Daniel Swan wrote:
>I'm trying to load balance my backups over time, but it would help if I
had a visual representation of what backups start when, and how long they
take, somewhat like a Gant Chart. Is there any free tool to automatically
read one's ADSM schedules, and output a nice graphical representation?


Bob Cross wrote:
>I'd be interested in hearing of any such tools as well, since it's a
problem that we're finding as well.
At the moment, the best we've got is a Visio smart drawing that I cobbled
together in a spare five minutes.
All the data has to be entered manually since to do otherwise would require
more knowledge of VBA/ODBC than I have at the moment ( = 0 ).
I'm now thinking that a nice Perl script using the Perl/Tk  or GD/Graph
modules would be a way better solution, (cross platform for a start). I'll
probably have a go at that when work permits. [or should we all drop a BIG
hint to Tivoli ;-) ]
Failing that, anyone know of a tool that allows time-based bar charts on
hour/minute scales? Microsoft Project doesn't appear to.

********************************************************

I also use Visio to maintain a manual graphic of schedules.
AIX ADSM 3.1

We have C programs and shell scripts that automate almost
every part of monitoring, notification and offsite/onsite
tape management.

The issue with AIX and ADSM we had. I also wanted to run
system utilities and mksysb images on system schedules.
Problem, if ADSM was running.. say dsmc incremental, on
a volume group and/or logical volume while a system
system function requested exclusive access to that item
(as in the case of mksysb). Then hangs or failures could
/would occur. We have approx. 720G of external disk which
includes a variety of databases and applicatons, with no
disk storage pools. Three libraries and the primary and
offsite copy pools reside in the libraries. Six days a week
there is approx. a two hour maintenance windows in 24 hours
to work around the schedules.. Sunday maybe 8 hours. Offsite
copies run approx. 180G daily.

Because of the limited time for maintenance, I have a program
that collects data every 10 minutes per scheduled node and
compares a threshold array for data transfer rates, pages me
with information about sessions which fall below the threshold.
Normal response for event correction is 15 minutes +-.

Having said this, the Visio graphic I use is a 24 hour grid.
The events ADSM/OS that can/do have conflict are categorized
by shaded group. Each event is a time bar and each group bar
lays in a event track. The logic is that by extending/moving
or creating a event of the same group you cannot miss a existing
event which may cause a problem.

I also was interested in creating or finding a schedule graphic
some years back.. but found that accounting for other than ADSM
events was never going to be easy.

Best Wishes,
Bart

(Opinions are strictly personal and do not reflect my employer)