Take advantage of custom queries

Earlier I had shown some examples of what I call Management By Exception displays, one example of an IMS view and another that showed an integrated z/OS view. One portion of the z/OS management by exception workspace showed DASD with high MSR times. Because in many shops you may have thousands of DASD devices, you may want to consider your options when displaying DASD information.

The data that appears in the various tiles of the workspace are gathered via a mechanism called a query. When creating a workspace that includes queries that can request potentially large amounts of data, it may be more efficient to create and use custom queries to make the rendering of the workspace more efficient. The DASD High MSR portion of the workspace is a good example of this technique.

If you look at the example, you can start with the basic default query, and then click 'Create Another' to make a new query to optimize. You can then specify a filter option, as in this example, to get information only for DASD devices with MSR times higher than 8 ms. You can then click 'Advanced' and get a pop up to specify the data sort sequence, and also in this example we are only asking for the 10 worst devices.

By filtering at the level of the query the workspace will render more quickly and efficiently. use this technique for displays that may request large amounts of information.