Make the CICS PA able to use DB2 tables as an input data source

We have given this RFE a lot of consideration and it is our view that the considerable effort to develop CICS PA to support Db2 input is not justified for the following reasons.

1. At this stage it would be a bespoke solution as no other customer has identified with this RFE and we are not aware of any other customer with similar plans.
2. The customer has not actually committed to loading all their SMF data into Db2. Also, there is no evidence that they have verified the loading SMF records into Db2 using the IDAA Loader is viable or cost effective.
3. We do not believe that significant CPU saving will be realized by replacing MVS I/O calls with calls to Db2 call (via IDAA) to read the SMF records. In fact, the processing of the metadata required to map the Db2 records might more than negate any CPU gains. In fact, CICS PA’s processing of CMF records is highly tuned to provide maximum performance.

Therefore, unfortunately, we have to reject this RFE.

Thank you for your detailed replies Paulo. We would like to have further discussions about this requirement. I will schedule a meeting to discuss.

Hello. We have replied the following email to Adham Sidhom and Satish Tanna at 2019 May 28th with the answers for these questions:

Adham, I'm really sorry for the delay. We had some situations and intensive activities these last weeks.

Regarding your questions:

1. Does this customer currently load the SMF110 into IDAA or is it depended on this RFE?
- Actually, customer would like to exploit better the IDAA's data storage and processing capacity. Loading SMF records into IDAA seems to them like a way to make a good use of IDAA, and the SMF110 records are one of the main candidates. This way, they started to verify the requisites to make feasible this "facility". This RFE is one of the dependencies because the IDAA's data are loaded as DB2 tables.They depend on this RFE and also on the possibility to load SMF110 records from log stream data into DB2 tables on IDAA, via the IDAA Loader for z/OS.

2. What are the perceived benefits of putting the SMF110 records in IDAA?
- As explained above, they would like to exploit better the IDAA's data storage and processing capacity.

3. If performance is the major perceived benefit, has there been any benchmarking done to compare IDAA v SMF? Remembering that CICS PA processes the records sequentially.
- No benchmarking has been done, however currently the customer retain the SMF records for about two weeks, moving them to "tape" after this time. If they could load these data into IDAA, they could keep the data "indefinitely", decreasing the elapsed time of the CICS PA jobs which refer to old SMF records. Just this benefit is already a great motivation to justify using the IDAA.

4. If benchmarking was done, can the results be shared with us? Also, what is the threshold for performance benefit that justifies putting the records is IDAA?
- No benchmarking has been done. Certainly the performance is also a concern, but the main justification that motivated the customer's request is to exploit better the IDAA's data storage and processing capacity, eventually relieve the CPs usage and the reason detailed on the previous answer.

5. Will the SMF110 records in IDAA be used for non-CICS PA reporting, e.g. will the user be writing their own SQL or use another tool to process the records?
- The SMF110 records are also used for other internal processing and can be used for another tool, besides the CICS PA.

6. Does the customer use Log Streams for the SMF110 records? If so, how does the Log Stream performance compare with IDAA? CICS PA currently supports Log Streams input.
- Yes, the customer does use Log Streams, but no comparative tests were done.

7. Which of the SMF110 subtypes does the user plans to load into IDAA or will they load all SMF110 records?
- At first, subtypes 1 and 2.

8. If the user will only load SMF110 records in IDAA, will they require CICS PA subsystem reports such as Db2, MQ, Omegamon, Logger etc? If so, will they require concurrent processing of IDAA and SMF files?
- Actually, customer would like to load all SMF data as possible in IDAA. Currently they use CICS PA only with SMF110 as data input, however they can use other SMF records on CICS PA reports in the future.

If you need any additional information or anything is not clear, let me know.

Thank you.
Regards,
Paulo Cesar da Costa (pccosta@br.ibm.com)

As there has been no response to my questions I understand from talking to the account team that this is no longer required.

In order for us to properly assess this RFE we need to better understand the use case and the benefits of providing it. Some of the questions we need answered are:

• Does this customer currently load the SMF110 into IDAA or is it depended on this RFE?
• What are the perceived benefits of putting the SMF110 records in IDAA?
• If performance is the major perceived benefit, has there been any benchmarking done to compare IDAA v SMF? Remembering that CICS PA processes the records sequentially.
• If benchmarking was done, can the results be shared with us? Also, what is the threshold for performance benefit that justifies putting the records is IDAA?
• Will the SMF110 records in IDAA be used for non-CICS PA reporting, e.g. will the user be writing their own SQL or use another tool to process the records?
• Does the customer use Log Streams for the SMF110 records? If so, how does the Log Stream performance compare with IDAA? CICS PA currently supports Log Streams input.
• Which of the SMF110 subtypes does the user plans to load into IDAA or will they load all SMF110 records?
• If the user will only load SMF110 records in IDAA, will they require CICS PA subsystem reports such as Db2, MQ, Omegamon, Logger etc? If so, will they require concurrent processing of IDAA and SMF files?
If you prefer to discuss the above or any other matters on a conference call then please ask Satish Tanna to arrange it.