Spreadsheet usage examples

To follow the instructions in this demonstration, please use the sample Report Listing Sample.lis which is located in subdirectory <resource_root>\RmfListings\Sample.lis where <resource_root> is the location of the resources used by the Spreadsheet Reporter, that you specified during the installation process. This sample Report Listing contains one report of each of the following types:

Note: This usage example guides you from the Working Set creation to the graphical presentation with a spreadsheet macro. To transfer all of the above report types contained in the sample Report Listing into the Working Set, ensure that you selected these report types on the Reports page in the Options dialog (How to specify Postprocessor report types).
  1. Start the Spreadsheet Reporter from your desktop. If you use this program for the first time, with no system defined yet, you will receive a message asking whether to want to define a system now. For this usage example, you can answer No, because you want to work with an existing local report listing.
  2. Open the folder with local Report Listings. This will display the Sample.lis Report Listing in the view pane.
  3. Select the Sample.lis resource and apply action Create Working Set. This invokes the Create Working Set dialog where you press the Run button to start the generation of a Working Set. Accept the suggested name Rpt.Sample for the new Working Set. After successful generation, press the OK button. Now you can find this new Working Set in the local Working Sets folder.

    For the following steps, we assume:

    • You have installed Microsoft Excel on your workstation.
    • You have installed the RMF™ Spreadsheet Macros for Microsoft Excel.
  4. Open the DASD Activity Report spreadsheet from the Spreadsheet Reporter dialog. Enable the macros for execution with the Spreadsheet Reporter as described in Setting the security level for Excel macros.
    Figure 1. DASD Activity Report
    This figure shows a DASD Activity Report spreadsheet sample.
  5. This spreadsheet contains a button Select Working Set and process data. Pressing this button starts a dialog called Select Report Working Set which lists the available Working Sets and lets you select your Rpt.Sample that you created from the Sample.lis Report Listing.
  6. Select this Working Set and press OK. This starts the following selection dialogs:
    1. Select System which lets you select one of the systems contained in the report. In our example, select UIG1 and press OK.
    2. Select Interval which lets you select a reporting interval. In our example, select UIG1-10/02/2003-09.05.11-DASD Device Activity and press OK.
  7. Now the DASD Activity Report macro processes the data from the report contained in the Working Set. On your screen, take a look at the dialog shown in Figure 1 and wait until the Ready message appears in the lower left corner. Now you can scroll through the tabs shown at the bottom and view the various charts by using the arrows on the left hand side. For example, click on the Top10Act tab to view the chart called Activity of Top 10 Volumes, as shown in Figure 2.
    Figure 2. Activity of Top 10 Volumes
    This figure shows a spreadsheet sample with the Activity of Top 10 Volumes.

    In Figure 2, you see the 10 volumes with the highest activity. Pressing the Sort Lists button in the upper right corner, you can display these volumes sorted either by their I/O intensity, Service time intensity or Path intensity.

    Intensity expresses the usage of a device: it is the average number of milliseconds a device was active, during one second. This metric is measured in milliseconds per second.

    I/O Intensity: The product of activity rate and response time. The average number of milliseconds a device was busy with responding during one second.

    Service Time Intensity: The product of activity rate and service time (that is the sum of disconnect time and connect time of a device). The average number of milliseconds a device was busy with service during one second.

    Path Intensity: The product of activity rate and connect time of a device. The average number of milliseconds a device was connected during one second.

  8. When you have finished with the first try, you can close Excel. To leave the Spreadsheet Reporter, click on File ---> Exit in the menu bar.

Now you are ready to process SMF data from your own installation:

  1. Define a system from your environment.
  2. Specify appropriate report types and reporting periods/duration intervals.
  3. Create an SMF Dump Data resource.
  4. From this resource, create a Working Set.
  5. Open a spreadsheet to obtain graphical views of the SMF data contained in the Working Set.
Parent topic: RMF Spreadsheet Reporter