Backup/Archive › VSAM Considerations › Backing Up or Archiving Empty Clusters › Never Opened Clusters

Never Opened Clusters

A never opened VSAM cluster is one that has been defined but has never been opened for output. These are empty clusters because their VSAM TIMESTAMP in the catalog entry and the last use date in the format-1 DSCB are both zero.

By default, these clusters will not be selected for backup or archive. If you want to select these clusters for processing, you can do so by specifying sysparm VSUNOPEN with a value of Y.

With VSUNOPEN set to Y, CA Disk compares CREDT to ARCDT. If the CREDT is greater than or equal to the ARCDT, CA Disk will select these clusters with the criteria MODIFIED,EQ,YES.

There is one exception, and that occurs on the day the cluster is defined. On that day, CA Disk will select defined, but never opened clusters every time the criteria (MODIFIED,EQ,YES) is executed.

For more information, see the sysparm description for VSUNOPENn in the Systems Guide.