Viewing Storage Object Data in the Investigator

Viewing Storage Object Data in the Investigator

View Storage Data in the Investigator

The Investigator gives you access to a storage repository. This repository is a replication of the information from the storage database, which is accessible using the storage engine. However, the information in the storage repository is designed to service storage resource activities. The Investigator simplifies your access to this information. The data in the Investigator is from the external storage engine.

The system groups Storage objects by categories in the expandable and collapsible storage object tree. The categories appear as folders in the storage object tree much like a directory. Categories contain common types of storage objects. Storage objects represent physical and conceptual components that are associated with one or more z/OS hosts.

When you select a storage object from the object tree, the storage engine collects instances of that object and the Investigator displays the data. After an object appears, select a row of data in the object to display more granular information in the Details pane. The Details pane opens at the bottom of the Investigator.

Follow these steps:

1. Log in to CA Chorus.
2. Add the Investigator module to your dashboard from the Module Library, and click Start New Investigation.

   The Investigator opens.

3. Select Storage from the discipline drop-down list.
4. Expand a storage category (directory) to list the storage objects included in that category.

   For example, expand the Expand the Volumes & Utilization, Storage Groups directory to see the objects in the Storage Groups directory and its sub directories.

5. Select a storage object.

   For example, expand the Expand the Volumes & Utilization, Storage Groups, Space and Other Attributes directory, and select the Storage Groups object. The Investigator displays the Storage Groups object table.

   Note: When opening very large storage objects, a message can be displayed stating that you must create a filter first. If this occurs, create a filter and click Search. The object is displayed with more manageable data.

6. Scroll through the data table or filter data by clicking the View Filter icon (Magnifying Glass icon at the top of the table).

   Note: To use a wildcard to filter on a string, enter the string and then the % sign.

7. (Optional) Select a row or multiple rows.

   The Actions panel opens to the right of the object table and the Details pane expands under the object table:

   • The Actions pane lists navigational and administrative type actions available for the line item selected. If you select multiple rows, the Actions pane displays only the navigational and administrative type actions available for all the selected rows.
   • The Details pane displays a number of tabs dependent on the navigational type actions available for the selected line item. The first tab displays the selected line item details. The remaining tabs display information from other objects pertaining to the selected line item. If you select multiple rows, the Details pane displays the line item details and navigational type actions available for the last row selected.

As you drill down into storage object data, the Investigator table header includes information to indicate how you arrived at a piece of data. If you filter data, those values appear as header information in your results. As you drill into data, use the Actions pane on the right to identify dependencies and relationships among the records.

The object data toolbar provides additional options. Hover your cursor over the icons on the toolbar to see the available options.

For most objects, the number of records that are found is shown in the "Displaying number_of items at date_time" field at the bottom of the object. However for some storage objects, the quantity of records is shown as "Displaying many items at date_time" because the total number of records is not known.

If you have a multiple storage engine environment in CA Chorus for Storage Management, storage object rows display records from each storage engine available. A column is displayed in the storage object listing the storage engine the record data comes from. If a storage engine is not running or if the connection to a defined storage engine is not available, the data from the storage engine is not displayed in the object. You receive a warning message when you open the storage object if a defined storage engine is not available. Open the Storage Engine Information object to see storage engine information, status, and response statistics.

Note: In a multiple storage engine environment:

• The Main Engine is the storage engine that provides CA Chorus with storage object attributes, which include storage object table header information, the available Administrative Actions for the object, relationships to other objects, and so on.
• User-defined Summary Objects that exist in the Main Engine at the time of the JBoss server startup are included in the storage object tree. Use the Summary Objects Distribution Wizard in the storage engine windows client to distribute user-defined Summary Objects to your storage engines. For more information about the Summary Designer and the Summary Objects Distribution Wizard in the storage engine windows client, see the CA Vantage User Guide. This guide is available in the Knowledge Center.

More Information

Viewing Storage Object Performance Data in the Investigator

Storage Engine Information

How to Display Object Help

Filter Required for Very Large Storage Objects

View Storage Object Relationships in the Topology Viewer

View Storage Object Performance Data in the Time Series Facility

Storage Resource Objects