PDR - Pipe Dump and Restore

PDR is a menu based system for performing DASD dumps and restores to an FTP server. No tape drives are used or required. Any FTP server that uses standard RFC 959 responses (which is most FTP servers) should work. PDR has been testing successfully using the open source Filezilla FTP server running on a workstation, with vsftpd that comes with most linux distributions, and a variety of other FTP servers.

PDR has been installed and tested on z/VM versions 4.1, 5.1, 5.3 and 5.4.

DASD dumps produced by PDR can stored on any platform and transfered freely back and forth, as long as they are transferred in inary format. This makes the dumps created by PDR easily used, stored, and archived as desired. Since PDR uses the PIPEDDR utility in the background, dumps produced by PDR can either be used by PDR to perform restores, or they can be used as input to the PIPEDDR utility itself.

Note that PDR is alpha release software, which means it may have bugs. Please be a good sport, and do report any bugs to the email address noted in the Quick Start Document. Really, please do. It's the only way I have to know about and fix bugs. It would also be nice to know who is using this software, and if it's worth it to write more. Thanks!!!


Install Process - This assumes that you will be installing the software to the MAINT or SYSMAINT userid.

1 - Download the required files to the MAINT 191 disk:

  1. PDR.VMARC
  2. WINMAKER.VMARC
  3. PIPEDDR.VMARC
  4. PICKPIPE.VMARC

2 - Unpack the above files using VMARC.

See vmarc instructions if needed.

3 - Add the LNKNOPASS and DEVMAINT parms:

Add LNKNOPASS and DEVMAINT parms to the OPTIONS line of the MAINT or SYSMAINT user entry in the z/VM directory. See John's z/VM & z/Linux Cookbook v1-6 for how do make updates to the directory in a non-Dirmaint shop. If Dirmaint is in use, use the command:

DIRM FOR MAINT SETOPTN and then select the setting to add the DEVMAINT option.

4 - Run the following command to select uplevel pipes:

      PICKPIPE U 

5 - Run PDR and Set up Parms and Disk settings

  1. Run PDR using the command: PDR
  2. Select option 3 and enter the DASD ranges that you want to be displayed and to work with for PDR. See the notes in the member for more details.
  3. Select option 4 and fill in the site specific details. All the FTP settings will need to be changed. Inspect the other settings for correctness.
  4. For online help type the command: HELP PDR
  5. Read the Quick Start document.