Thanks Joel, I think someone else also suggested a similar approach. We're considering the alternatives but will likely not use a fee-based commercial product due to budget constraints.
Peter -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Joel C. Ewing Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2017 11:18 AM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU Subject: Re: Any SMF statistics available for LOAD of a program? When there are only specific load modules in specific libraries for which tracking is needed, there IS an approach that does not require any fancy new measurement tools or software, but does require cooperation from the RACF administrator. It is possible to set up RACF Program profiles specific to the load modules and libraries in question, not to restrict access to the load modules, but to allow the enabling of RACF auditing of all access to the modules, which results in generation of RACF SMF records when access occurs. It's been some time since I've done this (for some modules that were an issue during Y2K remediation), but I'm pretty sure RACF auditing can be set to cut a record for any module access, initial program load or dynamic fetch. Those RACF SMF records can be extracted and accumulated for what is deemed a sufficient period of time. Although not elegant, RACF also includes standard reporting tools that will format and list information from the RACF SMF records. You will of course have to make a judgment of how long a period (days, months, years) RACF SMF data must continue to be collected and analyzed before there is a high confidence all important references have been occurred and been recorded. If RACF Program profiles are not already in use at the installation, one must of course be careful to set things up properly to preserve existing default access before enabling. Joel C. Ewing On 08/09/2017 01:10 PM, Farley, Peter x23353 wrote: > Yes it is important to the organization, but since apparently no SMF record > has this information for dynamically LOADed programs there is no real point > to asking for DAF or any other SMF reporting tool to be used. > > Knowing the module name loaded is kind of the point - that's what we need to > know. There are very few application load libraries but many thousands and > more of programs and more than that in jobs using those programs all day long > and all night long. > > Not having any keys to the system programmer kingdom I would not have any > access to a test system even if I knew it existed. And a test system would > probably not be very much help anyway due to the large number of potential > main-program users of the subroutines that would need to be individually > tested one at a time. This is a need to get LOAD information for several > shop-wide utility subroutines potentially used across the enterprise. It is > a needle-in-a-haystack problem to find the one place that a seldom-used but > possibly critical utility routine is actually used at run time. Sometimes > actual use of a utility routine is data dependent, and you may or may not > have the data available to drive particular program usage at any given time. > > As several fictional characters in the entertainment world have opined, "It's > complicated". > > Having LOADed program statistics in SMF historical data would, of course, > solve the problem immediately, but we don't have those. > > Thanks for the suggestions and for trying to help. Appreciated. > > Peter > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On >> Behalf Of retired mainframer >> Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2017 1:06 PM >> To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU >> Subject: Re: Any SMF statistics available for LOAD of a program? >> >> If the problem you are trying to solve is important to the organization, ask >> the people who can run DAF for what you need and let them sanitize the >> output for you. >> Alternately, if the number of libraries containing the modules in question >> is not too large and you can convince the security admins to help, you could >> create dataset profiles for the libraries in WARNING mode with access NONE. >> Every load would then generate a message in the system log. It wouldn't >> tell you which module was loaded but it would tell you which library was >> being accessed by which job step. >> >> For a brute force method, if you have a test system you can use, recreate >> the libraries without the members. As each LOAD fails, add that member. >> When the jobs finally run successfully, any members not added are likely >> unused. >> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] >>> On Behalf Of Farley, Peter x23353 >>> Sent: Wednesday, August 09, 2017 8:02 AM >>> To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU >>> Subject: Re: Any SMF statistics available for LOAD of a program? >>> >>> Unfortunately I have no access to any SMF data here and I am >>> prohibited from running DCOLLECT for myself by security rules, so DAF while >>> no doubt useful to others is not much use to me here. >>> >>> These are old dynamically LOADed and called COBOL subroutines that we >>> are not sure of the actual usage. If they ever do get LOADed and called >>> they will >>> DISPLAY identifying information in SYSOUT, but that then requires reading >>> the SYSOUT archive extensively to determine whether they were ever >>> actually >>> used. That also only answers the question of >>> usage for as far back as the SYSOUT archive holds, which can be an >>> issue if actual usage is (for instance) yearly or less often. >>> >>> Archive scanning is tedious but doable. My initial request was part >>> of deciding whether we need to use the tedious path or not. > -- > -- This message and any attachments are intended only for the use of the addressee and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of the message is not the intended recipient or an authorized representative of the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination of this communication is strictly prohibited. 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