[go: up one dir, main page]
Scribd
Upload
6K views6 pages

External Level of IMS

The document discusses logical relationships in IMS databases. Logical relationships allow a segment to have two parents, addressing IMS's rule that each segment can only have one physical parent. Logical relationships are created between segments in separate physical databases. A logical child segment appears to have both a physical and logical parent. There are three types of logical relationships: unidirectional, bidirectional virtual, and bidirectional physical. Logical relationships are defined using control blocks like the DBD, PSB, and ACB.

Uploaded by

Boobalan R
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
6K views6 pages

External Level of IMS

The document discusses logical relationships in IMS databases. Logical relationships allow a segment to have two parents, addressing IMS's rule that each segment can only have one physical parent. Logical relationships are created between segments in separate physical databases. A logical child segment appears to have both a physical and logical parent. There are three types of logical relationships: unidirectional, bidirectional virtual, and bidirectional physical. Logical relationships are defined using control blocks like the DBD, PSB, and ACB.

Uploaded by

Boobalan R
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 6

EXTERNAL LEVEL OF IMS

INTRODUCTION

IMS database has a rule that each segment type can have only one parent. This limits
the complexity of the physical database. Many DL/I applications require a complex structure
that allows a segment to have two parent segment types. To overcome this limitation, DL/I
allows the DBA to implement logical relationships in which a segment can have both
physical and logical parents. We can create additional relationships within one physical
database. The new data structure after implementing the logical relationship is known as the
Logical Database.

LOGICAL RELATIONSHIP AND DATABASES

A logical relationship has the following properties:

A logical relationship is a path between two segments which are related logically
and not physically.
Usually a logical relationship is established between separate databases. But it is
possible to have a relationship between the segments of one particular database.

The following image shows two different databases. One is a Student database, and
the other is a Library database. We create a logical relationship between the Books Issued
segment from the Student database and the Books segment from the Library database.

1
This is how the logical database looks when you create a logical relationship:

LOGICAL CHILD SEGMENT

Logical child segment is the basis of a logical relationship. It is a physical data


segment but for DL/I, it appears as if it has two parents. The Books segment in the above
example has two parent segments. Issued books segment is the logical parent and Library
segment is the physical parent. One logical child segment occurrence has only one logical
parent segment occurrence and one logical parent segment occurrence can have many logical
child segment occurrences.

LOGICAL TWINS

Logical twins are the occurrences of a logical child segment type that are all
subordinate to a single occurrence of the logical parent segment type. DL/I makes the logical
child segment appear similar to an actual physical child segment. This is also known as a
virtual logical child segment.

TYPES OF LOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS

A DBA creates logical relationships between segments. To implement a logical


relationship, the DBA has to specify it in the DBDGENs for the involved physical databases.

2
There are three types of logical relationships:

Unidirectional

Bidirectional Virtual

Bidirectional Physical

Unidirectional

The logical connection goes from the logical child to the logical parent and it cannot
go the other way around.

Bidirectional Virtual

It allows access in both the directions. The logical child in its physical structure and
the corresponding virtual logical child can be seen as paired segments.

Bidirectional Physical

The logical child is a physically stored subordinate to both its physical and logical
parents. To application programs, it appears the same way as a bidirectional virtual logical
child.

CONCATENATED SEGMENT

A logical child segment always begins with the complete concatenated key of the
destination parent. This is known as the Destination Parent Concatenated Key (DPCK). You
need to always code the DPCK at the start of your segment I/O area for a logical child. In a
logical database, the concatenated segment makes the connection between segments that are
defined in different physical databases. A concatenated segment consists of the following two
parts:

Logical child segment


Destination parent segment

A logical child segment consists of the following two parts:

3
Destination Parent Concatenated Key (DPCK)
Logical child user data

When we work with concatenated segments during update, it may be possible to add
or change the data in both the logical child and the destination parent with a single call. This
also depends on the rules the DBA specified for the database. For an insert, provide the
DPCK in the right position. For a replace or delete, do not change the DPCK or the sequence
field data in either part of the concatenated segment.

PROGRAM COMMUNICATION BLOCKS

IMS Control Blocks define the structure of the IMS database and a program's access
to them. The following diagram shows the structure of IMS control blocks.

4
DL/I uses the following three types of Control Blocks:

Database Descriptor (DBD)


Program Specification Block (PSB)
Access Control Block (ACB)

CONCLUSION

Database is a collection of correlated data items. These data items are organized and
stored in a manner to provide fast and easy access. IMS database is a hierarchical database
where data is stored at different levels and each entity is dependent on higher level entities.
IMS database management system maintains integrity and allows fast recovery of data by
organizing it in such a way that it is easy to retrieve. IMS maintains a large amount of world's
corporate data with the help of its database management system.

REFERENCES

http://www.tutorialspoint.com/ims_db/ims_db_control_blocks.htm
www.ibm.com/support/SSEPH2ims13/ims_speclogrellogdbd.htm
http://www.conceptsolutionsbc.com/mvs-articles/37-ibm-mainframe/202-what-is-
an-ims-database-

5
http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/acims/59519/HTML/default/hierdb.h
tm
http://ibmmainframes.com/about5980.html

You might also like