Improvements to the REORG Utility [DB2 9 for z/OS]

As we continue to wind our way through the multiple improvements that DB2 V9 brings to the IBM utilities, it is time to address the enhancements made to the REORG utility.

Performance

First up, let’s talk about performance improvements. In DB2 9 for z/OS, the REORG utility can unload and reload partitions in parallel. This should result in a nice reduction in elapsed time when you are reorganizing partitioned table spaces. To enable this improvement you will need to code the NOSYSREC keyword or the UNLDDN keyword with a template. Note that NOSYSREC is always used for SHRLEVEL change.

Parallelism will not be enabled if any of the following conditions apply:

• DATAWKnn ddnames are specified in the JCL
• SORTDEVT keyword is not specified
• UTPRINT is allocated to anything other than SYSOUT
• The REBALANCE keyword is used.

Also consider that REORG SHRLEVEL CHANGE can use subtasks during the LOG phase to speed up the processing of log records. Subtasks will be used when unload and reload have been done by partition and there are log records to apply for the partition.

BUILD2 Phase Eliminated in Online REORG

As you probably know, an Online REORG uses shadow data sets. The reorganization is done to the shadows while the data remains available in the primary data sets. When the REORG is done, the shadow data sets are switched to be the primary data sets.

As most DBA know, reorganization by partition can create a long outage when non-partitioned indexes (NPIs) exist on the table. Why is this so? Well, prior to V9, during Online REORG, NPIs had to be updated with the new RIDs for the data of the partition being reorganized during the BUILD2 phase. And that is what typically caused the sometimes significant outage.

With DB2 V9, the BUILD2 phase is eliminated. Instead, the entire NPI will be reorganized and then switched in the SWITCH phase along with all of the other data sets. The only outage is during the SWITCH phase, which will be much, much shorter than the BUILD2 phase outage.

As a result of the elimination of the BUILD2 phase, DB2 will need additional temporary storage for the shadow data sets for each NPI. Additionally, the cost of the REORG will increase because building an entire NPI will consume more CPU than the previous method of updating RIDs in the BUILD2 phase. Finally, you will need to modify any REORG jobs against different partitions that ran in parallel because the entire NPI will be built and then switched.

What about running REORG SHRLEVEL REFERENCE by partition? Well, REORG SHRLEVEL REFERENCE by partition will also rebuild any associated NPIs using shadows. So the same type of concerns apply (more disk storage, additional CPU, no separate jobs in parallel).

Reorganization and LOBs

Finally, as I blogged about before in the posting on LOBS, prior to V9 you could not access LOB data during a REORG. And a REORG did not reclaim physical space from the LOB data set because LOBs were moved within the existing LOB table space. V9 fixes these problems. During a REORG (in V9), the original LOB table space is drained of writers. All LOBs are then extracted from the original data set and inserted into a shadow data set. When this operation is complete, all access to the LOB table space is stopped (the readers are drained) while the original data set is switched with the shadow data set. At this point, full access to the new data set is enabled, and an inline copy is taken to ensure recoverability of data.

RECOVER Improvements [DB2 9 for z/OS]

Our examination of the new utility functionality in DB2 9 for z/OS continues today as we uncover what’s new with the IBM RECOVER utility.

Point-In-Time Consistency

The most significant enhancement centers on recovering to a point-in-time (PIT) with consistency. As any DBA who has ever been charged with recovering an operational database to a prior PIT knows, it can be challenging to accomplish. Of course, if you have a usable QUIESCE point then point in time recovery is easy. But that means you’d have to have planned ahead of time and taken a QUIESCE, which is not always possible with heavy 24x7 workloads.

Well, DB2 V9 offers some relief because the IBM RECOVER utility is enhanced to automatically identify uncommitted work at the PIT to which you are recovering. After detecting the uncommitted work DB2 will rollback any changes made to the database objects that are being recovered. This means that anything that is being recovered will be in a transactionally consistent state. Of course, you still have to make sure that all of the appropriate objects are participating in the recovery.

This works with for PIT recoveries executed with either the TOLOGPOINT or TORBA keywords only. To accomplish this two new phases are added after the LOGAPPLY phase: LOGSCR and LOGUNDO.

The LOGSCR phase runs for each DB2 member with an active unit of recovery (UR). If no UR was active then this phase will be skipped. During the LOGCSR phase, all active and incomplete URs are identified. This includes URs that were:

• INFLIGHT
• INABORT
• INDOUBT
• POSTPONED ABORT

If any URs were found, the LOGUNDO phase runs. This is where RECOVER backs out
the changes made on recovered objects by active URs. In a data sharing environment, this
will be done one member at a time.

Additional Information on the Progress of Your Recovery

Another improvement made to the IBM RECOVER utility in V9 is the ability to gather more information about the progress of the recovery. Any DBA who has been tasked with sitting around and monitoring recoveries what the DISPLAY command to show accurate, up-to-date, and appropriate information about the status of the recovery.

Well, DB2 V9 enhances the -DISPLAY UTILITY command to provide additional information during the LOGAPPLY phase. DISPLAY now will show the range of the log that needs to be applied, for the database objects that are being recovered. It will also show the progress up to the last commit, as well as the elapsed time since the start of the log apply phase of the recovery.

This information will assist the DBA in determining how long it will take for the recovery job to successfully complete.

Using an Earlier Image Copy

One final enhancement made to the RECOVER utility in V9 gives the DBA control to get DB2 to recover using an earlier image copy. This is accomplished by specifying a point in the log before which DB2 must select an image copy for the recovery.

This technique can be particularly helpful when the most recent image copy is damaged or somehow unusable. You can use an earlier copy by providing an RBA/LRSN value to the new RESTOREBEFORE parameter that is at a point on the log prior to when the unusable image copy was taken.

More Online Utilities [DB2 9 for z/OS]

Today we continue our investigation into the new functionality in DB2 9 for z/OS... and specifically into the improvements made to IBM utilities for version 9. We will turn our attention to improved availability with IBM DB2 utilities. Under DB2 V9, three more utilities can run online – that is, with SHRLEVEL CHANGE.

First up we have CHECK DATA. This utility is executed when you want to make sure that the data in your tables matches your integrity constraints. Prior to V9, access to tables (or table spaces) is read only when CHECK DATA is being run. This means that as long as CHECK DATA is executing you cannot modify data. If you have complex referential sets and/or very large databases you likely will have issues with running CHECK DATA.

You can run CHECK DATA online – that means with SHRLEVEL CHANGE – as of DB2 V9. As with other online utilities, an online CHECK DATA will work with on a shadow copy of the data and indexes. DB2 makes the shadow copy using DFSMS ADRDSSU. This copy can be super fast if you have data set level FlashCopy V2 enabled. Even if you do not have FlashCopy availability will improve because the outage is reduced when you use SHRLEVEL CHANGE (just to make the copy) instead of SHRLEVEL REFERENCE (for the entire utility execution).

DB2 will check data integrity using the shadow copies of the data and indexes. When violations are found DB2 will not set the CHECK pending state. And remember, we are checking shadows, so DB2 will not delete rows in violation. Instead, CHECK DATA will create a PUNCHDDN containing REPAIR LOCATE DELETE input that can be run against the active data.

The CHECK LOB utility has also been enhanced to enable online execution. DB2 V9 allows SHRLEVEL CHANGE for checking LOBs using a shadow copy of the LOB table space. And just like CHECK DATA, DB2 uses the DFSMS ADRDSSU utility to create the shadow. And similarly, the check is executed against the shadow and REPAIR statements are generated that you subsequently can run against the actual LOB table space.

Finally, you can also run the REPAIR LOCATE utility specifying SHRLEVEL CHANGE. This enhancements allows us to execute the REPAIR utility online with LOCATE against indexes, index spaces and table spaces.

COPY Improvements [DB2 9 for z/OS]

Next up in this sub-series on IBM utility improvements in the larger series on DB2 V9 features and functions we will take a look at the new “stuff” in the IBM COPY utility.

Copying Just the Pending Database Objects

The first nice new feature is a new parameter that can be used to make backup copies of only those database objects in a copy pending state. The new parameter is called SCOPE PENDING, and when you specify it the IBM COPY utility will only copy objects in copy pending or informational copy pending state.

The default is SCOPE ALL, which makes COPY act like it always acted; that is, without regard to the pending state.

This option can be used in conjunction with LISTDEF to build very powerful, selective backup jobs.

Copying Clone Tables

The IBM COPY utility also has been extended to support copying clone tables. If you are not sure what they are, follow the link to the blog entry in this series that covers that topic.

Anyway, the new CLONE parameter must be coded on the COPY specification in order for clone table and index data to be copied. It is important to understand that the CLONE parameter is basically an on/off toggle. If CLONE is coded, then COPY will copy only clone table (and/or index) data. You can specify both clone and regular database objects in the same COPY specification, but the IBM COPY utility will ignore non-clone objects when the CLONE parameter is specified; and it will ignore clone objects if the CLONE parameter is not specified.

CHECKPAGE

The CHECKPAGE parameter is not new to V9, but it is improved. Specifying CHECKPAGE indicates that the COPY utility should check each page in the table space or index for validity. If it finds an error, COPY issues a message that describes the type of error. Using CHECKPAGE is a good idea because it will identify problems in your page sets.

In previous releases of DB2, using CHECKPAGE with COPY was problematic because of high overhead and availability issues. In the DB2 9 for z/OS Technical Overview redbook, IBM reports that the CPU overhead is about 5 percent for COPY INDEX and 14 percent for COPY TABLESPACE if you are running V8. As for the availability issue, as soon as a validity problem is found on a page, the COPY utility will place the page set into COPY PENDING so it cannot be accessed while COPY chugs merrily along looking for additional invalid pages.

Both problems are addressed in DB2 9 for z/OS: IBM has significantly reduced the CPU overhead and fixed the availability issue. Instead of putting the page set into COPY PENDING immediately when it finds a problem, instead COPY will produce the message that it found a problem, but it will not set the pending state. Furthermore, it will continue checking pages but not copying anything.

Upon completion, COPY will issue a return code of 8 and it will update the SYSIBM.SYSCOPY catalog table indicating it found a broken page. This information is recording in a new column, TTYPE, with a value of “B”). This is important to understand because the page set will not be in a COPY PENDING state so you will have to check for the return code and fix the problem.

MODIFY RECOVERY [DB2 9 for z/OS]

Another IBM DB2 utility that has received some attention under Version 9 is MODIFY RECOVERY. For those not sure what this utility is, MODIFY RECOVERY is used to remove records from the SYSIBM.SYSCOPY table in the DB2 Catalog, along with related log records from the SYSIBM.SYSLGRNX directory table and related information from the DBD.

Before the new V9 changed, when you ran MODIFY RECOVERY you had to specify the deletion criteria in one of two ways:

• Given a specific date, delete all recovery information before that data
• Or given an age in days, delete all recovery information older than the age

But as of V9 we can alternately specify what is to be retained instead of what is to be deleted. This way, we tell the utility what we want to keep and it will remove the rest.

So, instead of coding the DELETE parameter (with a DATE or AGE) we would instead code a RETAIN parameter. The RETAIN parameter can specify one of five different options:

LAST (integer) – Using this option informs DB2 to choose a date such that the number of full image copies kept is not less than the integer specified. So, if we specify LAST(5), then we will delete all entries that exist prior to the date on which the fifth oldest copy was taken. If more than one copy was taken on that date the result could be that more than 5 copies are retained.

LOGLIMIT – Specifying this option will delete all copies where DB2 no longer has log records to recover forward from. DB2 uses the BSDS to establish the oldest archive log timestamp.

GDGLIMIT – You can use this option to enable the number of copies to be retained to be linked to the corresponding GDG base limit.

GDGLIMIT LAST (integer) – It is possible also to combine the GDGLIMIT and LAST options. DB2 will then use the GDG base limit, if the last primary copy is a GDG, if not it uses the integer specified.

GDGLIMIT LOGLIMIT – And finally, we can combine the GDGLIMIT and LOGLIMIT options, too. If the most recent primary full copy is a GDG then the GDG limit is used. If the last copy is not a GDG then the BSDS is used to determine the date prior to which deletions will occur.

The last two options (the ones that combine two parameters) are particularly useful if you have a mix of GDGs and non-GDGs for your image copies. They are also helpful if you use the LISTDEF option when you make image copy backups.

It is important to understand that for all these options MODIFY RECOVERY will cause DB2 to determine the most recent date that satisfies the retention requirement. After ascertaining the correct date to use, all entries before that data will be deleted. In effect DB2 chooses the most recent date that would satisfy the retention criteria. So, under some circumstances there may be more than one image copy on the specific date that is established, and therefore DB2 will keep those additional copies, too.

As an example, say we take 7 image copies on a single day. Then we run MODIFY RECOVERY … RETAIN LAST (3). In this case, all 7 will be retained as they were made on the same day, even though we indicated that we wanted to retain only the last 3.

Finally, there is one more significant change made to the MODIFY RECOVERY utility. Prior to V9, information was only deleted when copies were removed from SYSIBM.SYSCOPY. But as of V9, MODIFY RECOVERY will deletes SYSIBM.SYSLGRNX entries even if no SYSIBM.SYSCOPY records are deleted.

Why is this important? Well, some shops have migrated over to running BACKUP SYSTEM instead of individual image copies. In this case, there will be no individual image copies to remove in SYSIBM.SYSCOPY, but the SYSIBM.SYSLGRNX records will continue to grow. After migrating to V9 you can use MODIFY RECOVERY to trim the size of SYSIBM.SYSLGRNX which can improve performance for processes that need to access log range information.

TEMPLATE Switching [DB2 9 for z/OS]

Next up in this on-going series covering the new features and functionality of DB2 9 for z/OS we will tackle the improvements that have been made to the IBM DB2 utilities.

A nice new feature that impacts multiple utilities is TEMPLATE switching. For those not familiar with templating, TEMPLATE is a utility control statement that enables the allocation of data sets for a LISTDEF (LISTDEF is the way you control the list of database objects for a utility execution). With the TEMPLATE statement you essentially specify data set naming conventions and allocation information without using JCL DD statements.

OK, so what is TEMPLATE switching? What it enables you to do is to specify different characteristics for image copies of varying sizes. So, for example, you can create a different template for low and high volume image copies. Here is an example:

//SYSIN DD *
TEMPLATE low DSN &DB..&TS..IC.D&DA..T&TI.
  UNIT=DASD LIMIT(50 CYL,high)

TEMPLATE high DSN &DB..&TS..IC.D&DA..T&TI.

   UNIT=TAPE

COPY TABLESPACE MY.SMALLTS COPYDDN(low)

COPY TABLESPACE MY.LARGETS COPYDDN(low)

Note the new parameter named LIMIT. This is what controls when the TEMPLATE is switched. In this example we set the LIMIT for low volume at 50 cylinders. When this is reached the TEMPLATE will be switched to the high volume template. Of course, you have the flexibility to control the limit by specifying whatever number is appropriate for your site as well as specifying it in CYL, GB, or MB.

It is important to understand that DB2 can only switch the TEMPLATE once, so you cannot have more than two templates.

Template switching is available for image copies produced by COPY, COPYTOCOPY, MERGECOPY, LOAD, and REORG. And you can set up template switching for both the COPYDDN and RECOVERYDDN.