Re: Is STRASPBAL the command to manage/move hot/cold data, P7 V7R1, with internal disks similar to Easy Tier

"Steinmetz, Paul" <PSteinmetz@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote on Sat, 27 Dec
2014 08:35:48 GMT:

1) Is STRASPBAL the command to manage/move hot/cold data, P7
V7R1, with internal disks similar to Easy Tier?

Conceptually it is similar but implementation is quite
different. Easy Tier constantly monitors the hot/cold data and
rearranges appropriately. ASP balancing requires you to trace
to determine what is hot while the trace is running. You run
STRASPBAL *HSM to remove the cold data and move the hot data
from/to the SSDs.

2) What is the
difference between STRASPBAL HSM (Hierarchical Storage
Management) and STRASPBAL MP (Media Preference), end results
appear to be the same?

*HSM is used after a trace to rearrange the data.
*MP is used to move DB2 tables and indexes or IFS UDFS marked
objects to SSD and remove unmarked objects from SSD.

3) Can very large PF and LF be both hot
and cold data? In other words, the old data which may not be
accessed be cold data?

Yes. ASP balancing has no awareness of PF/LF,STMF and looks at
the hot logical block addresses.

4) Does this also apply to IFS data?

Yes.

5) Does STRASPBAL need to be constantly running?

It does not need to be run constantly. But you can use a CL
program to trace for a given amount of time (at least 30
minutes) followed by the STRASPBAL *HSM in a continuous loop.

6) Does anyone have a SSD/HDD mixture and using STRASPBAL?

There are various i shops who have done this. Most run
TRCASPBAL at specific times of day on multiple days then run the
STRASPBAL *HSM during a relatively low usage period on Saturday
or Sunday. By far most use UNIT(*SSD) to specifically place
data on the SSDs.

You can combine using UNIT(*SSD) with trace & balance. Objects
with media preference indicated do not get removed even if cold
with STRASPBAL *HSM.