{"id":1754,"date":"2016-07-25T14:52:26","date_gmt":"2016-07-25T14:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/virtual-storage-access-method\/"},"modified":"2016-07-25T14:52:26","modified_gmt":"2016-07-25T14:52:26","slug":"virtual-storage-access-method","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1254\/virtual-storage-access-method-vsam","title":{"rendered":"Virtual Storage Access Method"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_virtual_storage_access_method_mean\">What Does Virtual Storage Access Method Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Virtual storage access method (VSAM) is a file storage access<br \/>\nmethod used in IBM mainframes. VSAM is an expanded<br \/>\nversion of indexed sequential access method (ISAM), which was the file access method<br \/>\nused previously by IBM.\n<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_virtual_storage_access_method\">Techopedia Explains Virtual Storage Access Method<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>VSAM enables the organization of records in physical or logical sequences. Files can also be indexed by record number. VSAM helps enterprises by providing quick access to data by the use of the inverted index. The records in VSAM can be either variable or fixed length.<\/p>\n<p>VSAM consists of four major types of data sets (a file is represented by data set by IBM), these include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Key-sequenced data set (KSDS)<\/li>\n<li>Relative record data set (RRDS)<\/li>\n<li>Entry-sequenced data set (ESDS)<\/li>\n<li>Linear data set (LDS)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>KSDS, RRDS and ESDS contain records while LDS consists of page sequences. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Virtual Storage Access Method Mean? Virtual storage access method (VSAM) is a file storage access method used in IBM mainframes. VSAM is an expanded version of indexed sequential access method (ISAM), which was the file access method used previously by IBM. Techopedia Explains Virtual Storage Access Method VSAM enables the organization of records [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[222,223],"class_list":["post-1754","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-database","definitioncat-storage"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.8 (Yoast SEO v23.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Virtual Storage Access Method (VSAM)? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Virtual Storage Access Method and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1254\/virtual-storage-access-method-vsam\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Virtual Storage Access Method\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Virtual Storage Access Method and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1254\/virtual-storage-access-method-vsam\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1254\/virtual-storage-access-method-vsam#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1254\/virtual-storage-access-method-vsam\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Virtual Storage Access Method\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-25T14:52:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-07-25T14:52:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1254\/virtual-storage-access-method-vsam\"},\"wordCount\":148,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1254\/virtual-storage-access-method-vsam#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1254\/virtual-storage-access-method-vsam\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/1254\/virtual-storage-access-method-vsam\",\"name\":\"What is Virtual Storage Access Method (VSAM)? 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