Channel Path Activity workspace

Note: The Resource Measurement Facility (RMF) must be started for this workspace to display data.

The Channel Path Activity workspace shows utilization for each channel path. If the utilization of a channel path is excessive, check

Excessive use of a channel path often indicates contention for poorly balanced resources. In the case of DASD, heavily used datasets should be evenly distributed among devices and channels. If a path is excessively busy only at a particular time, you may want to reschedule jobs that are affected by this contention.

In addition to a table view that provides information about various factors affecting utilization, two bar graphs provide easy-to-read information.

The LPAR Percent chart graphs the LPAR Percent column of the table view. LPAR Percent is the percentage of time the channel was busy working for the logical partition.This column can be blank or non-blank. The column is blank when: a) the system is running in basic mode; b) the channel path is offline; c) the ESCON Multiple Image Facility (EMIF) is not installed; or d) Channel Path Measurement Facility (CPMF) is unavailable or not installed.

Valid values range from 0 to 100% when the system is running in LPAR mode, EMIF is installed, and the channel path is online. If the channel path is shared, this value represents the LPAR's utilization of the channel path from the start of the RMF interval. If the channel path is not shared, the LPAR utilization value is the same as the complex-wide utilization value.

This value can be greater than the utilization of the channel by the entire complex, since the LPAR value is obtained from the hardware, whereas the Complex value is sampled and may not include channel utilization.

The Complex Percent chart graphs the values in the Complex Percent column of the table view. Complex percent is the percentage of time that a given channel was busy within the complex. Each bar in the chart represents a given channel path.

This workspace can record history.

Related topics: Organization of system-level predefined workspaces, Attribute groups used by the system-level predefined workspaces