VSAM interview question.

[durga]

Hi,

I've been asked - during processing of a VSAM file, some system error occurs and it is subsequently unusable . What do you do ?

I was not sure abut the answer, could someone please assist.

[enrico-sorichetti]

the question as described looks pretty dumb !

what anybody would do ...

fix it
or
restore from a backup

( the logical remedy for anything that has become unusable )

to get better answers You should learn to post better worded questions,
just define the extent of unusable

[Robert Sample]

The interviewer MAY have been wanting to know about the VERIFY command of IDCAMS - but as worded in your post it is not possible to really say. VERIFY might be the answer, restore from backup might be the answer, delete and define again might be the answer -- did you not ask questions to clarify what the interviewer wanted to know? If not, why not? Probably one of the things you were being evaluated on was your ability to clarify the question by asking appropriate questions back. An interview is NOT a one-way process; if the interviewee is not asking questions then it is not much of an interview.

[Anuj Dhawan]

As Robert has said, I'll also answer IDCAMS VERIFY. As you can use a VSAM VERIFY to ensure that fields in the VSAM control blocks are accurate. The VERIFY macro does not change the data in the data set. VERIFY does not correct missing or duplicate records or repair any damage in the index structure. On the other hand the question is poorly worded but this has happened to me too sometimes (many times?), so having some follow up question always help as has been suggested.

[durga]

Thank you all. This gives me quite a good amount of information.

Regards

[Anuj Dhawan]

You're welcome - hopefully, we'd been helpful.

Good Luck for the interviews!