Running playback mode

Before you begin

To run playback mode you must meet the following requirements:

• You must have administrator privileges.
• BMC AMI Ops Insight cannot be running projections on real-time data. If you are running real-time projections, playback is disabled.

To run playback, you must have a playback file. Use the following procedure to create a playback file from your SMF data.

To create a playback file

BMC.AMIOPS.SPE2310 

1. On the title bar, click Administration. 
2. Click Playback Scoring > New File.
3. On the Create Playback File window, select one of the following options:
   • Db2 Subsystem Playback
   • LPAR Playback
4. Click Next.
   

5. On the Date Range & Data Set window, enter the following details:

   Field	Description
   Wildcard Search BMC.AMIOPS.SPE2310	Uses wildcards to search a data set name Select Wildcard Search check box and enter the wildcard input to search for a data set. The allowed wildcard characters are %, *, and * *.   For example:  HLQ.MLQ.DATA% HLQ.MLQ.*.DATA HLQ.MLQ.**
   Data Set Name	Names of the historical SMF data sets that contains the source data for the playback file You can enter up to 500 data set names. The data sets must follow TSO data set naming conventions.
   Date Range of Playback Data	Start date/time and end date/time for the historical SMF data set name. Dates and times are according to the time zone of the data within the data set provided.
   Sort SMF	Dynamically sorts SMF records 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. Important If you select Sort SMF, the Pacing Record Count option is disabled. Before turning off Sort SMF, make sure the data is sorted based on date and time. We recommended that you use Sort SMF.
   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. Important The Pacing Record Count is visible only when you disable the Sort SMF option.

6. Click Next.
7. In Filters & Details, enter the following details:
   • In the Label/ Short Description, enter the 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 as an alias for the playback file to easily identify it and to differentiate it from your other playback files.
     
   • In the Output Folder, enter the USS directory path to store the playback file.
     This path must follow USS naming conventions. The path is created within the <installed directory>/aoidata/aoiinst/dat folder of your installation folder. 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.
     
   • If you are creating Db2 subsystem playback file, under Create Db2 Subsystem Playback file (using SMF 100 data), select one of the following:
     • Filter by Db2 Data Sharing Group—Db2 Data Sharing Group to filter data from the historical SMF data set.
       The Db2 Data Sharing Group name can be up to eight characters long and must match the QWHADSGN field in the SMF data.
     • Filter by Db2 Subsystem—Single Db2 Subsystem to filter data from the historical SMF data set.
       The Db2 Subsystem name can be up to four characters long and must match the QWHAMEMN field in the SMF data.
       
   • If you are creating a LPAR playback file, under Create LPAR Playback file (using SMF 70-79 data), select one of the following:
     • Filter by Sysplex—Sysplex to filter data from the historical SMF data set.
       Sysplex name can be up to 8 characters long and must match the SMF70XNM field in the SMF data.
     • Filter by LPAR—Individual system to filter data from the historical SMF data set.
       The System name can be up to 8 characters long and must match the SMF70SNM field in the SMF data.
8. Click Next.
9. On the Review & Submit window, click Submit.
   The process to create playback file starts and a progress bar is displayed as follows:
   
   The created playback files are listed on the Playback Scoring page. 
10. Click on the filename to see the details of the playback file.

To use the Expert mode

1. On the title bar, click Administration .
2. Click Playback Scoring > New File.
3. On the Create Playback File window, click Expert Mode.
   

4. Enter the details in the Create Playback File window and click Submit.

   Important

   You can create playback files of both Db2 Subsystems and LPARs in the same request.

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 Cancel.

To run playback

1. On the title bar, click Administration .
2. Click Playback Mode > Playback Scoring in the menu on the left side.
3. Select the option you want to use for playback file selection:

   • Option 1 - Select Files: Use this option for running playback with files created on this instance of the product.

     Click here to expand...

     • Select folders and files that you want to use for playback. If you select a folder, all files in the folder are selected.
     • To select a folder, click Select.
     • To download a folder, click the Download icon.
       

     • To select individual files, click the > expander next to the folder name, and then select the individual files you want to use. Another option is to select the entire folder, and then click Deselect for files you don't want to include in the playback.
       

     
     

   • Option 2 - Provide Path: Use this option for running playback files that were created on another instance of the product.
     

     Click here to expand...

     Enter the path of the file or folder that you want to use for playback. The file or folder must be within the <installed directory>/aoidata/aoiinst/dat folder. The path you enter here must exist in the path within the <installed directory>/aoidata/aoiinst/dat folder.

     If you enter a folder, all files within the folder are included in the playback.

4. Click Next.

5. Enter an Ingestion Rate for your playback. The Ingestion Rate is the rate at which the application processes data and refreshes the display.

   Important

   Each ingestion cycle processes 1 minute of data regardless of the selected speed.

   Default: 20 seconds

   Important

   The value you use here depends on the amount of data you are processing and the resource availability on the machine you are using.

6. Click .

On the Playback Scoring page, you can see the details of the current playback.

While playback is running:

• All of the displays in the application reflect the results based on the historical data.
• Playback Active is displayed on the Playback Scoring page.
  
• Playback Active is displayed in the footer of all pages throughout the application.
  

To pause playback

You can pause playback while it's running to temporarily stop its progress and analyze the results.

You can use the Pause and Play buttons in the footer of the application, or you can use the following procedure:

1. On the title bar, click Administration .
2. Click Playback Mode > Playback Scoring in the menu on the left side.
3. Click the pause button ().
   • Playback Active changes to Playback Paused on the Playback Scoring page and in the footer.
   • The pause button  () changes to a play button(). Click the play button to continue playback.

To stop playback