6. DATA SOURCES › 6.2 Data Collector and Processing Considerations › 6.2.3 Lost SMF Data

6.2.3 Lost SMF Data

SMF can stop recording or lose records under a number of
conditions:

  o  When all the defined SMF data sets are full or have the
     "DUMP REQUIRED" status and SMF runs out of buffer space.

  o  When SMF recording cannot find a usable data set to
     record on (e.g., I/O errors on the data set, control
     unit error on the volume containing all SMF data sets).

  o  SMF records are being generated at such a high rate that
     I/O processing cannot keep up.

When the condition has been corrected, a type 7 record will
be written identifying the number of records lost.

SMF data lost in the ways described above cannot be
recovered.  Along with the loss of revenue from data center
chargeback, there is a break in the continuity of the
resource consumption history at your site.  You can minimize
SMF data losses by following the guidelines in the SMF manual
for your MVS operating system.

You should automate the dumping of full SMF data sets.  when
a full data set message is detected. Consider using the
IEFU29 exit to submit a dump job when a data set becomes
full.