Often recovery means restoring databases and then reapplying the correct changes that occurred to that database, in the correct sequence. Even though it sounds simple, this assignment can be overwhelming. For a complex database management system such as IMS, a recovery can take hours. Meanwhile, critical business opportunities come and go. There are various tools and methodologies available when an IMS database recovery is needed.
Some procedures allow automation to simplify the process.
It is important to account for many scenarios, including those of disaster and human error as described earlier. Standard recovery procedures allow selecting recovery points only when an IMS database is stopped. Rather than settling for a single candidate recovery point, you could have hundreds or thousands of useable recovery points. Using manual procedures, this can take an experienced DBA hours or days, with a relatively high possibility for error. There are tools on the market that can perform these tasks automatically in only a few minutes.