(on SMF "schemas") I think that it would be useful to consider processing SMF data in other languages, like Perl, Python, System/R, C, etc. If you had record schemas you could generate the language bindings. Although not readily available on z/OS, any of these languages/tools could be run on z Linux, which also has the advantage moving general processor usage.
Kirk Wolf Dovetailed Technologies http://dovetail.com On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 2:04 PM, Kirk Wolf <[email protected]> wrote: > Even better if the SMF records were uniformly described by some metadata > format (schema) that described the fields in the record. > Consider the IBM SMF record DSECTS - one has to look at the field > comments to determine not only structure (e.g. triplets) but also whether > some C fields are really character or numeric, dates, times, etc, etc. > > Much better would be if IBM published some sort of metadata / schema, > perhaps in XML, that had all of the information in the DSECT, but also > included structure, data types, etc. Utilities could be used to convert > these into record / DSECTS in assembler or HLLs. It wouldn't have to be > XML so long as there were a defined grammer, standard data types, etc. > > If done properly so as to include comments for each field, this would > also cover 90% of the necessary "documentation" requirements. > > Currently, the closest thing to SMF schemas are in MXG (SAS). > > > > Kirk Wolf > Dovetailed Technologies > http://dovetail.com > > > On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 1:35 PM, Charles Mills <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Currently it's kind of the worst of both worlds. Some SMF records formats >> are in the SMF manual. Some are in one product-specific manual or another, >> with no consistency from product to product. There is a cross-reference in >> the SMF manual, but it sometimes lags reality. >> >> Charles >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On >> Behalf Of Mark Zelden >> Sent: Friday, January 03, 2014 11:09 AM >> To: [email protected] >> Subject: Re: SMF (was: REXX tutorial) >> >> On Fri, 3 Jan 2014 12:35:44 -0600, Paul Gilmartin <[email protected]> >> wrote: >> >> >On Fri, 3 Jan 2014 12:10:15 -0600, Ed Gould wrote: >> >> >> >>Interesting thing about SMF... >> >>For 20 years IBM documented SMF records in one consolidated place the >> >>SMF manual. >> >>In the last 5 or so years IBM did an about face and started to scatter >> >>them around in unlikely places WHY?????????????????? >> >> >> >My guess would be that the specification of the formats of SMF records >> >is owned not by SMF, but by the various utilities that generate them. >> >As such, it would be onerous, untimely, perhaps even error-prone for >> >each utility that adds a new SMF record type to require an update of a >> >central SMF data areas manual section. >> > >> >> Oh, you mean someone would have to do some work. :-) >> >> Seriously... I don't like the trend (although it isn't widespread). As >> long there is >> internal communication within IBM and everyone played by the same rules, >> the information could be kept consolidated in a single manual or kept in >> sync >> with the component / subsystem manuals. Same goes for operator commands >> (catalog / DFSMS manuals comes to mind). There is an overall owner of >> z/OS, >> so I suppose it would be up to them to dictate direction of keeping all >> the information in a single manual (or not) or keeping the information >> current in multiple manuals (although it would come at a cost as nothing is >> free and these decisions >> are made with the financial aspects in mind). >> >> One thing's for sure - complaining on IBM-MAIN won't do anything. >> >> -- >> Mark Zelden - Zelden Consulting Services - z/OS, OS/390 and MVS >> ITIL v3 Foundation Certified >> mailto:[email protected] >> Mark's MVS Utilities: http://www.mzelden.com/mvsutil.html >> Systems Programming expert at http://search390.techtarget.com/ateExperts/ >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send >> email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN >> >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- >> For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, >> send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN >> > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
