Mainframe Data Backup and Recovery Utilities

Of all the utilities that the mainframe makes available, those used for backup are typically the most useful. This Search Storage article looks at two utilities, IEBCOMPR and IEBCOPY, to recover and copy the latest possible backup version of the system.

---

"With this in mind, let's take a brief look at IEBCOMPR and IEBCOPY. At first, it's not obvious why a utility like IEBCOMPR that sees if two files are identical has anything to do with backup. However, a fine-grained, low-performance-overhead backup solution follows the principle of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' -- in this case, if it hasn't changed, don't back it up. IEBCOMPR, therefore, can play a critical role in determining whether data on the online system is the same as backup data in backup storage, and hence whether it needs to be backed up at all. Another faster way of doing this is looking at the system log to see if any transactions have changed the data, but in many cases, the system log does not have that information. So a smart administrator will use IEBCOMPR as a scalpel rather than an axe, carving out those files where file comparison typically yields major savings in backup copying and where system-log information isn't available."

Read the Full Story at Search Storage