How the growth in PDSE usage affects CA PDSMAN is an important question. Asking the question allows you to be proactive in protecting your investment in the software; answering it gives us the opportunity to show how CA PDSMAN continues to provide benefit in a changing z/OS environment.
PDSE libraries were introduced over twenty years ago and have had a somewhat checkered history. Recently there has been considerable growth in their usage due to a number of technical and other factors. It is fair to assume that this growth will continue. But if past history is any indication, conventional PDS libraries will still be with us well into the foreseeable future.
On the surface it may seem there is no longer a need for a product like CA PDSMAN. PDSEs do noticeably impact some of the facilities that the product has provided for much of its over thirty year history. But one of the many strengths of CA PDSMAN – the broad range of solutions it provides – greatly lessens the overall effect of PDSEs.
CA PDSMAN provides nearly 40 different facilities for managing your partitioned (both PDS and PDSE) libraries. Some of these facilities are not applicable to PDSEs and some others provide a reduced level of functionality for these libraries, but the majority of CA PDSMAN facilities have experienced little or no impact from PDSEs.
The impact PDSEs varies from client to client depending on how they use the product. To properly gauge the impact of PDSEs, it is necessary to drill down into the specific facilities CA PDSMAN provides.
On one end of the spectrum are facilities that are not supported either because they are not applicable to PDSEs or because they are not feasible to implement. PDSEs were originally designed to address PDS library space, directory space and (to a lesser extent) performance issues. So it is not surprising that the corresponding CA PDSMAN facilities are impacted to a greater extent. Some examples are:
- Library space management facilities such as Space Reuse, Library Space Monitoring and compress
- Directory management facilities such as Directory Space Monitoring, ALTERDIR, and related functions
- Library integrity facilities such as Library Map and Analysis and enqueue checking
- Performance facilities such as Dynamic BLDL (LLA is alternative that is enhanced by CA PDSMAN)
On the opposite end of the spectrum are the majority of CA PDSMAN facilities which experience little or no impact from PDSEs. These include:
- The EZYEDIT ISPF Productivity Platform (except for specific functions related to the facilities above)
- FastCopy replacement of IEBCOPY (except for specific functions related to the facilities above)
- Last Reference Date Recording
- String scan and replace
- LLA Synchronization and Auto Update facilities
- Extended LLA Operator Commands
- LLA Monitoring and Reporting
- Member Control Information Recording
- Audit Trails and Security
- Previous Member Version Journaling
- Current Member Version Journaling
- Member Comparison
- Library Comparison
- Remote Data Comparison
- Duplicate member reporting
- Library Empty
- Most of the general Productivity Tools
Two other groups of facilities sit between these two extremes. Some facilities provide functionality for “source” PDSEs but not for PDSE libraries that contain executable code called program objects. These include:
- Member Archiving and Purging facilities (FastCopy provides an alternative for this function)
- Member Incremental Backup and Main Backup facilities
- Descriptive Member Titles
Finally, some facilities provide functionality for PDSEs at a somewhat reduced level. For example:
- Multiple Member Version Support (minus versions are maintained but are less convenient to copy)
- Partitioned Resource Monitoring (loss of instrumentation related to Space, Directory and Validation)
- Library Space Release (cannot be performed with the same granularity with a PDSE)
- FastCopy Compress and Extended Compress functions related to library and directory space usage
Clearly, the effect of PDSEs is greatly dependent on the client environment. To fairly evaluate the potential impact it is important to understand which CA PDSMAN facilities are being used and where those facilities fit on the above spectrum. You can use data from the CA PDSMAN Usage Statistics Recording facility to see how the product is being utilized in your environment.
While the use of PDSEs presents a challenge to CA PDSMAN, they also represent an opportunity. My colleagues and I are continually looking for specific user needs and ideas for new function that would benefit the CA PDSMAN user community. Please contact us if you have questions or ideas to share