Back in the early days of what was then called AS/400, when people said they had a 10 gigabyte machine, they were referring to DASD. Today, they are referring to system memory. The point is that this is not your father's AS/400 (or iSeries or System i), and the changes that have occurred have serious implications for system management and optimization.

As System i evolved to offer significantly more memory and DASD, not to mention radically faster processors in multi-way configurations, business applications grew to take advantage of the expanded resources. System i has always been a platform for robust, straightforward, and totally reliable ERP systems, but now it is assigned a much more varied workload, with massively increased transaction volumes generated by users who may be located anywhere in the world and who expect instant response.

Not only has the number of business applications run on System i grown, but their complexity has mushroomed as well. System i must now accommodate multiple technologies and languages, varied access methods, and some methodologies that are not always sympathetic to the platform.

System i and its predecessors have, correctly, been sold as easy to implement, manage, and use. Because they bought System i to achieve lower total cost of ownership, many companies, particularly small and medium-sized firms, have a limited number of people managing System i. In fact, many small shops assign all of the System i technical responsibilities to one person. What's more, that person may also perform tasks that would be done by administrative staff in a larger company.

The upshot is that the skills required just to harvest the information needed to identify System i issues and problems, let alone to address them, are typically scarce. Consequently, System i monitoring, analysis, and optimization tasks may be perpetually shunted to the bottom of the priorities list. In the past, as DASD filled up and processors became overburdened, the only alternative to hiring more staff to perform optimization tasks was to spend more money to add DASD and more or faster processors.

Maximizing the Benefits

·        Compression

·        QSYS and IFS object clean-up

·        Data, CPU, and I/O usage monitoring

Compression

Physical File Reorganization

Deleted records are logically deleted, but they continue to occupy space until you reorganize the file. In addition, because "deleted" records are brought into the I/O buffers and then filtered out during read operations, they slow down applications. Furthermore, deleted records are copied onto backup tapes. They are then reloaded onto disk should you need to perform a restore. Thus, by regularly reorganizing files, you can reclaim considerable storage space, as well as improve the performance of business applications and backup and restore operations.

Many organizations don't perform reorganizations as often as they should because it takes a long time to reorganize the exceptionally large files that are typical today. In the past, all applications accessing the file had to be shut down until the reorganization process completed. That is no longer true. System i includes reorganize-while-active capabilities. Nonetheless, because such reorganizations strain resources and maintain lengthy record locks, they must be restricted to periods when the other demands on the system are light. Yet, as they often take longer than the available maintenance windows, many companies still defer file reorganizations longer than is prudent. Fortunately, third-party reorganization solutions can overcome these impediments.

QSYS and IFS Object Clean-Up

A typical System i machine stores more than half a million objects. Many of them are never used. Deleting obsolete objects, possibly archiving them first, frees up considerable DASD.

In addition, obsolete objects will be included in data backups and restores, slowing down those processes. And if you use a high availability (HA) product, the obsolete objects will be replicated to the backup server, consuming space there as well. Once you delete the obsolete objects on your primary system, the HA replication process will automatically delete them from the backup server.

Logical File Optimization

Because of the indexes used to create views, logical files can be exceptionally large, and their use can consume considerable CPU cycles. Logical file optimization is, therefore, critical, but the necessary tasks can be very complex. First, you need an advanced analysis tool to spot problem areas. Even after you've identified the issues, unless there is an adequate downtime window available, you may have to switch users to a backup system while you perform the optimization tasks. Because logical file optimization involves index key sharing, you must then kick-start the operating system to perform sharing, where possible. It also involves managing the maintenance of the access paths—*IMMED or *REBLD—so, when taking advantage of the great gains here, you must also put in place an active monitor on index usage to reverse any access path maintenance changes in the unlikely event that they are again required by users on a regular basis.

The value to be derived from logical file optimization can be very high. Nonetheless, as with all things, the greatest benefits sometimes come only with much work, but an optimization tool that automates this process can dramatically reduce the complexity and workload.

Data, CPU, and I/O Usage Monitoring

It is an almost immutable law that processor and storage use will increase over time due to at least three factors: increases in business volumes, increases in the variety of data retained, and increases in the number and complexity of the business functions that are automated. To ensure that the IT infrastructure is sufficient to handle this growth and provide adequate application performance, you must monitor these trends. When doing so, it is important that you scrutinize the trees, not just the forest. In other words, you must have tools that allow you to isolate potential bottlenecks and deal with them before they become critical.

Monitoring data growth is not as easy as it may seem. Doing so using operating system commands alone involves the use of the DSPOBJD *ALL *ALL and DSPFD *ALL *ALL commands. In addition, separate commands are required to provide visibility into the IFS which is, typically, one enormous file. Plus, you'll need a host of custom queries to monitor week-to-week object growth. Trying to do all of this without a good set of tools is daunting.

It is also important to keep an eye on program-specific CPU usage. Often, you'll find that some of the least important applications consume the greatest volume of CPU and memory. If you know about them, you may be able to schedule these non-critical jobs during times when CPU demands are lower or restrict them by, for example, pool size.

Even if your System i machine has no DASD constraints or CPU bottlenecks, performance of some applications can be curtailed by I/O bandwidth limits. It is, therefore, important to be able to determine which tasks are consuming the most I/O bandwidth and, if possible, adjust their scheduling to avoid bottlenecks.

Automation

System i optimization and management tools fall into one of three categories: monitors, analyzers, and optimizers, with the majority occupying the most basic of the three categories, monitors. The use of the word "basic" is not meant to imply that these products offer little value. On the contrary, monitors deliver value by providing useful information about what is going on inside your System i.

Obviously, monitors don't create data out of thin air. The data already exists, and you can access it using standard operating system commands, but doing so is a cumbersome process and requires knowledge that isn't widespread.

The gathering of this information may be the first step, but it is only by analyzing the data that you can begin to identify areas where optimization is possible and valuable. Again, trying to do that manually is difficult and time-consuming. Analyzer products can automate most of the analysis process, eliminating much of the labor component.

For example, an analysis tool can gather data on each job's CPU usage over a period, allowing you to examine and drill down into the data. In doing so, you might be able to spot jobs that are consuming inordinate resources. Often, addressing just one offending job can release an enormous volume of resources.

Another example of functionality that an analysis product can provide is to gather information about all objects, strip out, say, just the save files, sort them by size, and check the last usage dates to highlight ones that are likely no longer required. After looking at the data in this way, many companies find exceptionally large save files that can be removed with no impact on operations.

Effective analysis is important, but you will not begin to derive value until you apply the results of that analysis to optimize and better manage your System i. These optimization tasks can be at least as complex and time-consuming as the monitoring and analysis functions. Thus, products that automate optimization tasks can provide tremendous value.

Among other functions, a good optimizer will monitor objects, find large, obsolete ones, and then help you to remove them safely, possibly also automatically archiving them to near-line or offline storage so you can access the object again should the need arise. An advanced optimizer can also store your organization's archiving policies and then automate those policies where appropriate.

Logical files offer another opportunity for optimizers to provide significant value. When you consider that it typically takes two I/Os to update a physical file, it should come as no surprise that it often takes five I/Os to update a logical file. Because some physical files have five, 10, or even 20 logical files overlaid on them, the background I/O for each additional record is massive—two I/Os for the actual physical record and then, say, 50 I/Os to keep the logical files up-to-date. On first glance, one might consider those I/Os to be a price worth paying to keep the logical files up-to-date, but in most organizations, many logical files are not being used and, therefore, offer no value.

A good optimizing product will identify access paths that have not been opened in, for example, 180 days and change the maintenance parameter for them to *REBLD instead of *IMMED. This retains the logical file, but its access path is removed and will only be rebuilt if someone uses it. The result of this simple optimization is usually a massive reduction in the storage required to maintain logical files. At the same time, this also reduces the I/O activity required to maintain the optimized files. (Note: The 180-day threshold quoted here is only an example. Most organizations will still find a number of logical files that fall beyond the threshold even when it is set as high as two years.)

Next, the optimizer will look at the remaining *IMMED logical files and determine whether they can be shared with others. Sharing is an inherent i5/OS feature, but the operating system cannot, for the most part, detect instances when logical-file sharing is appropriate. An advanced optimization product can identify these instances and force the operating system to do some further tidying up to save more space and further reduce the required I/Os.

An often-realized benefit of this logical file optimization is that, again, backup and recovery tasks get a tremendous boost. During a recovery operation, waiting for access path rebuilds and repairs can consume considerable precious time as you work feverishly to bring the business back online. Because you there will be many fewer access paths, this one option alone might shave many hours off your current recovery times.

Choosing a Monitoring, Analysis, and Optimization Toolkit

Once you've determined that the types of tools described above can benefit your organization, what factors should you consider in evaluating the available products? Price will be an obvious consideration, but what matters most is ROI.

Comprehensiveness is an important determinant of ROI. This article had room to discuss only a few possible System i optimizations. The issues presented above are common, but there are many more. The optimization issue that is most salient in one organization may be unimportant in another. It is, therefore, important to have a tool, or a set of tools, that will report on the health of your whole System i, examining as many factors as possible.

The previous paragraph begs another question. Should you buy a single comprehensive tool, or should you assemble a kit of various tools that, in total, will accomplish the same thing? Assuming it provides all of the necessary functionality, a single tool will be more productive. Using a collection of tools requires learning each tool separately, and you must switch between tools when you use them. In contrast, a single comprehensive product will provide a common user interface that requires only one learning curve, with no need to move back and forth between different tools.

It is not enough to just know which optimizations need to be done. You have to actually perform those optimizations before you can begin to derive value. Some of those tasks can be very complex and time-consuming. To receive greatest value out of the optimization tools, choose ones that provide a high level of automation. After all, your organization likely adopted System i because of its ease of implementation, management, and use. Optimization should enhance, not negate, those System i benefits.

Andy Kowalski is senior product manager with Vision Solutions Inc. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science and over 20 years experience in IBM midrange systems from System/38 to System I, specializing in data resiliency, availability, and systems and database management technologies. He has worked for customers, partners, and software vendors both in Europe and North America . He has a good technical and business knowledge of the System i market space and is an advisor, project manager, and solution architect on many implementation projects from SMB to enterprise. One of Andy's skills is his ability to explain complex technical topics in a practical and easy-to-understand way to any audience. Andy's role at Vision Solutions Inc. is to help define and implement product strategy for Vision's portfolio of resiliency, availability, systems optimization, and database management technologies. Contact Andy at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

 

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