SAE (Stand Alone Environment) has become the standard for large system repair and recovery. Worldwide thousands of technical professionals depend on SAE and its companion product IMAGE Focus as indispensable tools for the management of all levels of MVS systems, including OS/390 and Sysplex configurations.

The SAE Applications

Applications that run in the SAE environment are designed to enhance the users’ ability to quickly diagnose, repair and recover from a system failure or to be used as an alternative to the floor system that is provided at their Disaster Recovery Site. All applications are completely integrated and exploit the features of the SAE environment. From the SAE Primary Applications Menu, users access the following:

1. ACTION SERVICES

   The ACTION SERVICES application provides complete access to all DASD Devices and Datasets. The ACTION SERVICES interface is automatically generated as a Unit, Volume or Dataset selection list modeled after ISPF. From these lists, users locate critical datasets or members and use specific ACTION SERVICES to make system repairs. The ACTION SERVICES set includes: Edit, Copy, Delete, Save, Undelete, Altercat, ZAP, Rename and Allocate.

2. FAST DASD ERASE

   Often used in conjunction with disaster recovery testing, FAST DASD ERASE offers a cost effective alternative to standard utilities used to erase data. This application totally erases all user information and produces complete audit reports in about the time it would take to reinitialize the VTOC's on all volumes.

3. MVS IMAGE FOCUS

   FOCUS aids in the rapid repair of MVS Systems by automatically isolating the components that comprise a specific MVS image. Results are almost instantaneous. They include a log of the steps and results in the validation process, which are then available for review on-line or in hard copy. FOCUS will identify and then access only the volumes and datasets for that specific MVS image under investigation. This powerful application simplifies repair and ensures that the datasets being analyzed and edited are the ones being used by the failed Image. Installations that maintain multiple MVS Images will save time during critical system outages because FOCUS will automatically guide users to the specific SYSRES, IODF, CATALOG and/or DATASET(s) needing repair. At the same time, SAE provides the needed ACTION SERVICES to be used.

4. FDR and DFdss RESTORE

   RESTORE is simply the fastest way to restore a single dataset. Unlike other backup and recovery systems that require you to restore a complete volume, this application lets you restore a single dataset or member originally created using IEBCOPY, IEBGENER, DFSMSdss or FDR. RESTORE will perform full volume restores from DFSMSdss or FDR if required.

   Note: SAE does not use FDR or DFSMSdss in processing tapes created by those product. The file format of FDR and DFSMSdss tapes vary and may change from release to release. SAE may not support all current FDR or DFSMSdss formats nor the formats of future FDR or DFSMSdss releases.

5. HARDWARE CONFIRMATION

   Hardware Confirmation inspects your hardware configuration and the accessibility to all I/O devices. This application checks on the status, availability and address of each I/O device.

Note: Click below for information on additional Image Inspection functionality available to users of IMAGE Focus.
More about IMAGE Focus

System Requirements

SAE supports datasets that reside on MVS ICKDSF formatted 3390, 3380, 3375, 3350, 3330 or 9345 direct access storage devices (attached via 3880, 3990 or 9340 storage controllers). VTOCs in both OS and INDEXED format are supported.

SAE will run on S/370, S/370/XA, S/370/ESA and S/390 architecture CPUs. SAE will automatically determine the 'microcode' architecture of the CPU.

SAE supports 3278-2 (24 rows/80 columns) like devices that are locally attached via a 3x74 control unit and 3205, 3278-2A, or 3279-2C (20 row/80 columns/display mode) like devices that are attached via a 43xx processor DCA.

The SAE Environment

Perhaps the most unique part of SAE is its fundamental method of operation. Unlike other System Management Tools, SAE runs completely in a standalone mode. This method of operation is so complete that SAE provides its own operating system environment, i.e., the SAE environment is completely detached from MVS and its subsystems. Key features of SAE (Stand Alone Environment) are:

1. Self-loading

   With SAE, no installation is required. When IPL'ed from tape, the SAE stand alone environment is active and accessible in seconds. The SAE environment is not dependent on any other software or catalogs and it provides full access to datasets.

2. Complete Security

   SAE is functional when normal security systems are not available. As an added safeguard, SAE provides integrated multi-level security as a protection against unwarranted usage. Each SAE application and its related functions are under password protection. Each interaction, from initialization to shutdown, is logged to a completely secure dataset.

3. Input/Output

   SAE controls all I/O requests. This enables SAE applications, like ACTION SERVICES and FAST DASD ERASE, to perform fast I/O while reading and updating files or catalogs. SAE provides for user input/output by displaying console displays or screens.

4. Data Integrity

   To ensure that a unit cannot be accessed by another system during editing, zapping, and catalog alter, SAE provides multi-system data integrity by issuing a HARDWARE RESERVE. The DASD unit will always be in a RESERVED state when any edit, zap or catalog alter screen is displayed. The unit is also reserved during several alteration processes (e.g., dataset rename). If SAE attempts I/O to a volume that is reserved by another system (Start Pending), an I/O error will be reported. This may be seen during Browse/Verify/Listcat as the volume is not reserved by SAE.

5. Full-Screen Interface

   SAE controls all interaction using any attached local, non-SNA, 3270 terminal. This full-screen support, modeled after ISPF, results in fast operator start-up with little, if any, need for training. All SAE screens support full-screen operation so that fields may be modified in any order. In addition, SAE supports INSERT, DELETE and ERASE EOF keys, as well as and 24 PFkeys.