QSystem Monitor Gains Disk Cleanup Functions

Published: February 12, 2008

by Alex Woodie

Good System i housekeeping has many aspects. One task that can be of particular importance is the periodic purging and deleting of old records, which keeps hard disks uncluttered and clean. While these functions have been part of the operating system since time immemorial, System i shops that use QSystem Monitor to help run their systems can now use the CCSS product to keep their disks clean and efficient, in addition to all the other disk monitoring functions supported by QSystem Monitor.

Even before the current version 12 release 6, QSystem Monitor could monitor System i disk usage six ways from Sunday. Administrators could slice and dice the use of physical disk space, auxiliary storage pools (ASPs), iASPs, and IFS folders by time, space, status, user, job, object, and subsystem to gain a historical perspective on disk usage. And with the new DASD monitoring capability added last year, administrators could get real-time alerts when things start to run amok.

Now CCSS is moving into other areas of System i administration with the addition of three new features--the Purge-Whilst-Active command, the Reorganize Selected Files command, and the Disk Usage Inquiry feature--designed to keep System i DASD running in tip-top shape.

The Purge-Whilst-Active and Reorganize Selected Files commands are designed to be used together to eliminate the unneeded chaff that builds up in production i5/OS applications. Purge-Whilst-Active, which is based in QSystem Monitor’s history module, enables an operator or administrator to purge old or otherwise unneeded records from DB2/400 database files without kicking users off the system.

Once the records have been purged, the Reorganize Selected Files command can be run to permanently get rid of the placeholders and reclaim the disk space that was previously occupied by the purged records. Operators can set limits on how the Reorganize Selected Files function works, for example, by only reorganizing files where at least 20 percent of the total records are deleted records. While the two commands would typically be used together, CCSS separated them to allow the Reorganize Selected Files command to be used independently when needed.

The third component, the Disk Usage Inquiry option, allows users to quickly analyze their entire system to see where it makes sense to use the purge and reorganize commands.

CCSS says it's not uncommon for the bigger System i shops to house more than a million deleted records on their machines. Such poor system maintenance translates into higher disk costs and slower system performance.

Ray Wright, CEO and president of U.K.-based CCSS, says the new purge and reorganizations features in QSystem Monitor can have "immediate and tangible" impacts.

"For IT managers, it's a gift that keeps on giving," he says. "For them it's almost like they receive 10 percent of extra disk free each time they use it on a sufficiently large number of records. The benefits are far-reaching: a leaner more efficient environment, less time spent on routine processes and all without encroaching on their need for continuous monitoring."

The new features are available now in QSystem Monitor V12R6. For more information, visit www.ccssltd.com.

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