Legent Plc has a new storage performance manager for MVS systems called Astex, the Automated Storage Expert. It is composed of three components and finds, identifies and recommends actions to input-output response time or delays, and is claimed to ensure efficient utilisation of cache and disk storage. The company says that Astex was developed in response to IBM’s storage architecture, Systems Managed Storage, which has some tools but is still largely philosophical and has a number of shortcomings. The three components that comprise Astex work in both SMS and non-SMS environments. The Storage Manager makes recommendations on data placement across the storage hierarchy, while the Cache Manager and Direct Access Storage Device Manager components suggest means of exploiting the cache and disk resources. The Storage Manager analyses real-time or historical data and displays a list of problems, and it also has a Configuration Manager to plan and estimate future requirements. The DASD Manager is based on Legent’s performance product, DASDMON, and the company believes that its existing clients are a base for SMS-compliant products. It is made up of on-line storage statistics, batch storage statistics and reorganisation utilities. The Cache Manager has expert analysis techniques, automatic optimisation, cache simulation routines and data set cache statistics. It analyses cache usage and provides recommendations in English of actions that ought to maximise performance of cache and non-volatile storage. The recommendations can be implemented by a storage administrator, or the cache optimiser can automate the process. Astex runs under MVS/XA and MVS/ESA, and depending on configuration, costs between UKP20,000 and UKP45,000.
