Managing Save Files Using BRMS

Learn about different ways to manage BRMS save files

Once data has been saved to a save file either through a BRMS backup or archive process, that save file data can be copied to media or deleted from the save file library.

There are situations where you may decide to only save data to a save file without copying it to media. In this way you probably are keeping the save file on the system for a longer period of time in case the saved data is needed for recovery. Most often, however, once data is copied from the save file to tape, the save file is deleted.

There may be situations where the save file is needed to be kept on the system for a period of time after the copy of the save file to tape. The table shows the different options associated with copying save files to media and deleting save files from the system.

Table: Options for copying save files to media

Working with Save Files

There are five commands that can be used to manage the save files. These are:

• Remove Media Information from BRM (RMVMEDIBRM)

• Save Save Files using BRM (SAVSAVFBRM)

• Start Expiration for BRM (STREXPBRM)

• Start Maintenance using BRM (STRMNTBRM)

• Work with Save Files using BRM (WRKSAVFBRM)

Each of these commands and their parameters produce different results with the save files. 

1. The RMVMEDIBRM and SAVSAVFBRM commands delete only those save files that have expired. The STREXPBRM command must run prior to these commands to flag such save files as expired. The STREXPBRM and RMVMEDIBRM commands can be scheduled to run periodically or can be processed as part of the daily BRMS maintenance processing.

2. The SAVSAVFBRM and STREXPBRM commands determine those save files that need to be saved or expired and deleted from the system based on the object and retention information specified in the control group attributes.

3. The RMVMEDIBRM and STREXPBRM commands can be run independently, but are also components of the BRMS maintenance procedures. These procedures must be run nightly. As such, if you are performing regular maintenance with the STRMNTBRM command, then this will ensure that no expired save files are kept on the system, thus reducing disk usage.

4. The SAVSAVFBRM command should not be confused with the option to save contents of save files which is on the second screen of the control group attributes, backup, and archive policies. These options refer to the ability to save data in user save files to the media defined in your control group or policy. SAVSAVFBRM is a command to save BRMS save files to media under BRMS control. You can specify the SAVSAVFBRM command on the command line or schedule it through the system job scheduler.

5. The Allow subsequent saves (ALWADLSAVE)parameter of the SAVSAVFBRM command can be used to save the save files to media and not have the save file deleted from the system. Specifying *YES for this parameter indicates you intend to save the save files on subsequent save operations. The save files will not be deleted from the system when maintenance is run. If you specify this value, you must run a subsequent SAVSAVFBRM command using ALWADLSAVE(*NO) to enable removal of these save files from the system.

6. Concurrent SAVSAVFBRM commands need to select different save files to copy to media.  Running SAVSAVFBRM commands concurrently with identical parameters for the Control group (CTLGRP), Library (LIB), and Media class (MEDCLS) is not supported and will have unpredictable results.

This BRMS wiki article contains information based on the IBM i Knowledge Center here.