6. DATA SOURCES › 6.3 Correlating Data Sources › 6.3.4 Defining Time Zone Offsets

6.3.4 Defining Time Zone Offsets

The purpose of the TIME OFFSET specification is to let you
bring data from multiple time zones together in the same CA
MICS database unit. In such a case, one of the time zones is
selected as the base, and is assigned a TIME OFFSET of 0.
The TIME OFFSET for each system in a different time zone from
the base is set according to whether the time zone is east or
west of the base system:

o For a time zone west of the base, use a positive number.

o For a time zone east of the base, use a negative number.

TIME OFFSET is always added to the data time.

Example:  A user's hub system is located in New York. A
          satellite system is located in Chicago.  The time
          zone difference is one hour.  The following TIME
          OFFSET specifications are used:

          o  New York - Time Offset 0
          o  Chicago  - Time Offset 1

Record times, including the time the record was written,
interval end-time, and other time-of-day values, are all
adjusted using the time offset value specification.  The
variable TMOFFSET is carried as a retained data element in
each file.  This can be used to calculate the original time
stamps if necessary.

Some of the network monitors (for example, NPM) provide a
similar time zone offset capability that takes affect before
the data is written to SMF.  In such cases, you can adjust
the data for different time zones in CA MICS or in the
network monitor, but do not make the adjustment in both
places.  The CA MICS time zone offset adjustment affects all
CA MICS Network Analyzer files, not just those files from a
specific data source.  Consequently, if you process data from
multiple network monitors into CA MICS Network Analyzer, and
not all of these monitors provide a time zone offset feature,
it is better to make the offset in CA MICS.

Section 7.3.1, Product-Specific Parameters (SNTOPS),
discusses how to set TIME OFFSET in
prefix.MICS.PARMS(SNTOPS).