Introduction › How to Analyze and Lower DASD Costs › Analyze DASD Costs

Analyze DASD Costs

This topic shows how a storage administrator can analyze DASD to determine if current costs are within target limits. DASD that sits above target limits can mean increased costs for your site.

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 the Cost Analysis directory in the Storage object tree, and open the Current Analyses object.

   Each row poses a question about your storage environment. We recommend that you review those with a severity code. In the following example, the first row shows a severity one, and the second row shows a severity two. The severity column is blank in the other rows because the scenario results are within accepted (target) limits. The following illustration is an example of the Current Analyses object table for a single host:

   

5. Click anywhere in the row besides the check-box in the severity one row.

   The Actions pane on the right-side of the table and the Details pane at the bottom of the Investigator window expand, as shown in the following example.

   Note: The Details tab in the Details pane is selected (by default).

   

6. Click the action Show allocations by DSORG, to open the Alloc/Idle Bytes Dsorg (DTOCDSOR) summary object.

   The Alloc/Idle Bytes Dsorg (DTOCDSOR) summary object opens. This object contains the storage resource data used in the analytical calculations. This object summarizes data sets according to their DSORG (data set organization group) field. The number of data sets for each data set organization is shown, with other summary statistics about the allocated space, idle space, and number of extents for each data set organization group.

7. Customize the Show allocations by DSORG table view by completing the following steps:
   1. Click the Customize your Tabular Data View (Wrench) icon in the table toolbar, to display the Select and Reorder Columns dialog.
   2. Click the column title Tot Idle Bytes in the All Selected Columns pane and click the up-arrow continuously until the column title is situated under the column title Nbr Of DSNs.

      This step changes the column sequence in the object display so that you can see the number of data sets right after the total amount of idle bytes.

   3. Verify that the check-box Always use this column configuration is selected, and click Save.

      The Show allocations by DSORG table is updated and the Tot Idle Bytes column is now displayed after the Nbr Of DSNs column in the table.

   4. Click the Tot Idle Bytes column heading cell two times, to sort the table in descending order by total number of idle bytes.

      The table now shows the data set organization types with the highest number of total idle bytes at the top of the list.

   This customization helps you identify which data set organization groups have over-allocated data sets (the groups with highest amount of idle space), which you can reduce.

8. Click the Current Analyses object in the object tree to open it.
9. Click anywhere in the row besides the check-box in the row What are the costs of DASD space wasted by over-allocated data sets?.

   The Actions pane expands and the Details pane at the bottom of the Investigator window is populated with the Details tab selected.

   The information displayed in the Details tab is the same information that is displayed when you select the Navigation Action Show Run Details. Both options show the total cost by year, for the different data set organization groups.

   • Year 1 represents the costs of your current over target percent.
   • Year 2 is calculated using the costs of your current over target percent and an erosion factor.
   • Year 3 is calculated using the costs of your second year and the same erosion factor.

   Note: The erosion factor used is the percent value of the DASD_ANNUAL_COST_EROSION_PERCENTAGE variable. You can see this value in the Customer Site Costs Data object.

   The cells containing values that are above your accepted target value have colored backgrounds.

   The following illustration shows the Details pane with the Details tab selected.

   

10. Complete the analysis by selecting the following Details tabs:

    Summary

    Displays the details of the Costs of DASD space wasted by over-allocated data sets scenario details in a form format.

    Synopsis

    Shows how the value of the scenario is calculated.

11. Click anywhere in the row besides the check-box in the What are the costs of maintaining any excess DASD capacity?.

    Note: The contents of the Actions pane and the Details pane pertain to the scenario selected by clicking anywhere in the row besides the check-box of the scenario row. Selecting the check box on a row does not expand the Details pane.

    The Actions pane expands and the Details pane at the bottom of the Investigator window is populated with the Details tab being selected (by default).

12. Review the costs associated with maintaining the excess DASD capacity in the Details pane by clicking the various tabs available. In our example where the scenario is a severity two, the tabs provide the following information:

    Details

    Details of the values used to perform the cost analysis. It also provides costs for the current year and the next two years (projected costs).

    Summary

    Provides an analysis of the cost of excess DASD capacity over and above what is required for peak demand.

    Synopsis

    Provides an explanation of the analysis.

    Recommendations

    Provides a recommendation of how to reduce costs.

    In this example, the information in the analysis indicates you are above your target limits and you need to reduce your DASD related costs. You now have an overview of the actual costs of your excess DASD capacity. You also have an overview of the costs of maintaining the excess DASD capacity and a recommendation of how to reduce it.