A recurring problem for programmers and IT folks in general is determining whether or not a particular program is still required. As your organization grows and the number of programs increases, keeping track of them all can become quite difficult.
As administration and management burdens increase, a common desire is to get rid of programs that are no longer being used. But it can be difficult to determine which programs are no longer used.
You can always “ask around,” but few IT professionals would be willing to delete anything based on such a general tactic. Another common method is to review performance reports or extracts from a performance warehouse. But perhaps your performance traces are not turned on all the time.
The question is probably more common in DB2 environments because of the plans and packages that consume storage and "sit around" taking up space if their associated program is no longer being used.
Well, for DB2 professionals this type of question becomes easier to answer once you migrate to DB2 10 for z/OS. DB2 maintains a new column, LASTUSED, in the DB2 Catalog. The column exists in both SYSIBM.SYSPACKAGE and SYSIBM.SYSPLAN and is defined as a DATE data type. The date is changed when the package header is requested from EDM. The column is also maintained for triggers and stored procedures. After BIND (REPLACE) this column is reset to the default value (CURRENT DATE).
This is similar to the LASTUSED column added to SYSIBM.SYSINDEXSPACESTATS in DB2 9, which is used to show the last time an index was used.
Of course, you will have to give it some time –- because you might have a program that is used only rarely, yet still used. Most shops have queries and programs that run quarterly, or even annually, but nevertheless are very important. So don’t just start freeing packages a month after you’ve migrated to DB2 10!
But it is good to know that we now have additional usage information at our fingertips in the DB2 Catalog, isn’t it?
0 comments:
Post a Comment