Creating a playback file

Use playback mode to run a retrospective analysis of your data to see what caused problems that you had in the past.

Use the following procedure to create a file from your SMF data.

To create a playback file

1. Click the Administration icon  in the title bar. 
2. Click Playback Mode > Create Playback File in the menu on the left side.
3. Click .
   
   

4. In the Create New File dialog, enter the following settings:

   Field	Description
   Data Set Name	Names of the historical SMF data sets that contains the source data for the playback file You can enter up to 50 data set names. The data sets must follow TSO dataset naming conventions. The data must be sorted in STCK order. Tape data sets and migrated data sets are not supported.
   Output Path	USS directory path to store the playback file This path must follow USS naming conventions. You must have write access for this path and sufficient space to store the data. Playback file sizes depend on the amount of data included.
   Pacing Record Count	Number of records processed before there is a pause in building the playback file Use Pacing Record Count to control resource usage of your request. When the number of records is processed, operations are suspended for an interval equivalent to the amount of time it took to process the previous batch of records and to write them to the output file. Note If you select Sort SMF, Pacing Record Count is disabled.
   Sort SMF	Select this to use BMC's sorting algorithm (recommended) to sort the model data by date and time, to minimize resource consumption. Unless you have a specific issue that prevents you from using BMC's sorting algorithm, leave this selected. Note If you select Sort SMF, Pacing Record Count is disabled.
   Data Sharing Group or Db2 Subsystem	Db2 sharing group to filter on from the historical SMF dataset or Individual Db2 subsystem to filter on from the historical SMF dataset Data Sharing Group can be up to 8 characters long and must match the QWHADSGN field in the SMF data. Db2 Subsystem can be up to 4 characters long and must match the QWHAMEMN field in the SMF data.
   Label / Short Description	Description for the playback file This description is displayed on the list of models to help you identify your playback file. You can use this an alias for the playback file to allow you to easily identify it and to differentiate it from your other playback files.
   Date Range	Start date/time and end date/time for the historical SMF data set name. Dates and times are according to the local date/time of the Db2 instance.

5. Click .

Created playback files are listed in the grid on the screen. You can perform the following actions:

• Click on the filename to see the details of the playback file.
• Click the Copy File Path button  to copy the file path for running playback.

To delete a playback request that is in error status

If a playback request finishes in error, it is marked with . To delete it, click on the trash icon .

Where to go from here

When your playback file is ready proceed to Running-playback-mode.