1. OVERVIEW › 1.4 Online Facility Tutorial › 1.4.1 Introduction to the Online Facility › 1.4.1.2 Major Features of the Online Facility

1.4.1.2 Major Features of the Online Facility

The online facility is a menu-based system that operates
under IBM's Interactive Systems Productivity Facility (ISPF)
and makes use of many of the features of the CA MICS
Information Center Facility (MICF).  If you are familiar with
ISPF commands, you will find that the online facility menus
behave like ISPF menus.  The major features of the online
facility include the following:

    o  Inquiry composition
    o  Inquiry modification
    o  Execution-time specifications
    o  Output replay

Each of these features, described below, is generally
applicable to both file definition inquiries and analysis
inquiries.

INQUIRY COMPOSITION

By completing one or a few online screens, you can create any
number of performance management inquiries.  These inquiries
allow you to analyze specific areas of MVS (such as real and
auxiliary storage and the DASD subsystem), to characterize
workloads via clustering analysis, and to simulate the
effects of initiator restructuring or workload demands on
tape drive availability.

The performance management inquiry screens are designed to be
easy to use.  You need to specify only those fields required
for the operation of a function.  Many fields have default
values defined to make operation even easier for you.

One of the features of the performance management screens is
that your specifications for various fields are saved by the
system so that you need not reenter them unless you want to
change the field value.  These fields are preserved not only
as you go from function to function, but they are also
preserved from day to day as you execute the performance
management software.

The fields that retain your previous specifications are:

    o  Timespan
    o  Cycle(s)
    o  Database IDs
    o  Allow runtime overrides
    o  Report by hour
    o  Generate report by Zone
    o  Date selection
    o  Hour selection
    o  Zone selection
    o  SYSID selection
    o  Performance Group selection
    o  Performance Domain selection
    o  Performance Period selection
    o  Program selection
    o  Job selection


INQUIRY MODIFICATION

Once created, an inquiry can be stored in your private
catalog, recalled, copied, deleted, or modified.  You make
changes to an inquiry using the same online facility screens
that you originally used to create the inquiry.  You do not,
however, need to redisplay screens that did not change.

EXECUTION-TIME SPECIFICATIONS

You can define analysis inquiries so that key inquiry
parameters can be specified at the time the analysis inquiry
is executed.  This facility allows you to report against
varying data without changing the analysis inquiry.

OUTPUT REPLAY

The online facility allows you to save the output produced
when you execute a file definition or analysis inquiry, and
replay it later.  The output is saved by inquiry name, date,
and time.  Your CA MICS System Administrator can place
inquiry outputs into a shared replay catalog that can be used
throughout your installation.

When you replay an inquiry output, you can either view it on
your terminal or send it to a hardcopy device.  If you are
replaying color graphics output, you do not need to use the
type of device that was specified at the time the inquiry was
originally executed.  You can specify the color terminal,
color printer, or color plotter type to use at the time you
request the replay.