Re: system integrity

You have a large task ahead of you.
Having been both the cleanup person in a large shop, and the recovery
person after others deleted required objects, I can tell you this is no
easy, simple task.
 I would warn you against using a "blind" if object not been used in xx days
then remove approach can create extreme havoc.
A simple example is a database file that is referenced by other file
definitions.
That file may have zero records and a create date in 1994 and not used
since, but if other file
DDS reference that file - when they a re-created or the Change PF cmd w/dds
source option and the ref file not exist - then the process will halt. For
some systems, (good, bad, or ugly) creating work files all day long, with
referencing - you may halt many applications. A file being referenced does
not update it's last use date.
A line, controller, or device description used in a disaster plan or support
situation may not show any use for months or years - yet be required.
Many products, including IBM products will create OUTQ's with no device
associated.
Many products, including IBM products create user profiles that never sign
on but are required.

Obvious things to look for are libraries that are created for online backup
(like a production library "AR" and finding "ARSAVE", "ARSAVE1",
"ARSAVEJF", etc.
User file journal cleanups.
Be careful of auto cleanup of spooled files - check with users they are not
keeping last 5 years of orders in spooled files (and you don't know it).
System cleanup menu (GO CLEANUP i think - and you need QSECOFR for certain
options)
I would take small steps, not big leaps.
It's a start.

Jim Franz
IBM Certified Specialist

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Knezevic, Mihael" <m.knezevic@xxxxxxxx>
To: "Midrange Systems Technical Discussion" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 9:53 AM
Subject: system integrity


> hello,
>
> i need some feedback for a tool i would like to develop.
>
> background:
> the company i currently work for always had an AS400/iseries as their main
computing capacity for the main business application like erp, hr, ... .
over the time they switched to newer models but never "cleanly" migrated to
the new models. so there is a lot of garbage on the current machine (890).
also the maintaining staff of operators aren't that accurate when it comes
to operating tasks. the result is that we got much stuff we really don't
need and many misconfigured devices.
>
> i would like to clean up that mess and am considering the following
checks:
>
> objects: has an object been used in the last xx days (through the list
objects api)
>
> library: how many objects reside in a library which are older than xx days
(or not used for xx days) so one could consolidate libraries somehow
>
> output queue: is there an output queue with no device with the same name
(which is a valid case, but it would be nice to know)
>
> physical files: are there any logical files not in the same library as the
physical file
>
> user profile: do the following objects exist: current library, job
description, message queue, printer device, output queue and check the last
login date.
>
> device description:
> - printer: do the following objects exist: message queue, output queue
> - display: do the following objects exist: printer device, output queue,
printer file, message queue. check if there is a user profile with the same
name, cause then there would be two message queue with the same name AFAIK.
>
>
> i would like to know if these checks make sense in some way or is there
another way of checking these things? am i missing something like the xxx
check for xxx object? i am no iSeries guru so i'm not that familiar with the
machine/os.
>
> the checks would be written in java and mostly calling some os400 api. the
result would be stored in database with some kind of frontend to get a view
on the result (probably a web frontend).
>
> any feedback and idea is appreciated.
>
> thanx in advance.
>
> mihael knezevic
> porta it-service
>
> -- 
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