RE: This way or that?

[Chris Bipes <rpg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I would add the device ID as a field and make it a key.  I would then get
rid of all the members, but 1 of course.  One access path, one member, one
headache (gone).  Multi-Member files are a poor design IMHO.

Ok I am putting on my Flame resistant suit now.

Christopher K. Bipes     mailto:ChrisB@Cross-Check.com
Sr. Programmer/Analyst   mailto:Chris_Bipes@Yahoo.com
CrossCheck, Inc.         http://www.cross-check.com
6119 State Farm Drive    Phone: 707 586-0551 x 1102
Rohnert Park CA  94928 Fax: 707 586-1884

If consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, only geniuses work here.
Karen Herbelin - Readers Digest 3/2000


-----Original Message-----
From: Graap, Ken [mailto:keg@exchange.gasco.com]
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2000 1:30 PM
To: 'Midrange'
Subject: This way or that?


Question - 

We have a process that adds a member (member name=device name) to a file
which is then used as a work file for the current job. Once a member has
been added it is never cleared or removed.

At any time there may be as many as 500 members in this file and each member
may contain several thousand records (1,000 - 50,000).

There are also several logical views defined over this file. The first view
has 6 formats and three other views have one each. So at any one time there
can be up to 2000 indexes all defined with Access Path Maint *IMMED. 

When everything is added up, this 'work file' takes up 259MB of disk space
for data and 814MB of disk space for indexes. A total of over 1GB. 

The developer who designed this process says that he doesn't remove these
file members when a user signs off  in order to avoid the overhead of adding
a member each day when a user starts an application session.

If you were designing this application to optimize the use of system
resources (disk utilization, program performance, backup recovery etc) would
you remove these work files daily and add new members when needed or would
you leave the work files in place as we are doing?

I'm looking forward to all your thoughts....

Kenneth

****************************************
Kenneth E. Graap
IBM Certified Specialist
AS/400 Professional
Network Administrator
NW Natural (Gas Services)
keg@nwnatural.com
Phone: 503-226-4211 x5537
FAX:    603-849-0591
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