Strobe for Adabas/Natural Overview
Strobe is a product that determines where time is spent in online subsystems and batch processing programs. Strobe produces a collection of reports that help you determine where and how to revise applications to improve their performance.
Strobe for Adabas/Natural extends the functions of Strobe to enable you to measure and evaluate three types of performance data:
- Performance of applications developed and executing in a Natural environment
- Performance of the Adabas database management system
- Amount of wait time for 3GL programs that access Adabas.
Natural Language Support
There are two types of Natural programs: Natural nucleus programs and Natural 4GL programs. Natural nucleus programs make up the Natural run-time system, and they are supplied by SOFTWARE AG. Natural 4GL programs are written in the Natural language by application programmers. Since nucleus programs cannot be modified by applications programmers, Strobe for Adabas/Natural focuses on identifying performance improvement opportunities in Natural 4GL programs.
Natural 4GL programs can execute in teleprocessing environments such as CICS and batch processing regions. They can access data managed by Adabas, IBM’s VSAM, and other database management systems. Strobe for Adabas/Natural does not support Natural 4GL programs executing in COM-PLETE environments.
Strobe for Adabas/Natural can measure the performance of Natural 4GL programs executing in CICS, IMS, and batch regions. To measure Natural 4GL programs executing in a CICS or an IMS environment, you must use Strobe for CICS or Strobe for IMS in conjunction with Strobe for Adabas/Natural.
Strobe for Adabas/Natural does the following:
- Identifies CPU usage in Natural 4GL programs by statement number and, optionally, shows the source code text associated with each statement number
- In batch environments, identifies wait by Natural statement number
- Provides function descriptors for Natural nucleus routines
- Provides the Natural Program CPU Usage Summary report, which shows a breakdown of activity by Natural 4GL program name, and the CPU Usage by Natural Statement reports, which show activity for each Natural 4GL program broken down by statement number.
Adabas Support
When Strobe for Adabas/Natural measures an Adabas region, the Performance Profile for that region shows:
- CPU activity in Adabas modules and user-exit routines
- Function descriptors for the Adabas nucleus routines
- CPU usage attributed to callers within the Natural regions that caused the activity, identified for the following:
- Batch job, by the job name
- TSO region, by the TSO user ID
- CICS region, by the logical terminal name
- IMS region, by the IMS module name.
3GL Wait Time Attribution
Strobe can measure a 3GL program written in Assembler, COBOL, FORTRAN, or PL/I that makes direct calls or Adabas SQL Server statement calls to an Adabas region. It attributes the wait incurred when the direct calls or Adabas SQL Server statement calls access the Adabas database. When wait time is caused in the module which controls access to Adabas, Strobe attributes the time to an offset in the calling module. The wait time is recorded in the Attribution of CPU Wait report along with wait time caused by Natural programs that access Adabas.
Identification of Activity in Pseudo-Entities
Strobe for Adabas/Natural generates the following pseudo-entities under which it reports activity.
Pseudo-Entity | Type of activity that Strobe reports |
|---|---|
.ADABAS | Adabas database activity. (Module names beginning with ADA.) |
.ADASQL | Activity in Adabas SQL Server statements. (Module names beginning with ESQ.) |
.NATNUC | Activity in the Natural nucleus. (Module names beginning with ACM, NAT, NCI, and NDB.) |
.NATURAL | Execution in the Natural nucleus that cannot be assigned to a Natural 4GL program. |
.xxxxxxx | Activity in an Adabas task other than a system service. The name begins with a “.” followed by the first seven characters of the module name in which the execution of the task was initiated. |
Strobefor Adabas/Natural Benefits
The data provided by Strobe for Adabas/Natural will help you throughout the application life cycle in the following areas:
- Design and build, to assess alternative programming techniques by measuring the performance of various test cases
- Test and quality assurance, to confirm design assumptions about new or modified application resource requirements
- Production, to ensure efficient performance of Natural 4GL programs and usage of Adabas services
- Maintenance, to assess the impact of changes in business requirements and data volume on the performance of Natural 4GL applications and on the Adabas database management system.