Hi Ed,
My strategy is to take backups of CSIs and affected Target Datasets just
before APPLYing maintenance (after RECEIVE and APPLY CHECK).
This way, only a few Datasets need to be RESTored in case something
unwanted occurs.
As far as IPL goes, my practice is not to use Target Datasets as running
software.
This is true for Operating Systems, Middleware and Software Products.
To upgrade running Operating Systems with maintenance or new versions, I
have JCL set up to build a new SYSRES set and IPL off of the new set.
For any other Software Product, I shutdown the Software Product, and use
IDCAMS ALTER NEWNAME to effectively move the old Datasets out of the way
and IDCAMS ALTER NEWNAME to RENAME the updated Datasets to
their "Production" names. As well, when necessary, I DELETE NSCR Catalog
ALIASs and DEFINE new ones.
Regards,
David
On 2024-12-14 19:18, Ed Jaffe wrote:
On 12/14/2024 3:49 PM, David Spiegel wrote:
Hi Ed,
I almost never ACCEPT maintenance, but, what makes "... A
point-in-time restore of their CSIs and target library backups? ..."
insane?
I really never imagined anyone did that. It seems "insane" (to me at
least) because doing that restores *ALL* service installed since the
last backup -- at the very least *everything* in your most-recent
service apply -- rather than just the singleton APAR/PTF that's
causing an issue. After the restore you would need to re-apply *ALL*
service again with an EXCLUDE just for the problem APAR/PTF.
Obviously, neither of those two processes can or should be done on a
running system; you're forced to re-IPL. It seems like a tunna work
and extremely disruptive compared to restoring just a single SYSMOD
which can almost always be done without taking system(s) down (unless
the SYSMOD happened to have an IPL HOLD).
Is this CSI & target library restore what you do if an APAR/PTF causes
an issue? Or do you restore just the bad SYSMOD and its PRE/SUP chain
all the way back to base level (up to five years old!) and then
re-apply the restored SYSMODs again, excluding the problem SYSMOD?
Curious minds...
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