1. OVERVIEW › 1.1 Primary Areas of Application
1.1 Primary Areas of Application
The StorageMate product can be used in a number of areas the
storage administrator typically will encounter. The primary
areas of application are discussed below.
Problem Management
------------------
The CA MICS StorageMate product can help identify existing
and potential problems at both a detailed and summary level
that reduce the effectiveness of your storage resources.
At the volume level, volumes without indexed VTOCs that could
cause degraded response time are easily identified. Other
potential volume errors that CA MICS StorageMate can identify
include VTOC structure damage, a missing or undersized VSAM
Volume Data Set (VVDS), and excessive seek delays caused by
improper data set placement.
CA MICS StorageMate identifies allocation errors by scanning
the SMF job files in the CA MICS database and looking for
space-related abends. The failing jobs and the amount of
time and resources expended in recovering from the failure
are identified. Assessment of your effectiveness is often
tied to the number of these abends occurring within your
installation. This report can establish or monitor a service
level agreement between you and the data center management
team.
Another facility in the StorageMate product identifies data
sets that are allocated so that they cannot easily be managed
by automated storage management software. For example,
products such as DFHSM and DFSMS require that the data sets
they manage be cataloged. Uncataloged data sets must be
manipulated manually. The ability to identify these problem
data sets will reduce your duties and help facilitate the
implementation of automated products. The Unmanageable Data
Sets facility within CA MICS StorageMate that detects these
errors can also generate a jobstream that will correct some
of the errors encountered.
Large portions of storage resources are often wasted by poor
allocation practices. Most of this wasted space is caused by
one of the following conditions:
o The user has allocated far more space than was actually
needed.
o The user is storing data using a block size that is not
efficient for the device on which the data is stored.
o The user has allocated VSAM data sets using options that
are not efficient for the storage device or for the
application that accesses the data.
All of these conditions can be detected using the Non-VSAM
Wasted Space and the VSAM Wasted Space facilities included in
the StorageMate product. Reports within these facilities
detect these problem data sets and, optionally, show you only
the worst violators. This allows you to concentrate on
correcting those data sets that are wasting the most space.
Another option of these facilities shows wasted space at the
department or group level, to help you quickly identify
groups that are not using storage effectively.
Another facility provided by CA MICS StorageMate, the
DASD/HSM Data Movement facility, allows you to monitor the
movement of data between your primary DASD volumes and DFHSM.
Many installations use DFHSM to move unused data sets to
DFHSM migration storage, thus freeing their critical, primary
DASD space for the allocation of new data sets. This process
needs to be monitored to ensure that DFHSM parameters and SMS
management class values are still working as expected. Even
a well-tuned DFHSM system may not function well if your data
set access patterns change over time. Intentional abuse of
primary space or DFHSM space by users or groups can also be
detected with these reports.
One of the critical activities you should be performing
regularly is the monitoring of new data sets. Early
detection of excessive space consumption will help prevent
short-term performance problems and long-term capacity
problems. Even users of DFSMS need to perform this important
monitoring, as users under DFSMS may still have the ability
to override system defaults and change the size and location
of their new data sets. The New Data Set Allocation facility
within StorageMate allows you to regularly monitor the
allocation patterns of new data sets. New allocation
activity can be summarized according to volume, DFSMS
construct, DFSMS Storage Group or application area. Patterns
present on the summary reports can be further investigated
using detailed reporting.
The following reports can assist you with problem management
activities:
o Unmanageable Data Sets
o Volume Problems
o Allocation Problems
o New Data Set Allocation
o Non-VSAM Wasted Space
o VSAM Wasted Space
o DASD/HSM Data Movement
For more information on these reports, see Section 4.3 of
this guide.
Data Set Standards
------------------
The StorageMate product helps you establish and enforce data
set standards, that, in turn helps you simplify operations
and better control your storage environment.
Data set name standardization allows for usage and service
requirements to be determined by a simple review of the data
set name. The Data Set Names facility of CA MICS StorageMate
scans the CA MICS database and reports the frequency of
usage of data set name nodes. It also flags data set name
exceptions, thereby facilitating enforcement of existing data
set standards.
Two facilities, the VSAM Attributes facility and the Non-VSAM
Attributes facility within the StorageMate product, allow you
to quickly identify common allocation patterns within your
data sets, which allows you to detect groups of data sets
that are not using storage resources efficiently. Once these
groups are identified, additional options allow you to
investigate the problem groups in greater detail.
The use of Generation Data Groups (GDGs) is helpful to users,
but can be a burden to you. The GDG Management and Retention
facility within CA MICS StorageMate allows you to summarize
the use of GDGs. The reports produced from this facility
allow you to identify potential problems within these groups,
such as groups allocated on too few volumes for adequate
recovery or duplicate or missing generations.
A simulation option allows you to determine the effects of
proposed GDG options without actually making any changes or
moving any data.
The following reports can assist you with data set standards:
o Data Set Names
o Non-VSAM Attributes
o VSAM Attributes
o GDG Management and Retention
For more information on these reports, refer to Section 4.3
of this guide.
Volume Grouping
---------------
One recent trend in storage management is the concept of
pooling similar DASD volumes into a logical entity. These
logical groups are often referred to as volume pools, volume
groups, or (for SMS users) storage groups. This trend is
encouraged by the rapid increase in the amount of data that
must be managed and also by the appearance of automated
storage management products that expect or encourage volume
grouping.
While volume grouping allows you more simplicity and better
control of the environment, it also complicates the tasks of
reporting and monitoring because these are elevated from the
volume level to the volume group level.
The Volume Group Configuration, Volume Group Activity by
Workload, and Volume Group Allocations by User facilities
within CA MICS StorageMate simplify reporting at the volume
group level. They analyze the allocation, performance, and
activity of each volume group. This allows you to track
service level agreements at the volume group level and detect
the possible misuse of groups in certain environments.
A simulation option within each of these facilities allows
easy testing of proposed changes in your volume group
definitions. This allows you to experiment with alternate
configurations and determine the optimum groupings without
causing any adverse effect on your users.
The following reports can help you with volume grouping:
o Volume Group Configuration
o Volume Group Activity by Workload
o Volume Group Allocations by User
For more information on these reports, refer to Section 4.3
of this guide.
Space Availability
------------------
Space availability has historically been a concern of storage
administrators because users always expect to have plenty of
space at their disposal. The need for this level of service
has led to the development of automated products such as
DFHSM, DFSMS, and DMS/OS that have made the Storage
Administrator's job easier.
The StorageMate product provides several tools that help you
establish and tune many of the thresholds you must define to
products such as DFHSM. One analysis helps you to determine
the frequency patterns of data set usage and to estimate the
values that should be used to drive your automated products
at optimum efficiency. CA MICS StorageMate also helps you
verify that your automated space management tools (DFSMS and
DMS/OS) are working properly and set up or modify the
migration, deletion, and release thresholds used by these
products. When threshold changes are required, the Space
Management Function Simulation facility allows you to
determine the effects of those changes before any data is
actually affected.
Even a well tuned storage system can experience availability
problems if it is not monitored and adjusted regularly.
Application changes and normal business cycles are only two
of many events that may change storage availability patterns.
The Daily DASD Resource Usage and Daily Application Resource
Usage facilities can be used to monitor space availability
and take corrective action before problems develop. For
DFHSM users, the Daily HSM DASD Usage facility provides the
storage picture from the viewpoint of HSM. This not only
provides early warning for potential space problems, but also
allows you to measure the effectiveness of HSM options and
space management activities.
The following reports can help you with space availability:
o Deletion/Migration/Release Thresholds
o Space Management Function Simulation
o Daily DASD Resource Usage
o Daily Application Resource Usage
o Daily HSM DASD Usage
For more information on these reports, refer to Section 4.3
of this guide.
SMS Migration and Monitoring
----------------------------
DFSMS, DMS/OS, and other automated products have
revolutionized storage administration. These automated tools
allow each storage administrator to manage more megabytes,
data sets, and physical volumes.
These tools must be properly implemented and tuned if they
are to do the job correctly. The key is proper planning and
preparation.
The CA MICS StorageMate product can give you the proper level
of knowledge about the data center and provide data useful in
deciding how the automated tools should operate. CA MICS
StorageMate can also monitor your SMS implementation progress
so that management stays informed of the status of the
migration effort.
After DFSMS or other automated products are fully
implemented, additional StorageMate facilities can be used to
monitor the efforts of these automated products. This helps
you ensure the products are operating as designed and quickly
identifies user or system errors that could affect the
performance and integrity of the automated system.
The following reports can help you with SMS migration and
monitoring:
o ACS Routine Definition
o ACS Test Case Creation
o ACS Testing Results
o SMS Implementation
o SMS Class Usage
For more information on these reports, refer to Section 4.3
of this guide.
Performance Management
----------------------
Information that is stored electronically or magnetically
must be accessible in a timely manner. One of the strategic
challenges you face is maintaining the performance of data
sets, volumes, volume pools, and other storage entities.
CA MICS StorageMate detects performance problems before they
become critical and affect your storage users.
While some performance problems can be detected from RMF
data, more specific information about many performance
problems must be obtained from a more detailed storage
monitor such as ASTEX. Some CA MICS StorageMate reports read
information supplied by the CA MICS Application Extension for
ASTEX. These reports often give very precise information
about the causes of and solutions to performance problems.
The following reports can help you with performance
management:
o Data Set Performance
o Volume Configuration
o I/O Activity by Workload
o Daily ASTEX Cache Statistics
o ASTEX / Top Resource Consumers
For more information on these reports, refer to Section 4.3
of this guide.
Capacity Management
-------------------
The growth of critical online systems and expansion of data
across distributed networks has caused a growth in storage
requirements similar to the growth that has occurred in
processing power over the last two decades. You must
constantly identify and track resource requirements for
critical applications and project the future growth of
storage resource requirements so that hardware upgrades or
data management plans can be implemented before any shortage
occurs.
The StorageMate product allows you to identify and monitor
consumption of critical storage resources at many different
levels.
The following reports can help you with capacity management:
o DASD-to-Tape Candidates
o Tape-to-DASD Candidates
o Space Allocation by User
o Monthly DASD Resource Usage
o Monthly Application Resource Usage
o DASD/HSM Usage Snapshot
For more information on these reports, refer to Section 4.3
of this guide.
