Using DFSMShsm as your backup utility

If your VSAM spheres are managed by DFSMS/MVS, DFSMShsm logical backups provide the most support with the least amount of effort required to set up for use with CICS® VR.

DFSMShsm logical backups can be created for an entire VSAM sphere, not just the base cluster. CICS VR recovery and change accumulation fully support DFSMShsm logical backups. CICS VR can dynamically query DFSMShsm's inventory (BCDS) to retrieve and display a list of all DFSMShsm logical backups that exist for VSAM spheres. In this case CICS VR server is not required.

Note: Because DFSMShsm's inventory contains backup timestamps in the LOCAL format only, this method could be used for recovery with timestamps in the LOCAL format.

Additionally, CICS VR fully supports DFSMShsm logical backups that are created while the data set remains online and open to CICS for update, using the backup-while-open (BWO) facility. Using the BWO facility with DFSMShsm could allow you to increase the amount of backups taken for your VSAM spheres, while decreasing the time your spheres are unavailable to CICS for update. See Understanding the backup-while-open (BWO) facility for more information.