4. Operation › 4.1 Overview › 4.1.5 Select and Force Facilities

4.1.5 Select and Force Facilities

To preserve the integrity of data in the CA MICS Database, a
number of rigid input checks occur prior to data being
written to the Database.  At times, however, special
processing requirements dictate the need to safely bypass
these protection features.

The Select facility provides a means to select only a portion
of the data on a given input file.  A common use for the
Select facility occurs when processing cumulative input files
such as the SMF history files.  For example, if a daily tape
is damaged, the Select facility allows you to use a
cumulative tape to access the day's data.

The Force facility overrides standard Database time-range
checks, enabling the System Administrator to process data for
date/time ranges that are already in the Database.  For
example, if a portion of data was unavailable for the
standard daily update, perhaps because a remote site's data
transmission link to the host site was down, the Force
facility enables the System Administrator to include the
remote site's "old" data in the Database.