System Programmer Reference › Managing CA VM:Backup Catalogs

Managing CA VM:Backup Catalogs

A CA VM:Backup catalog is a logical set of CMS files that backup jobs can create to store information about backed-up data.

Catalogs serve several purposes. Incremental backup jobs use catalogs produced by previous backup jobs to determine what data has changed and needs to be backed up. CATSEARCH restore jobs use catalogs to determine where minidisks, file spaces, directories, or files to restore reside on tape.

The job template file for a backup job specifies whether the job should create a catalog. If the file specifies catalog creation, CA VM:Backup generates a catalog each time the job is run.

The backup job template file also specifies the level of catalog detail. CA VM:Backup supports two levels of catalog detail:

• File/track/block-level detail. These catalogs contain information about each directory, file, alias, track, or block backed up from each minidisk or file space. They are usually referred to as file-level catalogs.
• Domain-level detail. These catalogs contain a general entry for each minidisk, file space, or directory backed up.

CA VM:Backup stores all catalogs on the catalog minidisk. The default CATDISK virtual address is 1B0. For information about this minidisk, see CATDISK Record.

The following sections explain:

• Catalog contents
• Catalog file structure
• Considerations for using catalogs
• How to control catalog storage space
• How to increase catalog minidisk size

This section contains the following topics:

Catalog Contents

Catalog File Structure

Considerations for Using Catalogs

Controlling Catalog Storage Space

Catalog Minidisk Size