VSAM

Mainframe Application Programming

VSAM Day 1

Course schedule
UNIT VSAM Intro
Topics:
Access Methods VSAM Introduction VSAM Organization Control Interval

Access Methods
What is an access method? Most computer applications are designed to manipulate data and generate results based on the data.

DASD

Data must be stored in a way that its

retrieval is easy and quick.

Access methods are ways to maximize the efficiency of data storage and retrieval.

Access Methods

Continued

Access Methods (contd)

Listed below are some of the traditional access methods that are available for the Multiple Virtual Storage (MVS) environment: Queued Sequential Access Method (QSAM) Basic Sequential Access Method (BSAM) Indexed Sequential Access Method (ISAM) Basic Direct Access Method (BDAM) Partitioned Data Set Extended (PDS-E)

VSAM Introduction
VSAM stands for Virtual Storage Access Method Used to access the data sets quickly and effectively. Used to organize, store, catalog, retrieve and delete data sets.

ROLE OF VSAM
VSAM acts as an interface between processing programs and the operating system.

VSAM groups individual data records into larger units in order to reduce the number of I/O requests required when sequentially retrieving records.
These larger units are transferred between the Direct Access Storage Device (DASD) and virtual storage by the operating system.

How does VSAM retrieve a record

In retrieving a record VSAM goes through the following steps:
DASD

1. VSAM interprets the processing programs logical request and determines what services are desired. 2. VSAM makes the required Input or Output (I/O) request(s) to the operating system. 3. The operating system performs the physical I/O operation(s) between the device and the storage. 4. VSAM locates and extracts the desired data before returning it to the processing program.
Operating System VSAM Processing Program

ADVANTAGES OF VSAM
Data can be accessed faster.
Records can be inserted in more efficient manner.

Deletion of records results in them being physically removed from the disk.

Records can be accessed sequentially or randomly. VSAM data sets are device independent.

DISADVANTAGES OF VSAM
VSAM data sets require more storage space than other types of data sets.

VSAM data set require additional free space that must be embedded in them.

DATA SETS IN VSAM

VSAM supports the following data set types:
Entry-Sequenced Data Set (ESDS)

Key-Sequenced Data Set (KSDS)

Relative Record Data Set (RRDS) Linear Data Set (LDS)

Entry-Sequenced Data Set

Records in an ESDS are stored in the order in which they are written and are retrieved by addressed access. Records are loaded irrespective of their contents and their byte addresses cannot be changed. ESDS is also referred to as a sequential VSAM data set. This is because records in an ESDS are normally processed sequentially.

ESDS is best suited for applications where most processing is done sequentially.

Key-Sequenced Data Set

Records in a KSDS are stored in key sequence and are controlled by an index, determine the order in which records are stored.

In a KSDS, records can be processed both sequentially and randomly using their key field values.
The advantages of KSDS are: Sequential processing is useful for retrieving records in the sorted form

Random or direct processing of records is useful in online applications

Relative Record Data Set

Records in an RRDS are loaded into fixed-length or variable length slots. These records are representedby the Relative Record Numbers (RRNs) of their slots. A processing program uses RRN to provide random access to records.
Slots
R1 1 2 R2 3 R3 4

Relative Record Numbers

Linear Data Set

LDS is a data set containing only a contiguous string of data bytes with no intervening control information. An LDS is divided into blocks. These blocks can be sequentially retrieved by a processing program in physical order. A processing program can group several logical records together into a single block LDS can be kept permanently in store for enhanced performance.
Continued
Concepts

Relative Byte Address

What is a Relative Byte Address? The Relative Byte Address (RBA) of a record is its displacement (in bytes) from the beginning of the data set. VSAM treats data as a contiguous string of bytes. This approach makes the address of a record device-independent.

A VSAM data set can be moved without affecting the RBAs of its records.

Continued

Relative Byte Address (contd)

In addition to data records VSAM also stores control Information. The presence of control Information affects the RBAs of subsequent data records. The example represents a VSAM data set containing 100-byte, fixed-length records. The RBA of the first record is 0. The RBA of the second record is 100. The RBA of the third record is 200 and so on.

100

200

300

Record 1

Record 2

Record3

Relative Byte Addresses

Cluster
What is a cluster?
A cluster is the collection of physical data sets that make up one logical data set. The concept of a cluster is more suited for a KSDS.

Continued

Cluster (contd)
A KSDS cluster has two data sets.
KSDS.CLUSTER

One data set holds the actual data records. The other data set contains an index component.
KSDS.INDEX KSDS.DATA

The index component permits the direct retrieval of data.

Continued

Cluster (contd)
With an ESDS, an RRDS and an LDS, the cluster name and the data set component and a cluster consists of only a single physical data set:
Related Data Sets

Cluster

name

both
A B C

refer to the same data set

the data component.

Continued
Concepts

What is a control interval? o A control interval is the amount of data transferred between the device and virtual storage.

o When a record is read from or written to a data set, VSAM groups individual data records into larger units of storage. These units of storage are called control intervals. o Size of a control interval should be minimum 512 bytes and increased by multiples of 512 upto a limit of 8 K. Beyond that the increments should be 2KB up to a maximum of 32KB.
o Control interval size = n * 512 or n * 2048 where n is between 1 to 16.
R1 R1 R1 Unused Space 4 2 0 3 4 0 2 2 0

9 8 0

1 0 5 5

control interval has 4 components :

Data Control interval description field Record description field

Free space

Data Contains the actual data processed by the program Control interval description field Contains the information about the free space within the CI.

field is with 4 bytes long.

Control Interval 1 Unused Space (No Records) CIDF 220 340 420 Unused Space (1055)
9 8 0

420 340 220

1 0 5 5

 Record Description Field:

Contains the information about the records within the data space.

An RDF is a three byte field that is used to define the location and length of a record or a group of records.

The RDFs immediately precede the CIDF, at the end of the control interval.
R1 R2 R3 R4 432 432 432 432 Unused Space (1055)

432

ESDS Organization
In an ESDS records are stored in the order in which they are written and can be read in the same order. The characteristics of ESDS are summarized below: Records are stored sequentially. Records can be of fixed or variable length. Records are physically grouped into control intervals. Control intervals contain control information along with data.
Control Interval 1 R1 R2 R3 R4 Control Interval 2 R5 R6 R7 R8 Control Interval 3 R1 R2 R3 R4

Jcl for ESDS

.

//SAMP003B JOB ,,CLASS=M, // MSGLEVEL=(1,1),NOTIFY=SAMP003,TIME=(1) //EXEC1 EXEC PGM=IDCAMS //SYSPRINT DD SYSOUT=* //SYSIN DD *
DEFINE CLUSTER ( NAME(SAMP003.ESDS.CLUSTER) TRACKS(2,1) CISZ(512) RECORDSIZE(80,80) NONINDEXED ) DATA(NAME(SAMP003.ESDS.DATA)

) /*

Control Intervals
Control Interval 1 R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 Control Interval 2 R6 R7 R8 Control Interval 3 R1 R2 R3 R4

How is the size of a control interval determined? The size of a control interval is determined when the data set is defined. The size can be defined in either of the following ways: The size can be defined with the DEFINE CLUSTER command that defines the data set. VSAM selects the size that best utilizes DASD storage.
Continued

Control Intervals (contd)

Control Interval 1 R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 Control Interval 2 R6 R7 R8 Control Interval 3 R1 R2 R3 R4

Control Info

What is control information?

VSAM uses some information to locate records within a control interval. This information is called control information. Data records are stored at the beginning of the control interval, while the control information is located at the end of the control interval.

CIDF (contd)
Control Interval 1 CIDF
1 0 2 0

Unused Space (No Records) 0

What does CIDF contain? The CIDF contains the following two values, each two bytes long: The first value indicates where the unused space in the control interval begins, stored as a displacement from the beginning of the control interval. The second value indicates the length of the unused space.

Record Definition Field

Control Interval 1 R1 R2 R3 220 340 420 Unused Space (1055) RDF3 RDF2 RDF1 CIDF 420 340 220
9 8 0 1 0 5 5

What is a Record Definition Field?

The data records in a control interval are described by a group of record definition fields (RDFs). An RDF is a three byte field that is used to define the location and length of a record or a group of records. The RDFs immediately precede the CIDF, at the end of the control interval.

Record Definition Field Case 1

Control Interval 1 R1 R2 R3 220 340 420 Unused Space (1055) RDF3 RDF2 RDF1 CIDF 420 340 220
9 8 0 1 0 5 5

Case 1: Consider a case, where no two consecutive records have the same length and the control interval has unused space.

Record Definition Field Case 2

Control Interval 1 R1 R2 R3 R4 432 432 432 432 Unused Space (1055) RDF2 RDF1 CIDF 4 432
1 7 2 8 3 1 0

Case 2: Consider a case, where all records in a control interval are of the same length and the control interval has unused

space.

Record Definition Field Case 3

Control Interval 1 R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 332 380 380 380 332 Unused Space 228
RDF4 RDF3 RDF2 RDF1 CIDF 1 2 8 332 3 380 332 0 2 8 4

Case 3: Consider a case, where records are of variable length, but some consecutive records are of same length.

Managing Control Intervals

5K (5120 bytes) Control Intervals
3000 5000 3000 3000 5000

How is space wasted in a control interval? The example shows how a data set, containing records of 3000 bytes and 5000 bytes, would be stored if a 5K (5120 bytes) control interval is used. The following inferences can be made from the given example: Only a single record of either size can fit in a control interval For every 3000-byte record, 2113 bytes are unused and for every 5000-bytes record, 113 bytes are unused As a result, just for 5 records, 6565 bytes of space is Continued wasted

Managing Control Intervals (contd)

5K (5120 bytes) Control Intervals
3000
5000

3000

3000

5000

How can you avoid wastage of space? There are two solutions to prevent space wastage in control intervals. They are: Increasing the control interval size Spanned records
Continued

Managing Control Intervals (contd)

16K Control Interval

Increasing the Size of Control Intervals In this case, a 16K control interval might result in a less wasted space, depending on the proportion and sequence of the 3000byte and 5000-byte records. However, as VSAM always reads the CIDF into main storage, this solution is not very efficient.
Continued

Managing Control Intervals (contd)

3K (3072 bytes) Control Intervals

3000

3062

1038

3000

3000

3062

1938

Spanned Records
The problem of wasted space can be resolved by reducing the control interval size and directing VSAM to split records over control intervals. Records which are split between control intervals are called spanned records. A spanned record, thus, is a logical record contained in more than one block. In the given case, if 3K intervals are used with spanned records, instead of 5K control intervals, the total amount of wasted space will be reduced to 4234 bytes.