What could be the last PTF for HA4i Version 7.1 is now available for download. We say the last because the newest version of HA4i (7.2) is announced and in the final throws of being packaged for delivery to clients. This latest PTF for HA4i contains a number of new features which have come about from customer requests plus fixes. The following is a summary of the new features added in this PTF.
Additional Object support
New Object types have been added to the growing list of objects which HA4i will monitor and replicate on change. The latest objects to be added are *FORMDF,*OVL, *PAGSEG, *TBL, *VLDL, *WSCST.
Audit of the IFS structure
The IFS structure on the target system is kept in line with the changes that are captured through the journal process, however there are times when the objects on the source IFS are not journalled and therefore changes are never replicated to the target. This can create a number of orphaned objects which are left behind on the target due to no delete request being seen in the journal. A new command CHKIFSDIR will audit the IFS structure on the target system against the IFS structure on the source with the option to remove any orphaned objects.
Ability to build the IFS structure based on audit results
The IFS is a complex nested structure which can be difficult to rebuild when directories are missing. When an audit runs it could find lots of individual directories which are deeply nested that are missing on the target, the rebuild of these directories becomes complex because the save commands can be difficult to build where directories and objects need to be excluded from the save (they already exist). This command will walk through the audit results looking for the missing objects and directories and rebuild the entire structure without having to save objects which are not required (this can save GB’s of data being sent between the systems) and will build the structure from the top down.
Additional inspection options
A number of new options have been added to the monitoring screens to allow the user to drill down and view the data associated with a specific error. This removes the need to remember complex information and issue individual commands to view the related data.
New Receiver management
The number of receivers kept online can be a problem with systems that have high DASD utilization, therefore being able to manage the amount of data kept online in journal receivers is important. We have added a number of enhancements which allow a more flexible approach to the management of the receivers on the target system.
Better IFS path resolution
Some of the IFS journal entries do not contain the actual path of an object, this can cause problems where a journal entry needs to be replayed and the path is needed. A new feature has been added to the apply process which allows remote path resolution from the target system to the source. This has removed a number of problems associated with IFS objects created by the apply process which are subsequently updated and the Object ID’s are mismatched.
Ability to audit Large libraries
The audit processes rely on the use of user spaces for object list creation etc. The maximum size of a User Space object is 16MB which can result in CPF3CAA being sent when a library has more objects than are able to be returned to a user space. A new object listing process has been built which removes these restrictions and allows the library content to be correctly listed and audited.
IFS IDX cleanup
The ability to apply changes to the IFS on the target relies on a mapping system to map the source and target JID’s. This map is stored in a User Index Object to provide speed of processing, however this map can require cleanup at times such as after a restore of the target IFS outside of the Apply processes. A new command has been provided to clean up the Index by checking both the source and target objects. We have also supplied a re-org options which will rebuild the index removing any deleted entries.
Monitoring
HA4i has its own monitoring and notification process (STATUSCHK) which runs on a predetermined time schedule, this process has evolved overtime to allow better recovery and reporting of any issues found/corrected. This PTF contains a number of significant improvements for the command which should further reduce the effort required to monitor and mange the product.
As always we are surprised by some of the methods used by programmers in their applications, this has required a number of fixes to programs which work around these methods to allow the replication process to function effectively. While these are not shown as new enhancements they are allowing HA4i to work in environments without error even if the methods used are not good programming practice.
The PTF is available for download from our website, installation is via the LODPTF and APYPTF commands using the downloaded save files. Information about the PTF installation process can be found at the back of the manual.
Chris…