Introduction to FDREPORT

FDREPORT® is a generalized report writer that can generate custom reports on DASD and TAPE related data. You can generate simple reports with simple control statements, or complex reports using the great power of FDREPORT.

You can generate reports on a few data sets, large numbers of data sets, whole DASD volumes, or your entire installation. You can report on live data, or data archived or backed up by ABR. You can select data through the system catalogs, or directly from DASD volumes or IBM DFSMSrmm and CA 1 or other sources. You can generate a data file for further reporting or pass the data to other programs for further analysis. You can even punch JCL or control statements for other programs using the report data.

FDREPORT is designed to report on large amounts of data from various sources without sacrificing performance. FDREPORT requires less elapsed time and system resources (CPU time and EXCPs) for a given function than any other competitive product.

Input sources

FDREPORT gathers input from a variety of sources:

• Operating system catalogs– A data set name filter can be specified to quickly search catalogs for the required data sets.
• VTOC of DASD volumes – Information from the DSCBs of the data sets is extracted.
• VVDS of DASD volumes – For VSAM clusters and SMS-managed data sets
• Directories of PDS and PDSE libraries.
• ABR backup information – For data sets processed by ABR incremental backups.
• Archive/Application Control File (ACF) – For archived data sets and those processed by application backups.
• Extended Archive Control File (EACF) - For archived data sets.
• IBM DFSMShsm or DFHSM MCDS and BCDS data.
• Data recorded by previous FDREPORT executions.
• Backup data sets created by ABR, FDR, FDRDSF, or SAR, for information on DASD data sets in those backups.
• IBM DFSMSrmm and CA 1 data.

From the hundreds of different fields available, each relating to an attribute of a data set or a volume, you can select a subset to be reported, and can optionally specify the positioning of those fields in the report, although FDREPORT does most of the formatting work for you. In addition to simple printed reports, FDREPORT can sort and summarize the data selected. It can also generate control statements and/or JCL for other utilities based on the data collected. Although most reports are based on individual data sets, you can report on the state of entire DASD volumes (such as volume free space).

By default, FDREPORT does not attempt to serialize access to the input sources it is reading. Input data sets (such as the (E)ACF, MCDS, and BCDS) are allocated with DISP=SHR unless you provide a DD statement for them with DISP=OLD. (The option ARCHENQ, if enabled, protects the (E)ACF with a special enqueue to prevent ABR from updating it). VTOCs and VVDSs are read without any enqueue or RESERVE unless you enable the RESERVE option (see “RESERVE” in FDREPORT-Volume-Examples) that allows updates to take place during the FDREPORT execution. In rare cases, a VTOC/VVDS update may cause FDREPORT to fail or generate incorrect output unless RESERVE is enabled.

At any computer installation, users at a variety of levels need to be able to refer to accurate and timely information about the use of DASD resources. Accurate information is the only basis for sound decision-making and future planning. Without adequate information it is impossible to determine how efficiently DASD space is being used, or predict how needs will grow. Accurate information is also essential for solving existing problems and for preventing problems from arising in the future.

FDREPORT provides easy-to-read management level reporting that allows you to easily see how effectively your DASD storage is being used, broken down by departments, projects, or individual users.

Since storage costs in most shops represent a significant part of the data processing budget, the ability to accurately monitor and adjust for current and future needs results in significant cost savings and a more competitive cost for your end user.

We recommend that you run the Innovation Health Check job streams documented in FDREPORT-Health-Check. These help you understand the power, flexibility, and efficiency of FDREPORT.

Data set reports

Most reports are about individual data sets or ICF VSAM clusters. Although FDREPORT has a default report format (giving some basic information about each data set) and some “canned” report formats (similar to those produced by FDRABRP in Working-with-FDRABRP, you probably want to customize your report.

FDREPORT collects its data into hundreds of “fields”, each containing some aspect of the data set, such as record format, size, CISIZE, creation date, and many, many others. FDREPORT-DFSMShsm-Reporting contains a complete list of the fields available. You can select the data sets to be reported based on the values of most of these fields, and you can report on any set of them you select. You also control the positioning of the fields in the report.

Volume reports

FDREPORT can also report on the status of entire DASD volumes, selecting and reporting on fields such as device type, available space, number of data sets (by type) and many others. FDREPORT-DFSMShsm-Reporting also contains the list of fields available for volume reports. You have the same selection and reporting options for volume reports as you do for data set reports.

Offline volumes

FDREPORT can produce data set reports from offline volumes, as well as online volumes. Offline volumes may be used with point-in-time backups (such as FDRINSTANT) or with other special volume replication functions (PPRC, SRDF, BCVs, ShadowImage, FlashCopy, SnapShot, and the rest).

Sorting

The report generated by FDREPORT can be sorted using most of the report fields. For example, you may request that it report on all of the data sets currently online in size order. FDREPORT invokes the system SORT product when required, and dynamically allocates required sort libraries and work areas.

Summaries

FDREPORT can generate summaries on many of the report fields. These summaries can show you the various values that the summary fields had and counts of the occurrences of each value. The control break facility can cause summaries to be shown at various points in the report, when the value of some field changes.

Punching

FDREPORT can generate control statements and JCL (or any arbitrary text) using a user-provided mask for the format of the data to be “punched”, substituting the values of FDREPORT report fields into that mask. For example, FDREPORT can generate ABR control statements.

Data extract

FDREPORT can write the selected data to an extract file (in a unique FDREPORT format). The extract file can be used as input for further reports. This allows you to gather the data once and then report on it in various formats or using varying selection criteria.

It is possible to use this extract file as input to other data analysis programs, such as SAS, if they can read the extract file format. FDREPORT can also “print” data in a simple tabular format (no headings or page breaks) for input into other programs.

FDREPORT statements

The FDREPORT statements specify the format of the report, the sort sequence, summary requirements, and which data sets or volumes are to be selected.

The statements are:

Activate predefined user fields. FDREPORT-ACTIVATE-Statement

Criteria for control breaks and summaries. FDREPORT-BREAK-Statement

Cancels preceding statement specifications, when producing multiple reports in one execution. FDREPORT-CANCEL-Statement

Copy options set in a prior release of FDREPORT to the current release.

Set processing defaults. FDREPORT-DEFAULT-Statement

Terminate FDREPORT processing. Mainly used when calling FDREPORT under TSO.

Causes FDREPORT statements to be read from a library. FDREPORT-EXECUTE-Statement

Build an extract file from the CA 1 or DFSMSrmm tape management system information. FDREPORT-EXTRACT-Statement

User-defined replacement column heading lines. FDREPORT-HEADING-Statement

Provide complete help services. FDREPORT-HELP-Statement

Alternate form of supplying the selection and exclusion criteria to the report. FDREPORT-IF-Statement

New features and changes.

Specify operands to help optimize FDREPORT execution. FDREPORT-OPTIMIZE-Statement

Generates the report requested by the preceding statements. FDREPORT-PRINT-Statement

Controls generation of control statements and/or JCL from report data. FDREPORT-PUNCH-Statement

Selects data fields to be reported. FDREPORT-REPORT-Statement

Set the return code. FDREPORT-SET-Statement

Requests sorting on selected data fields. FDREPORT-SORT-Statement

Selects data fields to be summarized with optional control break criteria. FDREPORT-SUMMARY-Statement

User defined title line. FDREPORT-TITLE-Statement

Criteria for excluding certain data from the report. FDREPORT-XSELECT-and-XEXCLUDE-Statement

Selection criteria to be included in the report. FDREPORT-XSELECT-and-XEXCLUDE-Statement

PRINT is the statement that causes a report to actually be generated. The statements that precede PRINT plus operands on PRINT itself define the report to be generated. Placing statements in the wrong order, such as XSELECT statements after PRINT, usually result in an incorrect report. You may have multiple PRINT statements in a given FDREPORT input to generate multiple reports.

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