You can implement HCL Z Asset Optimizer with an SQLite database if you do not have a Db2® for z/OS® license, or if you are currently unable to deploy one. If you implement Z Asset Optimizer with an SQLite database, there are certain functional and performance limitations.

Accessibility features help a user who has a physical disability, such as restricted mobility or limited vision, to use software products successfully.

New features and capabilities in HCL Z Asset Optimizer version 2.1.1 help your organization achieve greater efficiency in asset discovery.

You can deploy Z Asset Optimizer to use a single Repository or multiple Repositories.

HCL Z Asset Optimizer is structured on several key data processes.

The recommended procedure for deploying the Inquisitor and Usage Monitor to collect raw data is to deploy both components on every system in your organization.

Multiple Repositories can be required to provide support for more than one data center, for different geographical regions, and for running multiple customers.

Before you install HCL Z Asset Optimizer, verify that the required hardware and software are available in the installation environment.

A z/OS® user ID with appropriate RACF® access is required to submit the batch jobs used in the customizing and operation of Z Asset Optimizer . Additional security and authorization configurations can be necessary, depending on your environment.

This checklist includes a set of procedures for installing the product, creating a test database, populating data, and validating the test installation. When you complete these procedures, you are ready to create a production environment for HCL Z Asset Optimizer.

The most common deployment scenario is an implementation with a single Repository database and a single global knowledge base (GKB) database.

This deployment scenario implements two Repositories in a single Db2® subsystem that share a single global knowledge base (GKB) database. The advantage of sharing the same GKB is that you need only apply monthly updates to a single GKB database.

This deployment scenario implements two Repositories in a single Db2® subsystem, each with its own global knowledge base (GKB) database. This deployment scenario is not common because you must apply monthly updates to each GKB database.

This scenario extends each of the deployment scenarios to collect data from remote sites and transfer the data back to the central site for processing.

This deployment scenario is for a sysplex environment, where the DASD is fully shared across all z/OS® LPARs that belong to the sysplex. This special deployment is similar to the deployment scenarios 1, 2, or 3, but the implementation steps are slightly different. This approach is intended to achieve operational efficiency by processing only a single z/OS LPAR within a sysplex.

HCL provides monthly updates to the Global Knowledge Base (GKB) so that you can keep your product inventory definitions up-to-date. You can also submit items to HCL support for inclusion in GKB updates.

The Inquisitor is a program that scans and collects information about partitioned data set (PDS) and partitioned data set extended (PDSE) program libraries. The Inquisitor Import program takes the collected data as input to form the basis of your software inventory.

The Inquisitor for z/OS® UNIX™ is a program that collects information about executable software existing in HFS and zFS data sets currently mounted and accessible to z/OS UNIX. The Inquisitor Import program takes the collected data as input to form the basis of your z/OS UNIX software inventory.

The Usage Monitor is a server address space that runs as a started task. Work is queued to the Usage Monitor from all address spaces where programs are used. The Usage Monitor moves captured program usage data into the collection repository and periodically writes the accumulated data to a sequential file. The Usage Monitor runs APF authorized and is non-swappable.

The Inquisitor Import reads data from Inquisitor scans, where the data is filtered and matched to products. The filtered, matched data is then copied to the Repository tables where it can be viewed and queried by the Analyzer reporting utility.

The Usage import job imports data generated by the Usage Monitor and aggregates usage data for discovered or identified modules in the Repository tables in the database.

The Aggregator is a program that populates the Asset tables.

The Automation Server discovers new data sets and processes them by starting a set of predefined actions that associate the data with data set name masks that form a catalog search. This search determines if any data set names matching the mask are to be processed.

The HZASLICI and HZASLICV jobs in the JCLLIB library perform the License Verification. These jobs are generated from the HZASCUST post-installation customization job.

A single userid and password are is supplied with the product.

The License Verification reports are generated using the online License Verification feature. Following is a description of all the reports.

The Analyzer uses the Db2® Call Library Interface (ODBC/CLI), also used by the Inquisitor Import, Usage Import and other batch components, and the z/OS® socket application programming interface. For the SQLite database, the Analyzer uses an internal ODBC interface.

Several JCLLIB and PARMLIB members are used when you run the Analyzer to generate reports.

The primary reporting facility in HCL Z Asset Optimizer is the Analyzer. You can use the Analyzer in online mode to view reports, run queries, and drill down to related reports.

If you want to automate report generation, you can run the Analyzer in batch mode.

The ZCAT utility concatenates and condenses Usage Monitor data sets and generates a file that is then processed by the Usage Import program. When you condense the data produced by the Usage Monitor program, you can save storage space and improve the performance of the Usage Import program.

Use the Usage Deletion utility to delete detailed, summarized, and aggregated usage data for a specified period for all systems in the repository. Each time you run the utility, usage data is aggregated to update the asset tables.

Use the System Deletion utility to delete discovery, usage, and hardware data for a specified system.

Use the Physical Deletion utility to delete obsolete data that are no longer required.

HCL Z Asset Optimizer collects large amounts of usage data. The High-level Qualifier Listing for the Usage Monitor utility creates a list of high-level qualifiers for the products that are to be identified.

The TPARAM table in the repository can be set to an inconsistent state due to failures in jobs that update the repository tables. You can reset a parameter in the TPARAM table to rectify this inconsistent state.

The Product tagging utility allows you to create local entries for your in-house software in the Local Knowledge Database. It is not intended for creating IBM or ISV software, as this may cause unpredictable results. If you need to add products or versions that are not being identified, then notify HCL Support, so that they can then update the GKB. On certain occasions, HCL Support may consider your request to add HCL or ISV software to the LKB database, but contact them first before doing so.

The SCRT Import utility imports data (CSV files) which is generated from the IBM Subcapacity Reporting Tool.

You can run the SMF Scanner utility to get historical usage information from existing SMF data. This SMF data enables you to view trending results from before HCL Z Asset Optimizer is installed.

The XML Export utility extracts information in XML format that you can then import into IBM Control Desk (ICD).

HZAZIP is a utility program that can compress a sequential or partitioned data set into a zip archive, decompress the contents of a zip archive into a sequential or partitioned data set, and report on the contents of a zip archive.

Components such as the Inquisitor programs, the Usage Monitor, and the ZCAT utility deal with sequential data sets containing zip archives. Processing the data with a zip algorithm allows the same information to be conveyed in a fraction of the original size, but it does mean that browsing the file to quickly confirm the nature of its content becomes a more involved process.

The Usage Monitor collects program usage information and writes out the collected data at least once each day. Once the data is in a data set, it is possible to browse it to determine if some expected usage was collected or not. Sometimes it would be advantageous to be able to determine if expected data collection has taken place without waiting for the collection cycle to end, either at the expected time or because it was triggered manually to facilitate data access.

This utility verifies database changes that were introduced after the product was released.

This topic describes the tables in the Repository including column names, types, and length.

After installation, you can create a custom version of any job in the JCLLIB library or any parameter in the PARMLIB library, by copying and editing the relevant job in the HZASCUST member in the hza.SHZASAMP data set.

You can perform various configurations to tune your database to provide the best performance for your HCL Z Asset Optimizer environment.

Troubleshooting is a systematic approach to solving a problem. The goal of troubleshooting is to determine why something does not work as expected and how to resolve the problem.