1. OVERVIEW › 1.1 Primary Areas of Application

1.1 Primary Areas of Application

The CA MICS Space Analyzer provides data integration and
reporting capabilities that aid in the management of complex
MVS systems in the following areas:

o  Space Management

   The CA MICS Space Analyzer files provide the basis for a
   wide variety of analysis based on size of data set and
   days on non-usage.  For example, some customers examine
   the date of last use for a data set generating HMIGRATE
   commands to move the data to less expensive storage based
   on size of data set.  Smaller data sets are allowed to
   remain on primary storage longer than large data sets.
   This algorithm has been found to be more useful than the
   use of DFHSM daily space management in a non-SMS
   environment.

   There are numerous other examples of analysis based on
   space characteristics. Identifying data sets in an
   excessive number of extents or VSAM data sets with an
   excessive number of control area splits uncovers
   opportunities for application-level tuning that improves
   both performance and (space) availability.

o  Accounting and Chargeback

   The CA MICS Space Analyzer files contain data in a form
   that is usable for basic billing of DASD resource
   occupancy.  A standard interface to CA MICS Accounting and
   Chargeback permits accounting from DASD measures of space
   and the special services implied by SMS class names.

o  Capacity Planning

   The CA MICS Space Analyzer maintains a database of
   historical DASD occupancy data. This facilitates growth
   and trend projections at the system and organizational
   unit (division or department) levels.

o  Performance Management

   Many of the data elements captured in this information
   area contain values that are important to performance
   management.  For example, identifying volumes that do not
   have an indexed VTOC can offer the potential to improve
   performance for the entire DASD configuration. Likewise,
   knowing which VSAM clusters have an excessive number of
   index levels provides the opportunity to boost performance
   of the applications that use that data.

o  Operational Issues

   DASD volumes tend to become fragmented with many small
   extents of free space over time.  To make these volumes
   more usable, periodic jobs compacting this free space are
   required.  Using information organized by the CA MICS
   Space Analyzer, you can generate control statements for
   this data management process only when needed and save the
   processing resources required for unnecessary compaction
   operations.

o  Migration to DFSMS

   Preparing for Systems Managed Storage (SMS) as implemented
   by DFSMS requires careful planning that the CA MICS Space
   Analyzer facilitates.  One of the many tasks related to
   migrating to DFSMS requires you to identify data sets that
   are uncataloged or allocated with various attributes that
   make them unmanageable by DFSMS.  You can identify these
   problem data sets by examining a file maintained by the CA
   MICS Space Analyzer and generate a control statement to
   either DELETE or catalog the data set.

o  Management Reporting and Policy Creation

   You can extract, group, and summarize information directly
   from the database to create useful management reporting
   measures.  Management can establish service objectives for
   different types of data sets, such as storage group or
   volume pool, storage class, management class, or data
   owner.  Reports or one-page management summaries that
   compare actual occupancy against the service level
   objectives create the potential for creating policies that
   are rational and achievable.  In addition to the standard
   management reports that are distributed  with the system,
   you can easily create custom reports by using online
   facilities.  Additional tools allow resummarization when
   the summarized data in the database does not directly
   address reporting needs.

Integration of Data from Catalogs, VTOCs, DFHSM and SMS

Another feature of the CA MICS Space Analyzer is its
comprehensive handling of data gathered from diverse and
complex structures such as all forms of MVS catalogs, VTOCs,
and the SMS address space. The CA MICS Space Collector
gathers this data in a high-speed scan of these structures.
Then, the CA MICS Space Analyzer:

o  Consolidates data from multiple sources providing a
   common access method for reporting on data set and volume
   occupancy.  For example, a record in the VCA database
   which represents a data set is formed from data that
   originates from the VTOC, the VVDS and the SMS address
   space.  All these important attributes are organized into
   an easily-handled SAS observation in accordance with the
   CA MICS data model.

o  Interprets encoded values in the input data so that
   information is immediately usable in a logical form,
   without further conversion and/or translation.

o  Supports the classification of cost center information
   based on organizational structure by allowing each
   organization to set its own account codes to link
   individual data sets with the responsible cost center or
   organizational unit.  You can use this structure to report
   other measured work such as batch, TSO, and printing
   activity with DASD and DFHSM resources by user area
   (engineering, payroll, manufacturing, etc.), or any other
   applicable section or category.

o  Eliminates duplicate data during daily processing.


General Product Flexibility

The CA MICS Space Analyzer also offers a number of
flexibility features, such as the following:

o  A wide range of standard exits to allow you to tailor the
   product to your specific needs.

o  A data dictionary that describes the information found in
   the three information areas controlled by the CA MICS
   Space Analyzer (VCA, HSM, and HSB).

o  Usage guidelines for applying DASD and DFHSM management
   information.

CA MICS database files are summarized in the same manner
across all products.  Therefore, you can combine batch, TSO
and operational information with information about DASD
occupancy and DFHSM inventories.  Combining data from
multiple data sources allows you to compare and correlate
batch and system information with other application-specific
data such as that from RMF, CICS, IMS, DB2, etc.

The CA MICS Space Analyzer contributes to the overall
benefits provided by the CA MICS IS Management Support System
in the following areas:

    o  Improving day-to-day IS management by allowing you to
       track DASD usage and plan corrective actions to ensure
       smooth operations

    o  Reducing risk to the enterprise by providing audit and
       control capabilities for all DASD use

    o  Controls or reduces costs by:

       -  allowing you to equitably charge users for the
          amount of DASD they use

       -  identifying, in conjunction with other operating
          system management products, unused resources to
          substantially reduce the products' associated costs

       -  eliminating the costs associated with maintaining
          other, separate DASD reporting products

    o  Improves return on the IS investment by:

       -  providing a basis for operating system and hardware
          resource usage chargeback either through CA MICS
          Accounting and Chargeback or a basic user-developed
          costing process

       -  improving your ability to understand, report on,
          control, and, if necessary, reduce DASD expenses

    o  Increases productivity by:

       -  allowing less experienced users to interpret report
          results and use database information

       -  reducing the task of coordinating information from
          multiple sources so you can report or analyze
          information at the enterprise rather than the
          system level

       -  reducing the large quantities of DASD usage data to
          a manageable and easily used format

    o  Improves planning by:

       -  allowing you to perform trend analysis through the
          use of summarized historical data

       -  collecting DFSMS data that can be used to plan or
          monitor DFSMS implementation