RE: Backup question

The Operations Manager had told me, in his words, that we needed to use Go SAVE
to continue to receive support. Exactly what was said, and why, I was not
included on that. My curiosity was definitely peaked. For one thing, how
could IBM determine that our backup was NOT performed via option 21? I suppose
that some object used date could be checked. But, as far as the content of the
backup itself, it would seem to be the same no matter which method was used. Which is why I am confused and asking what seemed a no-brainer question.

John McKee

Quoting "Ingvaldson, Scott" <scott.ingvaldson@xxxxxxxxxx>:

I was told that IBM pretty much demanded that Go SAVE option 21 be

used instead.

What? Who told you that? IBM might recommend the option 21 save but
they would never "demand" it. Many, many installations cannot ever run
an option 21 save due to the needs of their business or application.

It would appear that you have all that you need for a full system
restore per "Are you saving the Right Stuff?"
http://wiki.midrange.com/index.php/Are_You_Saving_The_Right_Stuff%3F

I would expect that you could even run a native Option 21 restore on a
tape created with this backup, assuming "appropriate options" are truly
used. You *might* need to specify Prompt for commands: YES, it's been a
while since I've tested this. As with any and all backup and restore
procedures this should be tested and documented.

If you want to analyze the IBM full system backup do RTVCLSRC
PGM(QMNSAVE)

Regards,

Scott Ingvaldson
Senior IBM Support Specialist
Fiserv Midwest


-----Original Message-----
From: John McKee [mailto:jmmckee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 9:01 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Backup question

Our software package is provided by HBOC. They have a number of
commands that are based on IBM commands, with subtle changes. They
differentiate them by prefacing their versions with a 'B'.

Using their commands, a full save of the system was accomplished with
BBACKUP.
This command brings up a number of options. Ultimately, a set of user
defined commands is run. In our case, the commands were: SAVSYS,
SAVLIB, SAVDLO, and SAV, with appropriate options.

I was told that IBM pretty much demanded that Go SAVE option 21 be used
instead.

According to the command help, the only commands that appear different
are that the controlling subsystem is ended and restarted. That process
was performed by operators when BBACKUP command was used.

Is there something else that is going on that is different from the
scripted backup? One reason to ask is that the BBACKUP command logs
start and stop time of each step - which is sometimes an issue.

Thanks,

John McKee


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