What's new in Db2 Recovery Expert

May, 2024

April, 2024

Updated plan generation for mass application recovery using application groups. When objects of higher priority are recovered, they immediately become available for work. Added new ISPF panels to support the change. See Generating application group recovery plans for details.

Related APAR: PH60533

Related PTF: UI96340

February, 2024

The support for TLS protocol version 1.3 is provided. For information about how to enable TLS v1.3, see Server security.

Related APAR: PH58393

Related PTF: UI95128

January, 2024

• The support for selecting archive tables in both the ISPF interface and the Web interface is provided. When user selects an archive table for recovery, by default, the corresponding archive-enabled table is selected.

  Related APAR: PH57358

  Related PTF: UI94179

• New ISPF options are introduced to utilize the 'REUSE' keyword in both RECOVER and REBUILD INDEX utilities. The REUSE keyword enables logical reset and reuse of the Db2-managed data sets, and increases the utility performance.

  Related APAR: PH57376

  Related PTF: UI94179

• Consistent naming conventions is provided for the batch and ISPF generated jobs, when the option Use member prefix is enabled. For more information, see Selecting a recovery plan.

  Related APAR: PH57372

  Related PTF: UI94179

• The Creating image copies using Change Accumulation section is updated to include the index spaces support. The list of available keywords is updated.

October, 2023

The support for recovery of a single table has been enhanced. An appropriate CHECK DATA statement will now be generated for every related table placed in the CHKP restrictive status. In addition to this, the direct call to DSNUTILB is upgraded to an indirect call through Recovery Expert. A new module is added which parses the output of DSNUTILB and stores the important information into DD ARYOUT for easy detection of the constraint violations. This module also raises the return code to an error if it identifies any constraint violations. This reduces the need for manual intervention, streamlining the process, and enabling the restart feature. For more information, see CHECK DATA invoker.

Related APAR: PH55297

Related PTF: UI93785

September, 2023

• Added support for the redirected recovery of COPY YES indexes using the IBM RECOVER utility. Indexes with COPY YES attribute and a valid image copy can be recovered using IBM RECOVER utility with an improved recovery time.
  Note: The implicitly created indexes with COPY YES attribute are not affected by this enhancement.

  Related APAR: PH55567

  Related PTF: UI92693

• Db2 Recovery Expert for z/OS is updated for improved security. Users will require read access to RACF profiles for certain system-level operations. For more information, see DFSMSdss requirements section in the Db2 Recovery Expert server, agent, and ISPF interface requirements topic. Users will now receive pop-up notifications with ARC* messages when the DFSMSHSM commands will be executed in the code.

  Related APAR: PH56206

  Related PTF: UI93337

August, 2023

The following updates are made to Db2 Recovery Expert for z/OS:

July, 2023

June, 2023

Db2 Recovery Expert for z/OS now enables you to recover Db2 objects at granular level using the LDRM utility. For more information, see Recovering Db2 objects using LDRM.

New and changed messages:

• ARYS711E
• ARYS913I
• ARYS914I
• ARYJC050I
• ARYJ150W
• ARYR110W
• ARYX195E

February, 2023

New and changed messages:

• ARYJ001W
• ARYJ025E
• ARYJ088E
• ARYJ130W
• ARYJ131E
• ARYJ136E
• ARYJ137W
• ARYJ138E
• ARYJ139W
• ARYJ140E
• ARYJ141E
• ARYJ142E
• ARYJ143E
• ARYJ144E
• ARYJ145E
• ARYJ146E
• ARYJ147E
• ARYJ148E
• ARYJ300E
• ARYJ301E
• ARYJ302E
• ARYJ303E
• ARYJ304E
• ARYJ400E
• ARYJ401E
• ARYJ402E

December, 2022

The following updates were made to Db2 Recovery Expert for z/OS:

A new field Check Archive Logs location has been added to the Update Disaster Recovery Profile panel. Using this field you can check the Archive Logs location by invoking IDCAMS LISTCAT command for archive log data set.

New and changed messages:

• ARYJ087I
• ARYJ149E
• ARYR546E
• ARYR547E
• ARYR755W
• ARYR785E
• ARYR787E
• ARYR788I
• ARYS005E
• ARYS073E
• ARYS911E
• ARYS915I
• ARYT061E

January, 2022

The following updates were made to Db2 Recovery Expert for z/OS:

May, 2020

The following update is made to Db2 Recovery Expert for z/OS:

Db2 Recovery Expert for z/OS now supports multiple incremental backups, for the Db2 backup type only.

Related Topic: About incremental system backups (simple and multiple).

Related PTF: UI69743

April, 2020

The following updates were made to Db2 Recovery Expert for z/OS:

A new Disaster Recovery option, MODE(QUIESCE), has been added to the Update Disaster Recovery Profile panel. As a DBA, you may want the option to create a Quiesce point before active logs are archived, to capture a point of consistency in the current active log before an archive is taken.

Related topic: Creating disaster recovery profiles

Related APAR: PH20428

Improved data availability by creating image copies offline with features previously available in Db2 Change Accumulation Tool, now incorporated into Db2 Recovery Expert. This saves recovery time because you have more recent image copies derived from Change Accumulation. You can use offline resources to create image copies, so that the actual database, tablespace, or other database objects are unaffected and can be used online or in batch at the time of the image copy.

You can use the Change Accumulation features in Db2 Recovery Expert to create image copies of a given database, tablespace, or set of tablespaces. Db2 Recovery Expert reads the most recent image copy and adds any incremental image copies and Db2 log data.

March, 2020

The following updates were made to Db2 Recovery Expert for z/OS:

A new parameter, ALIAS_PROCESS_METHOD, lets you use a faster alias processing algorithm, if only single-level aliases are used on the subsystem.

Related APAR: PH20778

The REINIT_SPACE_EFFICIENT parmlib parameter now causes the reinitialization of space efficient volumes after offload only; before this update, reinitialization would occur after backup.

Related APAR: PH20778

The Include RI related objects option, in object recovery plans, has a new value: Relations only. When you choose this option, Db2 Recovery Expert will create the relations but not include the related objects themselves in the recovery.

Related APAR: PH20778

New and changed messages:

Related APAR: PH20778

January, 2020

The following updates were made to Db2 Recovery Expert for z/OS:

Related APAR: PH19007

New and changed messages:

Related APAR: PH19007

November, 2019

Related APAR: PH16834

September, 2019

Related APAR: PH17194

August, 2019

Update: Several fixes related to system operations, and some new error and information messages.

Related APAR: PH14687

June, 2019

Update: Enhancements have been added to system level backup (SLB) and offload.

Description: If PARMLIB option WAIT_FOR_BACKGROUND_COPY is set to Y, FASTREPLICATIONSTATE is also checked, and error messages are produced if RECOVERABLE status is not achieved. Additional monitoring of the offload process may be enabled with a new PARMLIB option WAIT_FOR_OFFLOAD: if it is set to Y, DUMPSTATE of the copypool is repeatedly checked, and the offload step finishes successfully only if ALLCOMPLETE is achieved.

Related APAR: PH13181.

Update: The ISPF client is more task-oriented and more consistent with the Web client.

Description: All LBDR and transaction recovery operations are available from the new "Ad-hoc Operations" added to the main menu. It is no longer necessary to create a profile to perform LBDR or Transaction recovery.

Related APAR: PH12477.

Update: The internal format of application profiles is changed, and migration of existing profiles is required.

Description: After applying the PTF, users need to enable Migration option in TCz and run the generated JCL for each subsystem in which the environment for Recovery Expert exists, in order to migrate the profiles, using template ARYPRMIG. To undo migration, users need to manually modify generated jobs and change job parameters: PARM='SSID,MIGRATE' should become PARM='SSID,REVERT'. After modification, submit the edited jobs.

Related APAR: PH12477.

Update: Fast Replication copies are deprecated and removed from the ISPF client.

Related APAR: PH12480.

Update: Allow Redirected Recovery of Dropped Objects. See Performing redirected recovery.

Description: Redirected Recovery is allowed for LBDR profiles. With this enhancement, Redirected Recovery of dropped, or altered objects, is allowed if source and target SSIDs are equal and log apply is not disabled.

Related APAR: PH11064

Update: ARY optional indexes are not required and should not be created. See Preparing to customize Db2 Recovery Expert and Customizing Db2 Recovery Expert.

Description: ARY provides a template job which creates optional catalog indexes. These indexes are not required anymore as Db2 creates corresponding indexes automatically. See Worksheets: Gathering parameter values for Db2 Recovery Expert.

Related APAR: None.

Update: New options for copy-scope parameter. See Specifying recovery options for application profile batch job

Description: Available options are now N (do not create image copies after recovery), T (copy tablespaces only), and I (copy tablespaces and indexes).

Related APAR: None.

Update: User Guide has been updated with additional detail about the syntax for the application profile in the ARYIN DD statement. Procedures and functions have different syntax from the other object types. In addition, the TP object type has been added. See Building standard application profiles in batch.

Related APAR: PH11064

Update: Db2 Recovery Expert now uses work files instead of 64-bit memory, so it is not limited to 500 archive logs. See Specifying recovery options.

Related APAR: PI88704.

Update: Runtime statistics for dropped objects may be restored during the LBDR recovery. See Specifying recovery options.

Related APAR: PI88704

Update: User Guide has been updated to explain that Remember Password does not work with multifactor authentication. See Using passwords to authenticate ISPF users.

Related APAR: None.

November, 2018

• Accelerated tables will be automatically reloaded into IDAA after a recovery action.
• MQT are now supported for Redirected Recovery.
• Added an option to allow the use of member ids in profile names, configurable from the TCz panels.
• Restriction removed from Redirected Recovery.
• Updated messages.

October, 2018

• Added recovery utility for reorganizing VSAM repository files (ARYRORG1 and ARYRORG2).
• Added recovery utility for listing available SLB backups at disaster recovery site (ARY#RPTD).
• Added a new option to detect unrecoverable resources during plan generation.
• Added restrictions to Redirected Recovery.
• Updated messages.

August 24, 2018

• Added ability to monitor recovery jobs and recovered objects.
• Added new requirements for Redirected Recovery and Advanced Recovery.
• Added support for new batch utility plans.
• Clarified a misleading HFS installation path requirement.

August 3, 2018

• Added topics that describes Db2 migration and product migration through TCz.
• Added administrative commands available on the Db2 Recovery Expert agent.
• Added Override PARMLIB option and a topic discussing the Override PARMLIB Options panel.
• Assorted updates to Redirected Recovery.
• Updated parameters list.
• Updated messages.

July 2018

The following updates were made to Db2 Recovery Expert for z/OS:

• Added a topic that describes performing redirected recovery at an overview level.
• Updated messages.

June 2018

• Added a topic that describes how to login to a database from the ISPF interface using either a password (up to 8 characters) or a password phrase (up to 128 characters).
• Added a Multicast options that allows users to disable multicasting on the server.
• Added and updated server and agent messages.

May 2018

• Added a recovery option that enables users to add SYSAFF to a recovery job card. Including SYSAFF on the job card ensures that the job runs on the same system (LPAR) as the target Db2 system to which the objects will be recovered.
• Added the Notify if Data Capture Changes enabled redirected recovery option. This option specifies whether a warning message is issued if Data Capture Changes is enabled on the table that is being recovered.
• Added Trigger objects to the list of object types that can be selected for redirected recovery.
• Added an option to log based recovery that enables users to selected all dropped objects for recovery with one click. When selected, all dropped objects of every type are included in the profile for recovery.
• Added a redirected recovery option that allows users to choose whether the generated job JCL includes detailed comments describing the function of each step.
• Added a recovery option that allows users to choose whether to generate recovery plans for all objects in a profile even if some objects in profile.
• Added support for Log Read and Log Apply options and Redirected Recovery options that can be used for Advanced Recovery and Redirected Recovery plans.
• Added the Use Db2 System Catalog only recovery option specifies that any information about recovered objects stored in RBR repositories should be ignored.
• Added support to allow workfiles to be used for Undo/Redo SQL plans instead of the 64 bit storage. This helps to overcome a restriction on the amount of scanned log activity.
• Added support for single character wildcards and arbitrary string wildcards options that can be used to define redirected recovery source and target names.
• Added support for XML redirected recovery options.

The web browser section of the documentation was updated to include a topic on the benefits of clearing your web browser's cache after applying maintenance and before opening the Db2 Recovery Expert web browser interface.