Hello dear experts.

I have a huge problem.
I am an IT guy in a small company. My dad was the CICS / VSE expert, but he died recently and now I have to "run" our VSE/ESA 2.7 system on my own and I am absolutely NO EXPERT. I am a noob and today we are faced with huge problems.

Our nightly jobs failed, because of some open errors. And now the whole company is waiting for me to solve the problem and I don´t know what to do.

The console log shows these messages:

F2 0128 4228I FILE WHD03KX OPEN ERROR X'C4'(196) CAT=LVGPRD1
(OPNAB-5 ) ACCESS TO DATA WAS REQUESTED VIA AN EMPTY AIX
F2 0124 DFHFC0964 PRODCICS Open of file WHD03KX failed. VSAM codes - 8502,
0008,00C4
F2 0124 DFHME0116 PRODCICS
(Module:DFHMEME) CICS symptom string for message DFHFC0964 is
PIDS/564805400 LVLS/411 MS/DFHFC0964 RIDS/DFHFCFS PTFS/UQ84088
REGS/GR15 VALU/00008502 PRCS/00000008 PRCS/000000C4.
F2 0124
File(WHD03KX)
Accessmethod(Vsam)
Openstatus( Closed )
Enablestatus( Disabled )
Readstatus( Read )
Updatestatus( Noupdate )
Addstatus( Noaddable )
Browsestatus( Browse )
Deletestatus( Nodelete )
F2 0124 Exclstatus( )
Emptystatus( Noemptyreq )
Dsname( PRODCICS.WHD03.KORRES.KUNDEN )
Catname()
Maxnumrecs( 00000000 )
Table( Nottable )
OPEN/CLOSE FAILED
RESPONSE: 1 ERROR TIME: 10.01.44 DATE: 03.01.23
SYSID=PROD APPLID=PRODCICS
F7 0100 001D: TEL936I Telnet Session Established via: TELNLU28 from >

Is there anybody out there, who can help me in managing this problem, which feels like an enormous crisis for me!

Regards
Benjamin from Germany

------------------------------
Benjamin Stehle
------------------------------

Hello Benjamin,


I am a novice with CICS VSAM, but can offer a few things to check:


1) Does dataset PRODCICS.WHD03.KORRES.KUNDEN exist?



2) Have you tried opening the vsam file manually with CICS command:


CEMT SET FILE(WHD03KX) OPEN


CEMT SET FILE(WHD03KX) CLOSED


Status should show something like this with Ope Ena
that indicated VSAM file is open and enabled

STATUS: RESULTS - OVERTYPE TO MODIFY
File (WHD03KX) Vsa Ope Ena Rea Upd Add Bro Del Sha NORMAL
Dsn( PRODCICS.WHD03.KORRES.KUNDEN )


3) The dataset shows disabled, so have you tried enabling it by altering this property to enabled,
and then manually opening and closing the dataset:


Enablestatus( Disabled )



4) In my limited experience, these other attributes are not usually set this way,
since they prevent updates, adds, deletes in the VSAM dataset.
I would expect them to be Update, Add, Delete.


Updatestatus( Noupdate )

Addstatus( Noaddable )
Browsestatus( Browse )
Deletestatus( Nodelete )



5) Using anything to view the contents of the dataset to see if it contains any data?

If you cannot view the contents then maybe there is a problem with the dataset.


Hope this helps.


Regards,
Gregory Oakes
Professor
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Information Technology
Durham College

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Hi Gregory.

Thank you for your answer.
In the meantime, I found out that the VSAM files in question were alternate indexes that - for some as yet unknown reason - were corrupt. I ran a DELETE / DEFINE / BLDINDEX via a VM job and that was able to rebuild the files.

This solved the problem.

Thanks anyway for your help.

------------------------------
Benjamin Stehle
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Tue January 03, 2023 11:20 AM
From: Gregory Oakes
Subject: OPEN ERROR X'C4'

Hello Benjamin,


I am a novice with CICS VSAM, but can offer a few things to check:


1) Does dataset PRODCICS.WHD03.KORRES.KUNDEN exist?



2) Have you tried opening the vsam file manually with CICS command:


CEMT SET FILE(WHD03KX) OPEN


CEMT SET FILE(WHD03KX) CLOSED


Status should show something like this with Ope Ena
that indicated VSAM file is open and enabled

STATUS: RESULTS - OVERTYPE TO MODIFY
File (WHD03KX) Vsa Ope Ena Rea Upd Add Bro Del Sha NORMAL
Dsn( PRODCICS.WHD03.KORRES.KUNDEN )


3) The dataset shows disabled, so have you tried enabling it by altering this property to enabled,
and then manually opening and closing the dataset:


Enablestatus( Disabled )



4) In my limited experience, these other attributes are not usually set this way,
since they prevent updates, adds, deletes in the VSAM dataset.
I would expect them to be Update, Add, Delete.


Updatestatus( Noupdate )

Addstatus( Noaddable )
Browsestatus( Browse )
Deletestatus( Nodelete )



5) Using anything to view the contents of the dataset to see if it contains any data?

If you cannot view the contents then maybe there is a problem with the dataset.


Hope this helps.


Regards,
Gregory Oakes
Professor
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Information Technology
Durham College

[cid:image002.jpg@01D8A2A0.BD7F1900]
________________________________
This message is intended only for the named recipients. This message may contain information that is confidential or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. Any dissemination or copying of this message by anyone other than a named recipient is strictly prohibited. If you are not a named recipient or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to a named recipient, please notify us immediately, and permanently destroy this message and any copies you may have. Warning: Email may not be secure unless properly encrypted.

Sorry, did not see your reply.
Forget about mine.....

------------------------------
Helmut Roese
COM Software GmbH
Eschborn
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Tue January 03, 2023 11:36 AM
From: Benjamin Stehle
Subject: OPEN ERROR X'C4'

Hi Gregory.

Thank you for your answer.
In the meantime, I found out that the VSAM files in question were alternate indexes that - for some as yet unknown reason - were corrupt. I ran a DELETE / DEFINE / BLDINDEX via a VM job and that was able to rebuild the files.

This solved the problem.

Thanks anyway for your help.

------------------------------
Benjamin Stehle
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Tue January 03, 2023 11:20 AM
From: Gregory Oakes
Subject: OPEN ERROR X'C4'

Hello Benjamin,


I am a novice with CICS VSAM, but can offer a few things to check:


1) Does dataset PRODCICS.WHD03.KORRES.KUNDEN exist?



2) Have you tried opening the vsam file manually with CICS command:


CEMT SET FILE(WHD03KX) OPEN


CEMT SET FILE(WHD03KX) CLOSED


Status should show something like this with Ope Ena
that indicated VSAM file is open and enabled

STATUS: RESULTS - OVERTYPE TO MODIFY
File (WHD03KX) Vsa Ope Ena Rea Upd Add Bro Del Sha NORMAL
Dsn( PRODCICS.WHD03.KORRES.KUNDEN )


3) The dataset shows disabled, so have you tried enabling it by altering this property to enabled,
and then manually opening and closing the dataset:


Enablestatus( Disabled )



4) In my limited experience, these other attributes are not usually set this way,
since they prevent updates, adds, deletes in the VSAM dataset.
I would expect them to be Update, Add, Delete.


Updatestatus( Noupdate )

Addstatus( Noaddable )
Browsestatus( Browse )
Deletestatus( Nodelete )



5) Using anything to view the contents of the dataset to see if it contains any data?

If you cannot view the contents then maybe there is a problem with the dataset.


Hope this helps.


Regards,
Gregory Oakes
Professor
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Information Technology
Durham College

[cid:image002.jpg@01D8A2A0.BD7F1900]
________________________________
This message is intended only for the named recipients. This message may contain information that is confidential or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. Any dissemination or copying of this message by anyone other than a named recipient is strictly prohibited. If you are not a named recipient or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to a named recipient, please notify us immediately, and permanently destroy this message and any copies you may have. Warning: Email may not be secure unless properly encrypted.

Hi Benjamin,

I am not the VSE-expert, but the message seems to be clear.

You have a VSAM cluster with access through an alternate index. And maybe someone has deleted and recreated the VSAM cluster, but did not recreate the alternate index. It was defined, because otherwise the message m ight be "file not found" or something else, but it has not been filled. In z/OS we use a utility called IDCAMS (which seems to be available in z/VSE also) and a command BLDINDEX.

For details see The IDCAMS Utility Program
The corresponding command in z/VSE is also BLDINDEX, described in "Defining objects in a catalog" / "Alternate Indexes" / "Building an alternate index"

Good luck and Kind Regards
Helmut


------------------------------
Helmut Roese
COM Software GmbH
Eschborn
------------------------------