Complex save strategy

You have a short save window, which means that there is little or no time when your system is not being used for interactive or batch work. A very short save window requires a complex strategy for saving and for recovery.

You use the same tools and techniques that are described for a medium save strategy, but at a greater level of detail. For example, you need to save specific critical files at specific times of the day or week. You should also consider using IBM Backup, Recovery and Media Services for i. BRMS can be used with any save strategy.

If you use save-while-active support, you can significantly reduce the amount of time that files are made unavailable. When the system establishes a checkpoint for all the objects being saved, the objects can be made available for use. You can use save-while-active commands with journaling and commitment control to simplify the recovery procedure. If you use the *LIB or *SYNCLIB values with the SAVACT parameter, you should use journaling to simplify recovery. If you use the *SYSDFN value with the SAVACT parameter, you must use commitment control if the library you are saving has related database objects. If you choose to use save-while-active support, make sure that you understand the process and monitor how well checkpoints are being established on your system.

You can also reduce the amount of time that files are unavailable by performing save operations on more than one device at a time, or by performing concurrent save operations. For example, you can save libraries to one device, folders to another device, and directories to third device, or you can save different sets of libraries or objects to different devices.

You can also use multiple devices simultaneously by performing a parallel save operation. To perform a parallel save operation, you need BRMS or an application that allows you to create the media definition objects.