1. THE CA MICS APPLICATION EXTENSION FOR ASTEX

The CA MICS Application Extension for ASTEX stores data
recorded by the CA ASTEX product into the CA MICS database.
ASTEX (short for Automated Storage Expert) is a tool for
improving the performance of the storage hierarchy of your
MVS/XA and MVS/ESA systems.  ASTEX monitors two levels of the
storage hierarchy:  DASD and cache. ASTEX analyzes the
performance of these resources, finds where problems exist,
and then maximizes performance by recommending solutions to
your I/O response time problems and cache utilization
problems.  In addition, ASTEX will dynamically optimize the
utilization of your cache resources.

The CA MICS Application Extension for ASTEX allows the
information recorded by ASTEX to be stored for longer periods
of time by using the standard CA MICS database summarization
techniques.  More importantly, this application extension
allows for the merging and joint analysis of detailed ASTEX
DASD and cache data with other data in the CA MICS database,
such as MVS Batch and Operations Analyzer information.

This application extension provides for standard data
conversion by:

o  Converting time units to seconds
o  Decoding hexadecimal fields
o  Calculating derived elements like average response time

It also has interfaces to CA MICS StorageMate and to CA MICS
Accounting and Chargeback.

This section contains the following topics:

1.1 CA MICS Product Interfaces

1.2 Reports

1.3 Files

1.4 Data Sources

1.5 Parameter Specifications

1.6 Installation and Operation

1.7 References

1.8 Messages