Overview of HCL Z Asset Optimizer
HCL Z Asset Optimizer is built on the concept of remote and central mainframe components which work together to produce reports on z/OS® mainframe products and their usage. This section provides you with a high-level overview of the Z Asset Optimizer core architecture.
- Discover and identify products for the z/OS® platform.
- Monitor software usage and trends.
- Report on the MSU capacity of each system under which the product runs.
- Provide reporting functions for assets and usage.
The benefits of using this software are:
- Used and unused software are identified.
- Users of software are identified.
- Obsolete versions of software are identified and the usage of these versions determined.
- Usage trends of software and libraries are identified.
In a z/OS® environment, software is contained in load libraries or as z/OS® UNIX™ executable files. Z Asset Optimizer scans contents of these libraries and executable files to determine which software products are installed. Z Asset Optimizer also monitors the loaded programs and executable files to measure software usage.
The discovered load libraries and executable files are then checked against a global database of product information. Z Asset Optimizer uses this information to determine which products are installed and used on each system.
The Z Asset Optimizer Usage Monitor gathers information about events for modules and executable files which are then attributed to each product.
The workflow is illustrated in Product workflow, followed by a brief description of the components.
- Inquisitor
- The Inquisitor is a batch job
that discovers loadable programs in z/OS® data sets and z/OS®
UNIX™ System Services file systems. A program locates load
libraries on z/OS® DASD devices and captures information about
the load modules. The process can be targeted to specific devices, libraries, or groups of
libraries. The program creates a compressed data set, which is then used as input to the Inquisitor
Import procedure.
An additional process locates and scans z/OS® UNIX™ directories for program objects and captures this information. The process creates a compressed data set that is then used as input to the Inquisitor Import for z/OS® UNIX™ procedure.
- Usage Monitor
- The Usage Monitor is a started task or batch job that monitors and records loaded modules of batch jobs, started tasks, TSO users, and z/OS® UNIX™ executable files.
- Knowledge Base
- The Global Knowledge Base (GKB) is a database that is provided with Z Asset Optimizer . The GKB has a list of all z/OS® globally-identified products that are used by the product in the process of matching.
- Inquisitor (IQ) Import
- The Inquisitor Import is a batch job that loads Inquisitor data into database tables on z/OS® for z/OS® load modules and z/OS® UNIX™ program objects. The imported Inquisitor data is then matched against the Global Knowledge Base.
- Usage Import
- The Usage Import is a batch job that imports Usage Monitor data into the Repository. The data is matched against load modules and z/OS® UNIX™ executable files and the data is then aggregated with installed software products. After this process has been completed, you can view the usage data with the Z Asset Optimizer Analyzer reports.
- Repository
- The Repository is a set of database tables for z/OS® data that stores information about the software products discovered and their usage data.
- Analyzer
- The Analyzer queries the Z Asset Optimizer database and displays Analyzer online reports. The Analyzer runs as a started task or batch job on the same z/OS® system where the Db2® subsystem or SQLite database runs. The output formats can be HTML, Excel, text, or comma separated value (CSV). You can logon to the Analyzer from a web browser to display interactive reports. You can also run the Analyzer in batch mode and save the results to an output data set on z/OS®.
Process flow
Data collected on the target systems by the Inquisitor and the Usage Monitor batch programs, are then imported into the Repository database tables. The database is located on a z/OS® system within a Db2® subsystem or a SQLite database.
- Importing and matching the data collected by the Inquisitor.
- Importing the collected usage data into the Repository.
- Running utilities to manage and maintain your data. This task is optional.
- Reporting using the Analyzer, which consists of online and batch components.