MAR is software that acquires performance information from storage systems on mainframes.
MAR uses the SMF subsystem in z/OS to collect the information and makes it available in SMF records. There are no standard SMF reports for SMF performance data. There are third party performance analysis tools available that can combine the MAR data with other SMF information to provide an overall picture of the performance of the system, including the DASD. Alternatively, the information about the SMF record format can be used to write your own reports as desired.
MAR can be used for the following purposes:
- MAR can be used to collect the data that can be used by the analysis tools and report generators to identify bottlenecks related to performance. The information provided allows you to analyze your storage system performance and address issues associated with MPU utilization, ports, parity groups, and LDEVs.
- MAR acquires performance information and configuration information about the storage system connected to a mainframe host. This information is output to the SMF dataset in the SMF record format in sync with other SMF information being collected (this includes RMF records). If you edit SMF records by using analysis software, you can compare and examine host performance information and storage system performance information that was collected during the same time period. This helps you analyze the performance of the entire system.
- By using a recognition name in the host (device numbers, VOLSERs, or SMS storage group names), you can specify the specific storage devices about which performance information is to be acquired and view that performance information. This helps mainframe administrators to analyze performance.
The following figure provides an overview of performance information acquisition in MAR.
Figure. Overview of performance information acquisition in MAR
