Hello and Happy Tuesday to all!
Today I am discussing how to keep log data files by specific dates.
There are two log files used by CA 7, the Primary log and Secondary log. When the log CA 7 is writing to fills, CA 7 starts writing to the other file and automatically submits the log dump job for the log that filled. This is done by program SASSHIS5 which creates a new generation of the history file from dumped log data when it runs. When you need to run reports from the history data, it is sometimes not immediately apparent what history generation you need to use.
There is a program we provide called SASSXTRK. This program is designed to extract log/history data and create an output file with the chosen data. The SYSIN to SASSXTRK allows a date and time to be used for the beginning and ending of the extracted data file. You can also specify a specific or generic job name, but for this purpose, you will want to collect all log records by using an * in column 1 of the SYSIN. The following JCL can be used as an example of creating a file containing log data for June 2014:
//jobname JOB ...
//EXTRACT EXEC PGM=SASSXTRK
//STEPLIB DD DISP=SHR,DSN=user-supplied-CA-7-loadlib
//LOGIN DD DISP=SHR,DSN=user-supplied-CA-7-logtape
//LOGOUT DD DISP=(NEW,CATLG,DELETE),DSN=extracted.file,
// UNIT=SYSDA,SPACE=(CYL,(10,5),RLSE),
// DCB=(RECFM=VB,LRECL=2100,BLKSIZE=21004)
//SYSOUT DD SYSOUT=*
//SYSIN DD *
* 141520001 141812359
/*
The SASSXTRK program is documented in Chapter 3 of the CA 7 Reports Guide.
There is no technical or product related reason to create monthly history files, but many of our clients do want this ability. Also, many times, CA 7 support will ask you to run the SASSXTRK program to provide data to help solve some issue you report with CA 7 processing. Even if you don’t have a need to set up history files by dates, you will want to become familiar with this program—I have found it to be very helpful—especially when ‘shooting’ middle-of-the-night issues on severity 1 calls. It never hurts to be ready to provide this data, so if you have not run the SASSXTRK program, your homework this week (HA!) is to set up and run the program. Like a Boy Scout—be prepared.
Until next time—Bye,Y’all
Marysue