Monitoring Virtual Tape Subsystems (VTS)

This topic describes the workspaces that monitor the status of virtual tape subsystems. You access these workspaces through the Virtual Tape Subsystems node in the Tivoli® Enterprise Portal.

See Workspaces for general information on predefined workspaces and a list of all nodes that are included in the OMEGAMON for Storage on z/OS product. Each node corresponds to a specific area of storage resource monitoring. And each node includes links to a unique set of storage resource workspaces. See Workspaces to learn about navigating among workspaces. Also see Workspaces to learn about linking to the workspaces of other IBM Tivoli Monitoring products.

Virtual Tape Subsystems workspace

This workspace is the principal workspace for this node, and it enables you to monitor both types of virtual tape subsystems, 3494 and 7700.

In a table view, when you right-click the row for a 3494 subsystem, you see standard (non-7700) options. When you select a 7700 subsystem, you see only the link to the TS7700 Series Cluster Workspace.

When you click the Virtual Tape Subsystems node in the Navigator of the Tivoli Enterprise Portal, you see the Virtual Tape Subsystems workspace. The main components of the workspace are as follows:

Views
This workspace provides the following views. For a description of the attributes used as column headings in the workspace table view, review the attribute group definitions for this workspace in the online help. The help resource includes attribute descriptions that are displayed when you hover with the mouse pointer over a column heading.
Virtual tape subsystems table view
The table view contains one row of data for virtual tape subsystem. The view contains the following information:
  • The VTS name and library type
  • The number of physical drives available
  • The number of virtual devices online
  • The average and maximum virtual mount pending times
  • The virtual disconnect time
  • The volume data (in gigabytes) read and written through the host channels to virtual volumes associated with this VTS
  • The recall percent
  • Number of scratch volumes, library type, model and serial number for this VTS
Volume recall % > 20 bar graph
This graph contains one bar for each VTS for which the percentage of virtual mounts to actual physical mounts exceeds 20%. The bar height indicates the recall percentage.
Average virtual mount pending time > 300 bar graph
This graph contains one bar for each VTS for which the average time spent waiting for a virtual mount exceeded 300 seconds. The height of the bar indicates the actual time spent waiting.
TS7700 Worst Statistics table view
The table view contains one row of data for each TS7700 Node/Cluster. The view contains the following information:
  • The hexidecimal field indicates the Node ID
  • The hexidecimal field indicates the cluster ID.
  • The node's machine type.
  • The node's model type.
  • The serial number of this node.
  • The code level of the Virtualization Engine.
  • The Sequence Number of the Grid (Composite) Library.
  • The minimum number of physcial drives available on this cluster of the select TS7700 grid for the last 24 hours.
  • The minimum average amount of time in seconds that and z/OS system waited for a virtual tape volume to be mounted on this cluster of the selected TS7700 grid for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum total number of gigabytes (read + write) processed by the z/OS host channels to the virtual tape volumes associated with this cluster of the selected TS7700 grid for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum percentage of the virtual mounts that result in a physical mount in this cluster of the selected TS7700 grid for the last 24 hours.
  • The minimum number of empty physical cartridges for use in this cluster of the selected TS700 grid for the last 24 hours.
  • The Name of this TS7700 Cluster.
  • Cluster ID and Machine Serial Number.
  • The maximum size of the Cluster's TVC in increments of GB (1024x1024x1000) for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum number of active logical volumes for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum number of gigabytes of the active data for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum number of total mounts for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum number of scratch mounts for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum megabytes Read by the Channel for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum gigabytes Read by the Channel for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum megabytes Written by the Channel for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum gigabytes Written by the Channel for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum sum of MB Read and MB Written for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum sum of GB Read and GB Written for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum percentage of 30-second periods where there was at least one throttling value greater than zero and that write overrun was the predominant reason for that throttling for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum average throttle value during the interval for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum percentage of 30-second periods where there was at least one throttling value greater than zero and that copy was the predominant reason for the throttling for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum average copy throttle value during the interval for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum average of all throttle values during the interval for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum percentage of 30-second periods where deferred copy throttle from cache partition 0 of this Hnode was active (non-zero) for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum average deferred copy throttle value during the interval for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum base deferred copy throttle value which would be used if deferred copy throttle were to be applied for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum reason(s) for write overrun (host) throttling during the interval for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum reason(s) for copy throttling during the interval for the last 24 hours.
  • The maximum reason(s) for deferred copy throttling during the interval for the last 24 hours.
Workspaces that are linked to this workspace
See Navigating the workspaces of the Virtual Tape Subsystems node.

Learn how to navigate among workspaces here: Accessing workspaces. Also see Integration with other products.

See Workspaces for a list of all nodes provided in OMEGAMON for Storage on z/OS.

Summary information for the workspaces in this node

This section lists the views and related attribute groups for the workspaces of the Virtual Tape Subsystems node.

See Workspaces for general information on predefined workspaces and a list of all nodes that are included in the OMEGAMON for Storage on z/OS product. Each node corresponds to a specific area of storage resource monitoring. And each node includes links to a unique set of storage resource workspaces. See Workspaces to learn about navigating among workspaces. Also see Workspaces to learn about linking to the workspaces of other IBM Tivoli Monitoring products.

See Virtual Tape Subsystems workspace for more additional information on the primary workspace for this node.

Table 2. Virtual Tape Subsystems workspace
View View type Attribute group
Virtual Tape Subsystems Report TABLE VTS Overview
Volume Recall % > 20 BAR VTS Overview
Average Virtual Mount Pend Time > 300 BAR VTS Overview
TS7700 Worst Statistics TABLE VTS Cluster Worst Statistics Summary
Table 3. VTS Physical Devices workspace
View View type Attribute group
Mount Pend Time BAR VTS Physical Devices
Concurrent Mounts BAR VTS Physical Devices
Physical Drives Status BAR VTS Physical Devices
Physical Mount Reason BAR VTS Physical Devices
Table 4. VTS Virtual Devices workspace
View View type Attribute group
Concurrent Mounts BAR VTS Virtual Devices
Mount Pend Time BAR VTS Virtual Devices
Mount Use Time BAR VTS Virtual Devices
Virtual Device Activity Report TABLE VTS Virtual Devices
Recall Mount Time BAR VTS Virtual Devices
Table 5. VTS Capacity workspace
View View type Attribute group
VTS Capacity Report TABLE VTS Capacity
Host Channel Activity BAR VTS Capacity
VTS Channel Activity BAR VTS Capacity
Physical Tape Usage BAR VTS Capacity
Table 6. VTS Tape Volume Cache workspace
View View type Attribute group
VTS Tape Volume Cache Report TABLE VTS Cache
Throttling Delay BAR VTS Cache
TVC Volume Age BAR VTS Cache
Virtual Mounts BAR VTS Cache
Throttling Percent PIE VTS Cache
Table 7. VTS Composite Details workspace
View View type Attribute group
VTS Controller Report TABLE VTS Composite Library
Mounts by Unit BAR VTS Virtual Devices
Logical Volumes to be Copied BAR VTS Virtual Devices
Data to Copy BAR VTS Virtual Devices
Table 8. VTS Virtual Drive Summary workspace
View View type Attribute group
Virtual Tape Subsystems Virtual Tape Drives TABLE VTS Virtual Devices Summary
Tape Drive Response Time BAR VTS Virtual Devices Summary
Table 9. VTSS Status workspace
View View type Attribute group
VTSS Scratch Volumes TABLE VTSS Virtual Volumes
VTSS Configuration TABLE VTSS Configuration
VTSS Status TABLE VTSS Status
Table 10. VTSS Real Tape Drives workspace
View View type Attribute group
VTSS RTD Status BAR VTSS RTD Status
VTSS RTD Queue Report TABLE VTSS RTD Queue
VTSS RTD Status TABLE VTSS RTD Status

Workspaces related to TS7700-series VTS

The following attribute groups supply data to the workspaces that are related to TS7700-series VTS:
Table 11. TS7700 Series Cluster workspace
View View type Attribute group Description
Cluster Summary TABLE VTS CLUSTER Contains basic information about a cluster in a TS7700 tape virtualization system, such as ID and machine type and model. The view also contains metrics that are derived from standard sources, such as the virtualization (vNode) or hierarchical data storage management (hNode).
Volume Recall Percent BAR VTS CLUSTER Charts the following metric for each cluster in the grid: Volume Recall Percent
Average Virtual Mount Pend Time BAR VTS CLUSTER Charts the following metric for each cluster in the grid: Average Virtual Mount Pend Time.
Table 12. TS7700 Series Cache workspace
View View type Attribute group Description
Cache Throttling Percentages BAR VTS TPVOLC Charts the following two metrics: Percent Write Overrun Throttle and Percent Copy Throttle.
Cache Throttling Averages BAR VTS TPVOLC Charts the following three metrics: Average Write Overrun Throttle, Average Copy Throttle, and Average Overall Throttle.
Tape Volume Cache Summary TABLE VTS TPVOLC Contains basic information about a cache in a TS7700 tape virtualization system, based on metrics that are derived from the "HSM - Cache Container" record of the "Hnode HSM Historical Record."
Table 13. TS7700 Series Cache Partition workspace
View View type Attribute group Description
Average Cache Miss Mount Times BAR VTS CACHEPC Charts the following metric for each of the 8 partitions: Average Cache Miss Mount Time.
Cache Miss Mounts BAR VTS CACHEPC Charts the following metric for each of the 8 partitions: Cache Miss Mounts.
Cache Partition Summary TABLE VTS CACHEPC Contains basic information about a cache partition in a TS7700 tape virtualization system. All attributes in this table are derived from the "HSM - Cache - Partition Container" record of the "Hnode HSM Historical Record."
Table 14. TS7700 Series Cache Preference Group workspace
View View type Attribute group Description
Average Cache Age BAR VTS CHPGRP Charts the following three metrics: 4 Hour Average Cache Age, 48 Hour Average Cache Age, and 35 Day Average Cache Age.
Number of Volumes Migrated BAR VTS CHPGRP Charts the following three metrics: Volumes Migrated Last 4 Hours, Volumes Migrated Last 48 Hours, and Volumes Migrated Last 35 Days.
Cache Preference Group Summary TABLE VTS CHPGRP Contains basic information about a cache preference group in a TS7700 tape virtualization system, based on metrics that are derived from the HSM HSM - Cache - Partition - Preference Group Container record of the "Hnode HSM Historical Record."
Table 15. TS7700 Series Cluster Healthcheck workspace
View View type Attribute group Description
Cluster Healthcheck Summary TABLE VTS CLUSTER Contains basic information about a cluster in a TS7700 tape virtualization system, such as ID and machine type and model. The view also contains metrics that are derived from standard sources, such as the virtualization (vNode) or hierarchical data storage management (hNode).
Table 16. TS7700 Series Cache Healthcheck workspace
View View type Attribute group Description
Tape Volume Cache Healthcheck Summary TABLE VTS TPVOLC Contains basic information about a cache in a TS7700 tape virtualization system, based on metrics that are derived from the "HSM - Cache Container" record of the "Hnode HSM Historical Record."
Table 17. TS7700 Series Cache Partition Healthcheck workspace
View View type Attribute group Description
Cache Partition Healthcheck Summary TABLE VTS CACHEPC Contains basic information about a cache partition in a TS7700 tape virtualization system. All attributes in this table are derived from the "HSM - Cache - Partition Container" record of the "Hnode HSM Historical Record."
Table 18. TS7700 Series Cache Preference Group Healthcheck workspace
View View type Attribute group Description
Cache Preference Group Healthcheck Summary TABLE VTS CHPGRP Contains basic information about a cache preference group in a TS7700 tape virtualization system, based on metrics that are derived from the HSM HSM - Cache - Partition - Preference Group Container record of the "Hnode HSM Historical Record."