Load the stand-aline dump program. Type:

    This will take about 3 seconds and produces no messages.

  5. Go to the MVS console usually (A00) and reply with the requested information. All fields are described and documented in the FDR/ABR manual (located in office 335) in Section 30, beginning on page 301.

    You'll need to know the address of the dasd volume being restored to and the tape drive address, if ofther tan 791-792 / 991-992.

    Merely depress "ENTER" for options you do not wish to change.

    Console messages will tell when to mount subsequent tapes. A message on the console will indicate a successful restore.

  6. Return to the UBVM VM logged-on account UBMVS and type:

  7. Change the MVS IPL address if desired.

  8. Autolog UBMVS from the UBVM console.

    Copyright © 1997. All rights reserved.
    Created by Judith Thurston
    This file was last updated: 16 December 1997
    If you have any comments or suggestions please mail to: opnjudy@acsu.buffalo.edu

    This page has been accessed: times since November 13, 1997.