5. DATABASE FILES › 5.2 SNT Information Area › 5.2.2 Network Components Activity File (SNTCAF) › 5.2.2.3 Usage Considerations

5.2.2.3 Usage Considerations

This section identifies the special considerations or
techniques related to using the SNTCAF file, followed by
several retrieval examples.


In the examples, a SAS macro variable is used to specify the
DDname part of the CA MICS file name. These macro variables
are a standard part of CA MICS and are available for all
files. The macro variable name has the form &diiit, where d
is the database identifier, iii is the information area
name, and t is the timespan.  For the examples, a database
identifier of P is used.  The identifier is installation
dependent, so you should find out what the identifiers are at
your installation.

Special Considerations/Techniques

1. Care must be exercised in using the special date and time
   data elements contained in each CA MICS file. As the
   file's granularity increases in higher timespans, certain
   fields lose significance and should not be used in those
   cases.

   o HOUR should not be used in MONTHS.
   o DAY and DAYNAME should not be used in WEEKS or MONTHS.
   o WEEK should not be used in MONTHS.

2. The following data elements are user-defined.  The value
   in each depends on user-selected options or user-supplied
   supplied SAS code:

   o NETWRKID - Network Identifier.  A one to eight-character
     descriptive name for each network represented in the
     data.  NETWRKID is set in the Network Identifier Exit
     Routine, SNTNIDRT, discussed in Chapter 7.  For NPM,
     NETWRKID may be set to the value of PLU Network
     Identifier (PLUNETID).

   o TMOFFSET - Time offset applied to the data in the file.
     The user can associate a time offset with each unique
     NETWRKID/SYSID combination.  This offset is used to
     adjust data times when data from multiple time zones is
     brought together in the CA MICS database. To determine
     the original time at which the data was recorded,
     subtract TMOFFSET from the value.  Time offset is
     assigned in the SNTOPS member of prefix.MICS.PARMS,
     discussed in Chapter 7.

3. The following data elements lose significance once
   summarization has been performed.  These data elements
   should be referenced only when the last observed value in
   a summarization interval is significant.

   NPMTSFRU - Forward RU Send Time
   NPMTSLOG - Time Record Logged to SMF
   NPMTSEIS - Expected Interval Time

4. If the data source for this file is the CA NetSpy SMF
   Record, then the following element will have missing
   values:

   o NPMTSFRU - Forward RU Send Time


Retrieval Example

Produce a chart showing the error occurrences for each
network component for the month to date:

   PROC CHART DATA=&PSNTM..SNTCAF00;
     HBAR NETNAME / SUMVAR=CAFNRERR DESCENDING;