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I had the
experience of performing a disaster recovery exercise at the
IBM BCRS facility in Boulder, Colorado in May 2007. Among
other things, I definitely wanted to test the Stand Alone
Environment (SAE) and Image FOCUS in a recovery situation.
Our approach was simple: to get a quick "rescue" system up
and running, get logged on, and run the remainder of the
restore jobs for the production system.
The first
challenge came during the first IPL attempt on our
production system. We received a 034 disabled wait state,
which we decided was probably telling us that z/OS was
looking for the LOGREC dataset.
We used SAE
to edit the PARMLIB dataset and used the IGNORE parameter on
the LOGREC statement. The IPL of the production system went
very smoothly after that change. We continued testing using
Image FOCUS for some other gradual changes until we got our
TSO logons stabilized.
Even though we actually had two
other levels of redundancy (our own "rescue" system as well
as the "starter" system that IBM had already set up for us
to use if we wished), it was gratifying to see both the SAE
and Image FOCUS products working perfectly in the off-site
environment. When our management asks what we use the SAE
and Image FOCUS software for, now I can tell them that they
both work in any situation where we may need them, no matter
where that is.
The IBM
support staff at the BCRS facility was extremely helpful and
knowledgeable. Some of them had seen SAE in action, but had
never seen Image FOCUS. I had great fun showing it off,
bragging about what a powerful tool it was, and about how
good NewEra's product support has always been. |
