>   That's just crazy talk.  While there might be some load balancing
> related motivations for using similar sized page data sets, ASM most
> certainly uses the full capacity of all of the data sets when
> calculating auxiliary storage shortage thresholds.
> 

> It might be obsolete talk. (Now I feel as old as some other on this 
> list :) It wasn't always crazy talk and I don't think it is now.
> Keeping page datasets the same size was a "good idea" not that long 
> ago. (sometime last decade :)
> Today, I still think for consistency and grins and easier space 
> management, they should be the same size. 

> > So I don't have to keep my local page datasets all the same size 
anymore ?
> > 
> >  (Like many this was a rule I had ingrained to always have all local 
pages
> > datasets the same size)

  The point I was making about "crazy talk" was to dispel the notion
that was presented in two posts that ASM takes the size of the smallest
data set, and uses only that amount in larger data sets. That is
an incorrect notion.  ASM is quite willing to use all of the slots
in any page data set regardless of its relative size, and the total
number of slots from all data sets is used for doing calculations
related to auxiliary storage shortages, regardless of the 
distribution of page data set sizes.  So, there is no (and has
never been any) *functional* requirement for page datasets to be
the same size.

  That said, there may have been (and may still be) 
*performance-related*  reasons for using similar sized paged data sets.
Capacity planning and system tuning of that nature is not my area
of expertise. 

  When expanded storage came along in the mid '80s, IBM's focus
became more on reducing paging by using increasing processor storage
that on creating optimal page data set configurations.  So since then,
I have seen very little being done in the way of measuring paging
performance for page data sets (other than recent measurements to
demonstrate potential performance improvements from using
Flash Express on the EC12 machines for paging instead of
page data sets).

 The original question was about how a move from one model of DASD
subsystem to another might induce a change in DFSORT's storage
usage.  The point is that the DASD model, and the distribution
of sizes of page data sets, should have no effect on that.
However,  the total number of page data set slots from all
of the page data sets (plus the number of Flash Express paging
slots configured to the LPAR in question on an EC12 machine)
could very well have an effect on DFSORT's decisions about how 
much storage to use, and increasing the total number of slots 
could affect the output of the STGTEST SYSEVENT, which in turn
could induce DFSORT to decide to use more storage. 


Jim Mulder   z/OS System Test   IBM Corp.  Poughkeepsie,  NY

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