Author: SRICOBSAS
Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2016 8:27 pm (GMT 5.5)
Hi Rohit,
Thanks for responding.
This client for whom I am required to carry out this daily log extraction / trace extraction is a small one. For billing purposes there are 2 DBAs, but in reality there is only 1 and he's out on medical emergency.
The other one is more of a mainframe / RACF administrator. He has backed out on helping me in this matter saying he is new and he doesnt know anything about DB2.
DB2 here has been running without much of issues. Thats because nobody has touched the defaults. For major issues (almost none have been observed for nearly 3 yrs now) IBM is called in. For most of the small, regular DBA activities (read: SELECT querying / column alteration / minor changes in stored procs e.t.c) JCL scripts and scripts in DataStudio already exist.
When my team approached the DBA for the DB2 logs / traces the mainframe administrator tried fiddling with DB2 MSTR logs but it wasnt helpful. The DBA requested for CA Log Analyzer but it was given to him only on evaluation basis. Because of financial restructuring here CA support is being reduced. Hence after the evaluation period CA Log Analyzer went out of the radar.
So far the DBA was using CA Log Analyzer for uploading these logs / traces onto sharepoint. But now without CA Log Analyzer I have to explore alternative options for this log / trace collection.
I would have washed off my hands of this task but I have my own interest in setting up this
I manage a set of BI / Cobol apps. On a regular basis if frontend troubleshooting is required I look into the backend DB2 logs to see if anything wrong went there first. I have little DB2 experience but in my opinion the backend DB2 maintenance needs to be revamped. But now if this log / trace upload process is broken then I am looking at lots of inconsistencies in my troubleshooting process which will affect my project deliveries.
I undertook this activity for the above reason but now I find that I have to do more than what I bargained for. I cant back out now. I have to somehow restore the log / trace uploading process.
As mentioned earlier I found
Informatica PowerExchange
IBM Data Studio
BMC MainView
Compuware DBA-Xpert
The last one- DBA-Xpert is more of a basic view type tool which gives you short insights on all tables / tablespaces / views / storage groups e.t.c. I found some RBA values for some tablespaces mapped to some archive logs.
But the issue is I cant use DSN1LOGP while DB2 is up and running. There is no scheduled DB2 restart process at my shop and I have to give a real valid business reason for bringing down DB2 (which is extremely difficult)
I cant refer to the bootstrap datasets while DB2 is online. I am trying to figure out if I can make DSN1LOGP bypass the bootstrap and refer to the archive logs directly.
As for tracing I am trying to find out the extent to which BMC Mainview can trap the traces. There are some event traces I saw in Mainview but these are originating from within batch jobs in z/OS. I need to trap all SMF audit activities- whether within z/OS or outside it.
I am trying to setup DSN1SMFP. The only concern is I have to have the audit poliicies in SYSADUITPOLICIES and do a START TRACE / STOP TRACE and then read the IFCID records collected during this interval.
Informatica Powerexchange is not helping me much because I have to turn on DATA CAPTURE CHANGES on the desired tables.
So in short I am looking for some least-cost / least-effort system compatible log / trace collection. Some mechanism whereby DB2's running is not affected.
Thanks once again. Sorry for the lengthy post.
Regards
SRICOBASAS
_________________
SriCobSAS
Posted: Sun Aug 21, 2016 8:27 pm (GMT 5.5)
Hi Rohit,
Thanks for responding.
This client for whom I am required to carry out this daily log extraction / trace extraction is a small one. For billing purposes there are 2 DBAs, but in reality there is only 1 and he's out on medical emergency.
The other one is more of a mainframe / RACF administrator. He has backed out on helping me in this matter saying he is new and he doesnt know anything about DB2.
DB2 here has been running without much of issues. Thats because nobody has touched the defaults. For major issues (almost none have been observed for nearly 3 yrs now) IBM is called in. For most of the small, regular DBA activities (read: SELECT querying / column alteration / minor changes in stored procs e.t.c) JCL scripts and scripts in DataStudio already exist.
When my team approached the DBA for the DB2 logs / traces the mainframe administrator tried fiddling with DB2 MSTR logs but it wasnt helpful. The DBA requested for CA Log Analyzer but it was given to him only on evaluation basis. Because of financial restructuring here CA support is being reduced. Hence after the evaluation period CA Log Analyzer went out of the radar.
So far the DBA was using CA Log Analyzer for uploading these logs / traces onto sharepoint. But now without CA Log Analyzer I have to explore alternative options for this log / trace collection.
I would have washed off my hands of this task but I have my own interest in setting up this
I manage a set of BI / Cobol apps. On a regular basis if frontend troubleshooting is required I look into the backend DB2 logs to see if anything wrong went there first. I have little DB2 experience but in my opinion the backend DB2 maintenance needs to be revamped. But now if this log / trace upload process is broken then I am looking at lots of inconsistencies in my troubleshooting process which will affect my project deliveries.
I undertook this activity for the above reason but now I find that I have to do more than what I bargained for. I cant back out now. I have to somehow restore the log / trace uploading process.
As mentioned earlier I found
Informatica PowerExchange
IBM Data Studio
BMC MainView
Compuware DBA-Xpert
The last one- DBA-Xpert is more of a basic view type tool which gives you short insights on all tables / tablespaces / views / storage groups e.t.c. I found some RBA values for some tablespaces mapped to some archive logs.
But the issue is I cant use DSN1LOGP while DB2 is up and running. There is no scheduled DB2 restart process at my shop and I have to give a real valid business reason for bringing down DB2 (which is extremely difficult)
I cant refer to the bootstrap datasets while DB2 is online. I am trying to figure out if I can make DSN1LOGP bypass the bootstrap and refer to the archive logs directly.
As for tracing I am trying to find out the extent to which BMC Mainview can trap the traces. There are some event traces I saw in Mainview but these are originating from within batch jobs in z/OS. I need to trap all SMF audit activities- whether within z/OS or outside it.
I am trying to setup DSN1SMFP. The only concern is I have to have the audit poliicies in SYSADUITPOLICIES and do a START TRACE / STOP TRACE and then read the IFCID records collected during this interval.
Informatica Powerexchange is not helping me much because I have to turn on DATA CAPTURE CHANGES on the desired tables.
So in short I am looking for some least-cost / least-effort system compatible log / trace collection. Some mechanism whereby DB2's running is not affected.
Thanks once again. Sorry for the lengthy post.
Regards
SRICOBASAS
_________________
SriCobSAS