Allow RECOVER INDEX BACKOUT YES for index with COPY NO

The RECOVER TABLESPACE with BACKOUT YES is a relatively new recover option. It tells Db2 RECOVER to start with the current state of the tablespace and read the data change log backwards to find all recent changes to the tablespace and undo those changes in the target tablespace. The intent is to use BACKOUT YES when the recovery point is relatively close in time to “now” and you do not want start from the last full copy and roll forward. This is especially useful if the target tablespace is very large, the time required to backout time could be very quick.

But the minor problem in this scenario is that after the tablespace is recovered (using backout yes) then the index(es) are out of sync. Ideally, I would like to RECOVER INDEX BACKOUT YES, but that could only be done if I defined the indexes with COPY YES.

Apparently, RECOVER INDEX first checks if the index has COPY YES attribute before beginning recovery.

But I would like to be RECOVER INDEX BACKOUT YES even if the index is COPY NO.

My suggestion is that RECOVER INDEX allow BACKOUT YES even if the index is COPY NO.

Of course, the IBM documentation must be updated to match. To say RECOVER INDEX BACKOUT YES is allowed with any index. And RECOVER INDEX BACKOUT NO requires index to have COPY YES (and an actual image copy dataset)

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/db2-for-zos/12?topic=recover-syntax-options-control-statement

Why do I make this request for enhancement?

I had a scenario where I needed to quickly backout a recent data zap that went wrong. I remember RECOVER TABLESPACE BACKOUT YES and I recovered to a QUIESCE RBA point that was made before the data zap. It was super fast. But then the indexes were out of wack. I could not recover the indexes with backout yes and I had to rebuild the indexes which took much longer then the recover tablespace backout yes. I was annoyed

I think the intent of “backout yes” for recover tablespace (And recover index) is for easy and quick recovery in emergency scenarios. You should make it easier for us by not requiring index to be copy yes!

Yes, I know, I could make all my indexes COPY YES. On the off chance that I want to do RECOVER INDEX BACKOUT YES in the future…. That would make it easier for me. But you should change Db2 itself to always allow it and make it easier for everyone.