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Universal Data Manager (UDM): Enterprise
Level z/OS Storage Management GUI
Universal Data Manager (UDM) is a GUI based
solution for managing your z/OS Storage at an Enterprise level including;
ICF Catalogs, DASD Volumes, DFSMS objects, Spool data and other related
objects. The overall ease of installation and automated analysis provides
the controls, information and reporting needed to manage the dynamics
of modern System z Storage environments.
Using the UDM GUI interface you can:
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Automate
the management of z/OS objects by dynamically reacting to Console
messages or conditions. Additionally, you can schedule timed processes to
interrogate the status of an object. |
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Monitor
the status of z/OS objects via the centralized monitor, which
allows you to view and react to alerts from all z/OS Systems
via a single GUI window. |
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Report
on all aspects of your z/OS Storage subsystems centrally, in
real time or historically, using SQL filters. For example, using a single
request you can view in a central window the status
of Storage groups on all your z/OS Systems. |
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Maintain
your z/OS Systems using the Command or JCL interfaces which
allow you to centrally define store and run Z/OS commands or
JCL decks. |
Simplified installation, minimal customization
and pre-configured processes mean you can install and gain the benefits
from the product in minutes rather than days.
Why Is UDM Necessary?
Management of z/OS storage is becoming more
of a challenge due to the ever-increasing size of Data Storage
environments and the decrease in the manpower to Terabyte ratio to manage this Storage.
The net result is critical management processes such as Audits of the
Catalog environment are being ignored whilst other tasks such as the
initializing of volumes are performed without the time to ensure the
required checks have been performed, thereby increasing the possibility
of user errors.
UDM solves these issues by simplifying and automating most of the tasks
involved in managing your data.
Distributed with UDM are a series of processes, which collectively provide
an out of the box solution that will:
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Collect
information on objects and retain Historical information allowing
proactive analysis of data to determine any actions required. |
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Simplify the processes
needed to report on an object via a series of boxed reports. |
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Trap critical Console
messages and alert you when critical conditions such as DASD
errors occur. |
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React
to object conditions such as Catalog or VTOC errors. |
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Notify you of exception
conditions as they occur via the central Monitor window that
receives alerts from all your Systems. |
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Simplify the day
to day processes such as initializing volumes by ensuring volumes
are offline to all systems, including systems outside the sysplex. |
Additionally, UDM provides the ability to define and test your Service
Level Agreements on a single system and then via a single mouse click,
provides the ability to Propagate the processes to manage these service
levels to all your Systems.
Who Is UDM Designed For?
UDM fits seamlessly into any Data Center due to its flexible architecture.
Customers with existing third party products can easily tailor UDM to
interface with these existing products.
Irrespective of the Data Center size UDM provides immediate benefits:
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Large
Multi Customer sites can use UDM to define a standard set of
Service Level Agreements and then propagate these to existing
customer Systems, via a single mouse click, or implement these
standard Service Level Agreements as new customer Systems come
on board. |
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Big Data Centers
benefit from the ability to work with multiple systems at the
same time, for example defining a new ICF Alias for a new User
can be performed on all Sysplexes in a single request. |
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Small
Data Centers
with less manpower resources benefit from the pre delivered
and configured processes meaning fewer resources are needed
to maintain and monitor Storage, thereby freeing up personnel
for other tasks. |
Storages Managers, Capacity Planners, Operations Support and Systems
Programmers can all benefit from UDM features:
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Storage
Managers can use the powerful monitoring facilities to be alerted
when critical Storage conditions occur such as full Catalogs
or Storage groups. They can then utilize delivered Commands
or JCL to react to these conditions or customize the product
with their own, site specific, actions. |
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Capacity Planners
using the SQL based reporting processes can automate the collection
of capacity related data such as Usage by High Level Qualifier
and easily review and manipulate this data. |
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Operations Support
can easily analyze problems such as volumes accidently being
offline to systems and react using customized Commands or JCL
decks. |
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Systems Programmers
can easily analyze System messages, Spool or the general Storage
architecture and issue z/OS maintenance commands via the Commands
Interface. |
When Should UDM Be Used?
UDM can be used to proactively monitor your Systems or it can be used
to perform ad-hoc tasks on request. By activating UDM on a System, simply
by starting the Started task, UDM will be automatically monitoring and
maintaining your Systems as well as collecting historical information
on your System for further analysis.
Once active UDM provides a comprehensive set of processes, which allow
you to perform common tasks such as the following:
How Can UDM Reduce TCO & Save
Money?
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Simplify and expedite the implementation of new storage
policies. Allow for changes to be propagated to your Storage
management SLAs and processes to new z/OS systems via a single
mouse click. |
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Centralize and
simplify Storage Management processes. Allow for changes
to be propagated to all systems in your Enterprise via a single
mouse click ensuring a dramatic reduction in resources needed
in managing multiple Systems and Sysplexes. |
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Automated data
collection for better decision making. For example, when
more DASD storage is required or better still, identifying wastage
in your environment, which if cleaned up would negate the need
for further storage acquisitions. |
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Eradicate risks
and consequences of errors and omissions. For example,
space failures, ICF catalog full scenarios, failed backups,
et al. All scenarios that are otherwise avoidable with advance
notification and resolution with UDM. |
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Reduce and simplify
your Software inventory. If you have individual products
to report on parts of your Storage subsystem or products to
automatically defragment volumes or products to identify and
repair errors UDM would allow you to reduce your Software costs
as it can perform all these functions and more in a single product. |
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Reduce the manpower
needed to manage your z/OS Systems. If you have multiple
Systems and Sysplexes and want to clean up the datasets for
a TSO User who is leaving the company it is likely you will
need to log onto each Sysplex and manually list and remove the
Users data. Using UDM a single action could list all the Users
data from all your Systems and Sysplexes and a subsequent Delete
action could remove all the data in a single mouse click. |
How Can We Deploy & Use UDM
The major design objective of UDM is
to allow simple resource efficient deployment and usage of the solution,
allowing the user to quickly deploy and benefit from comprehensive product
function:
Simplified Streamlined Installation & Integration Process
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z/OS
Host Installation requires three libraries, including one PARMLIB
per Sysplex, configured with five parameters and the UDM Started
Task (STC) to be started. |
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Client GUI
Installation
requires the GUI.EXE file to be loaded into a folder shared
by all potential UDM product users. |
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Seamlessly
Integrates
with existing security products (E.g. ACF2, RACF, Top
Secret), where all actions are processed
using authorization from the calling user, not the authority
of the UDM Started Task (STC). |
Simplified z/OS Command Interface
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Allows
z/OS Commands to be centrally stored in a single location and
then issued to multiple Systems in a single request. |
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Ensures Command
Output
from all Sysplexes is returned to a single GUI Window. |
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Allows
Generic Command
Decks to be created via the use of Variables. For example a
Vary command could have a variable Unit Address that would result
in the user being requested to specify the Unit Address prior
to generating the command. |
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Safeguards Console Commands are submitted using the authority of the caller and
not the UDM Server. |
Simplified JCL Management
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Centrally Stored JCL decks in a single location
for submission to multiple Systems in a single request. |
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Integrated Spool
Management process allows you to review the status of Jobs,
including output from multiple systems in a single GUI window. |
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Generic JCL
deck creation via the use of Variables, for example an
IEBCOPY compress dataset JCL deck could have a variable Dataset
Name, which would result in the user being requested to specify
a Dataset name to compress prior to generating the command. |
Simplified Reporting Interface
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Report on a specified Object across multiple systems
in a single request. Results from all Systems are returned within
a single GUI Window. |
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Full SQL
Filtering
ensures Report data can be sorted, filtered or summarized using
standard SQL syntax meaning complex filters can be set up to
identify specific conditions or Group and Sum features can be
used to generate Summary reports. |
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Drill
Down Functions ensure
easy cross reference between reports for example when listing
Storage groups you can easily list the Datasets on the selected
Storage group(s) or Volumes within the selected Storage group(s). |
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History
Reporting functions
simplify predictive analysis, For example, when displaying Storage
groups, selecting a Storage group with the History option, displaying
historic information about the selected Storage group. |
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Action functions
allow Report data displays to be used as input for JCL or Command
skeletons. |
Enhanced Console Automation Interface
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Trap console messages based on ID, type or text within the message. |
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Process automation,
as per conditional message processing; including Operator Command
processing, JCL deck submission, Report processing and/or Message
notification via the central Monitoring interface. |
Enhanced Process Scheduling Automation Interface
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Schedule processes at specified times, when existing
UDM controlled schedules or independent jobs end. |
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Processes include
Operator Command processing, JCL deck submission and report
processing. Additionally dynamic repair actions can be generated
and submitted. For example, a timed process to identify DASD
volumes with a High Fragmentation index which would then generate
and submit an appropriate DEFRAG JCL deck. |
Enhanced Exception Condition Monitoring Interface
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Receives UDM driven alerts from all systems in single GUI window. |
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Defined Alerts can be
based on a message being issued, a job or process ending or as a result of a Report query returning data. For example a report process for locating Catalogs, which are full. |
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Targeted Alerts can be defined for specific scenarios. For example Catalog alerts. |
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Drill
Down capability allows you to identify issues, for examples
catalogs with issues. Then view a problem summary, for example all full Catalogs and then identify the actual Catalogs, which are full. |
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UDM: Enterprise Wide, Simplified &
Resource Efficient z/OS Storage Management
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