August 2010

More ViewPoint Administrator Modules

Last month we reviewed three Administrator modules to show you some handy housekeeping and end-user management functions. The ViewPoint Administrator provides access to all the behind-the-scenes features that make ViewPoint so easy to use. This month, we’ll look at three more Administrator modules: SEQUEL Auditing, SEQUEL Host Servers, and Dynamic Drill Down List.

What Do These Modules Do?

SEQUEL Auditing lets you keep track of the SEQUEL ViewPoint requests that run on your system. It provides a way to monitor your investment in SEQUEL.

SEQUEL Host Servers helps you maintain the connections to remote database servers on your network such as Oracle, MySQL, and MS Sequel Server.

Dynamic Drill Down List lets you maintain the file containing available "drill to" fields to use in Dynamic Regroup/Show Detail views and Sequel Drill Down Applications.

Track SEQUEL Usage with Auditing

Auditing lets you monitor your investment in SEQUEL with inquiries and reports that help you get the most out of SEQUEL. It shows you where SEQUEL is used most heavily and how it affects your system resources. Using the auditor’s inquiry and analysis tools, you can effectively manage the query environment.

There are three phases to the auditing process: collection, distribution, and analysis. SEQUEL collects data in a System i journal and its attached receiver. You can turn on the auditing process through each user’s default data area to collect auditing data selectively. After you collect some data, you can run the Manage Audit Data process to extract data from the receiver and distribute it to files in the audit database. Then, you can analyze the data using summary and detail inquiries and graphs.

Collection and Distribution

Data collection and distribution takes place “behind the scenes” and must occur before data analysis. To start the process, open the ViewPoint Administrator and select the SEQUEL Auditing option. Then, follow this easy, three-step process:

1. Use the Set Audit Default option to decide which users to audit. Check the box next to each user ID you want to audit.



2.  Wait a day or two to allow the information to collect.
3. Select the Manage Audit Data option (available to administrators) to move the data from the journal receiver to the database. (In the future, you can schedule this option to run automatically.)

Once the submitted job completes, you are ready to analyze your SEQUEL usage.

Analysis

You can view your collected data as either summary or detailed information. To display SEQUEL requests by user, object, job name, and access path, choose Show Audit Data. Click User to display summary values of SEQUEL activity for each user you are auditing and double-click on a user to display detailed information about the user.

You can analyze information by object or job name; display a list of files, views, and reports used; or create a list by job name. To display detailed information, just double-click the item. The detail inquiry also shows a command summary that includes a graph.

Administer Remote Database Connections

With ViewPoint you can connect to remote databases and process SQL requests against them. All remote database access is performed between the System i and the remote data server—there is no connection between your PC running ViewPoint and the remote system. The available remote databases are defined in a file named SEQUELHOST that is stored on the System i. Using the SEQUEL Host Server module in the Administrator, you can create and maintain this remote server connection file.

Select the SEQUEL Host Servers option on the Administrator main menu to open the SEQUEL Host List screen.

This screen displays all the current connections to your remote servers. You can select any connection to review or change its settings. Review the SEQUEL ViewPoint User Guide for a complete explanation of remote database connections.

Manage Link Fields for Dynamic Drill-down

ViewPoint provides a very powerful run-time feature called Dynamic Drill-down, that allows you to ‘drill’ into the supporting detail for any summary (grouping) view. You can right-click on a summary record and launch a second view to see the detail records.

ViewPoint shows you all the available fields from all of the files in the starting view. This list can be long, depending on the files used. With the administrator Dynamic Drill Down list module, you can mange this list, file-by-file. Use the Dynamic Drill Down List screen to add files and select the fields you want your users to use for drill-down.

The following example shows a run summary view, selected detail fields, and the resulting detail view.

ViewPoint first shows all the available fields from all the files in the starting view. This can be a very long list depending on the files used.

With the Administrator Dynamic Drill Down List module you can manage this list file-by-file. Use the Dynamic Drill Down List screen to add the files and to select any fields you want users to use for drill-down.

Summary

You’ve just read a brief overview of three powerful Administrator features. It’s easy to use the Administrator to manage host servers and ViewPoint’s dynamic drill-down field list. The auditing features help you keep track of the SEQUEL requests on your system and show management the importance of SEQUEL.

Contributed by Steven Smith, Technical Consultant