Understanding the CA MICS Database › 3.3 File Content

3.3 File Content

It is at the file level (level 3) that individual data
elements, also called SAS variables, are accessed.

DATA ELEMENT TYPES
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Each of the thousands of CA MICS data elements has a TYPE
attribute associated with it that identifies it as a member
of one of these categories:

o Common Elements
o Retained Elements
o Accumulated Elements
o Minimum Elements
o Maximum Elements
o Derived Elements

The category determines how CA MICS treats the element during
the summarization process. Each category is described below.

Common Elements:  Data elements that appear in more than one
database file but have a common definition across files. Most
data elements are not common data elements, that is they
appear in only one database file. Here are examples of common
data elements:

SYSID - System Identification
ENDTS - End Time Stamp

Retained Elements:  Data elements that are not suitable for
summarization. If retained data elements are present in a
summarized timespan (DAYS or higher), they represent the
value of the data element from the last record summarized.
Here is an example of a retained data element:

JOBEPRTY - JES Execution Priority

Accumulated Elements:  Data elements that are summed during
the CA MICS summarization process. Here is an example of an
accumulated data element:

JOBCPUTM - Job CPU Time

Min/Max Elements:  Data elements that contain the minimum or
maximum value encountered during the summarization process.
Here are examples of min/max data elements:

CPUMNONL - Min Number of Online CP Processors
CPUMXB   - Max Batch Users

Derived Elements:  Data elements that are derived using a
specific computation (for example, paging rate per second).
Derived data elements are recomputed at each level of
summarization (DAYS, WEEKS, and so on).  Here is an example
of a derived data element:

PAGPSDPG - Demand Paging Per Second

DATA ELEMENT NAMING CONVENTIONS
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A data element name is eight characters or less. The
following conventions are used, where possible, to help
identify the type of data element.

fffkk-l2

where:

fff The first three characters identify the CA MICS file or
    parallel file that contains the data element.

    Common data elements do not use a data element prefix.
    They have a common definition across database information
    areas or across files within an information area.  You
    will find common data elements listed in the
    Sequence/Summary Data Elements and Common Data Elements
    sections of the Data Elements List in the Files chapter
    in the DIA guides.

 kk The fourth and fifth characters of a data element name
    are generally used to identify the type of variable, as
     follows:

    PC          Percentage
    MP          Max Percentage
    PS          Per Second Rate
    MS          Max Per Second Rate
    AV          Average
    MX          Maximum
    MN          Minimum

 l2 Whenever the variable is time-related, the last two
    characters are as follows:

    TS          Date-Time Stamp
    TM          Time
    DT          Date

All data elements have a data element label (up to 44 bytes)
that describes the variable. In addition, each data element
contains a data dictionary definition that explains exactly
what the data element value represents, how it is derived,
and how it is treated during summarization. Usage notes are
sometimes provided that explain how to interpret and make
decisions based on the element's value.

The CA MICS reporting facilities (MICF and Q&R) provide the
element label and dictionary descriptions on demand.  In
addition, individual DIA guides end with an appendix that
contains descriptions of each data element associated with
the DIA files.  (These appendixes are not included in the

PDFs and HTML available on CA Support Online.)