User-defined SYSBAS and IASP Timestamps

User-defined *SYSBAS and IASP Timestamps

In an environment using external storage to perform a Full System Flash Copy (FSFC) or Flashcopy of IASP, it may be beneficial to supply a user-defined timestamp for your backups. For example, if the Flashcopy occurred at 1pm but the backups were not performed until 3pm, BRMS will, by default, use 3pm as the time of backup and reference point for future incremental backups. However, the Flashcopy time reflects when the *SYSBAS or IASP data was last changed.

The following interfaces will allow users to define their own flashcopy timestamps for SYSBAS or any specific IASP's. Specifying *SYSBAS will include any user ASPs

To add or update a timestamp:

• CALL QBRM/Q1AOLD PARM('FLASHTIME ' '*ENABLE   ' 'NAME ' 'FILESYSTEM TYPE' '1071213143302')

Where NAME is *SYSBAS or the name of the IASP, FILESYSTEM TYPE is either *QSYS or *IFS, and 1071213143302 is the timestamp in CYYMMDDHHMMSS format and parameters need to be padded out with trailing blanks to have 10, 10, 10, 5, 13 characters in the respective parameters.

Examples:

• CALL QBRM/Q1AOLD PARM('FLASHTIME ' '*ENABLE  ' 'PRIMARY  ' '*QSYS' '1071213143302')  - Set flash time for libraries/objects in iASP PRIMARY

• CALL QBRM/Q1AOLD PARM('FLASHTIME ' '*ENABLE  ' 'PRIMARY  ' '*IFS ' '1071213143302')  - Set flash time for IFS directories/files in iASP PRIMARY

• CALL QBRM/Q1AOLD PARM('FLASHTIME ' '*ENABLE  ' '*SYSBAS  ' '*QSYS' '1071213143302')   - Set flash time for libraries/objects in *SYSBAS (includes user ASPs)

• CALL QBRM/Q1AOLD PARM('FLASHTIME ' '*ENABLE  ' '*SYSBAS  ' '*IFS ' '1071213143302')   - Set flash time for IFS directories/files in *SYSBAS (includes user ASPs)

To view the current configurations, issue the following command:

• CALL QBRM/Q1AOLD PARM('FLASHTIME ' '*DISPLAY ')

When displayed, two timestamps are shown. The first is the user-specified timestamp, the second timestamp is what BRMS used internally.

To remove a configuration for *SYSBAS or a specific IASP, issue the following command:

• CALL QBRM/Q1AOLD PARM('FLASHTIME ' '*DISABLE ' 'NAME ' 'FILESYSTEM TYPE')

To remove all the user defined timestamp configurations, issue:

• CALL QBRM/Q1AOLD PARM('FLASHTIME ' '*CLEAR ')
   

Internally, there are places where BRMS requires a unique timestamp. In those cases, BRMS will generate a new unique timestamp incremented from the user-defined timestamp. Save While Active sync points and incremental reference timestamps will always use the value defined by the user. BRMS maintains a list of the timestamps used, and clears this list when STRMNTBRM with parameter RUNCLNUP(*YES) is specified.

NOTES :

1. Parameters need to be padded out with trailing blanks to have 10, 10, 10, 5, 13 characters in the respective parameters.

2. If you want to have a timestamp for *SYSBAS or IASP ASP45 for both *IFS and *QSYS types you'll need to use *ENABLE twice - once for *QSYS and once for *IFS.

3. These timestamps are independent of each other, and increment independently. *QSYS applies to libraries and objects in the IASP, and *IFS refers to all link objects in in *SYSBAS or the IASP.

4. If *QSYS and *IFS have the same timestamp, *LINK saves will be listed at the beginning of a volume when doing WRKMEDIBRM. To ensure *LINK saves are listed in file sequence number, the timestamp for *IFS should be 1 sec greater than the *QSYS timestamp.

5. Users should only enable this on the system doing the backup before each Flashcopy backup.  BRMS recommends disabling this setting before doing any further BRMS backups that are not Flashcopy related by running STRMNTBRM with parameter RUNCLNUP(*YES).

6. The BRMS Advanced Feature (57xxBR1 Option 1 (FC5102) ) is required on the system where the FLASHTIME interface is used.

7. User-defined timestamps are not used for archival backups.

8. User-defined timestamps are not used for *LINK from IASP *ALLAVL or *CURASPGRP.

9. Any SAVBRM or *LINK control group entry which saves from multiple IASP's will not use user-defined timestamps.

10. Native backups (SAVLIB, SAVOBJ, etc) are not affected.

11. If a library with the same name exists in multiple IASP's and object detail is retained, it is recommended that different user-defined timestamps be used for each IASP entry of *QSYS type.

12. Do not use timestamps later than the current system date/time.

13. *SYSBAS requires these PTFs or their superseding PTF to be applied

    • 7.3 SI65676 

    • 7.2 SI65675

    • 7.1 SI65674