RE: Backup question

I'm guessing that was somewhat of a miscommunication. SupportLine will
not support the programming in a custom backup that you or anyone else
has written. In other words, if you don't save the whole system in your
backups you are on your own. IBM will support the commands you use and
the function in those save and restore commands but they won't write you
a custom backup.

No one can help you restore data that you failed to save in the first
place.

The Ops Man probably told support "HBOC has a number of commands based
on IBM commands, with subtle changes." And support would respond "that
would need to be supported by HBOC."

When it comes to Backup and Restore procedures the answer is: Test,
retest and test again. And document. So verify that you can use IBM
commands to restore from your backup and that you can find everything
you need on your tapes. In the end that's your (or your admin's)
responsibility anyway.

Regards,

Scott Ingvaldson
Senior IBM Support Specialist
Fiserv Midwest


-----Original Message-----
From: John McKee [mailto:jmmckee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2008 1:09 PM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: 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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