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Overview of using RUV for disaster recovery

This section provides a brief overview of disaster recovery, discusses some considerations to keep in mind, and summarizes the process of managing a disaster recovery with the RUV product.

The focus of the information in this section is on the disaster recovery of RUV and VSAM data sets. Disaster recovery in the overall OS/390 environment is mentioned briefly only as an aid to understanding how RUV fits into an overall plan. This section assumes that your disaster recovery site is already prepared for execution of necessary system software and utilities (including RUV).

An overview of disaster recovery

Disaster recovery consists of the preparations and procedures for resuming critical data processing tasks at a remote site if a disaster (such as a fire, flood, or storm) causes a lengthy outage at the home site. The goal is to have all necessary VSAM files available and all necessary applications running again in the least amount of elapsed time (given the resources at the disaster recovery site), with the least loss of data and with complete data integrity.

Scope and situation

Disaster recovery is different in scope from application recovery. With disaster recovery, the amount of data to recover is massive because most or all of the databases at your site might need to be recovered. The disaster recovery site might have subtle differences from the home site, differences that may cause problems with the recovery.

The business of the entire company may be halted while disaster recovery is performed. Disaster recovery drills are often highly visible in the corporate environment, adding the stress of executive observation of your activities. And while no actual recovery is a relaxing, enjoyable event, a real disaster recovery may be made even more stressful by concerns about the safety of lives and property that remain at the home site.

General tools for successful disaster recovery

Successful disaster recovery involves careful planning, knowledge of your processing environment, commitment of time and resources, and a set of tools and utilities. OS/390 and RUV provide basic functions and utilities for tasks such as taking backups, logging changes, allocating data sets, and performing VSAM recoveries.

Tools for disaster recovery from BMC Software

Enhanced tools for ensuring the success of your disaster recovery effort are provided by BMC Software. These tools provide for faster backups and recoveries, with maximum use of available resources and maximum preservation of data integrity. These tools also provide functions that are not available in other products.

The RUV functions and utilities are ideal for helping you in the disaster recovery effort. You can use RUV reports to determine which backups are available and the location and VOLSER of the backups.

You can use the NEW_NAME feature of restore and recover to practice disaster recovery at the home site.

Summary of disaster recovery processes

The following sections present procedures for disaster recovery with RUV:


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BMC AMI Recovery for VSAM 4.1