Interpreting Lack of Action

Just as you can determine the actions SRM takes to manage work, you can determine lack of action from SMF type 99. You can use the resource group and service class period information in the subtype 1 and 2 records. If a service class period is having a problem meeting its goals and isn't selected as a receiver, it could be one or more of the following:

• Other work is even worse off.
• The service class period is of lower importance than the receiver selected.
• The receiver selected may be in a resource group that is not meeting its minimum.

The importances and performance indexes for all service class periods are in the subtype 2 records. Resource group information is in the subtype 1 records.

In some cases, potential receivers may be skipped and not assessed as receivers. They are skipped when the service class period hasn't accumulated any state samples that show it was delayed for any resource SRM manages during the last policy interval. You can determine this from the needs help indicator in the service class period data.

They are also skipped when a potential receiver's skip clock hasn't expired. If a receiver is assessed and all actions to help it are rejected, a skip clock (counter) is set and the service class period will not be selected as a receiver again until the skip clock expires.

In other cases, a service class period is selected as a receiver but not helped. It could be that there was no receiver value projected for a change. The subtype 1 trace entry indicates these cases with the no receiver value trace code.

For storage changes such as MPL targets, swap protect time, or storage targets, you can determine the reasons for insufficient receiver value from the service class period's current targets in the subtype 2 records and the plots in the subtype 3 and 5 records.

For rejected dispatching priority actions, you can determine the reasons from the service class period's dispatching priority, service, and maximum demand data in the subtype 2 records and at the priority table data in the subtype 1 records.

For no net value assessments, you can determine the reasons from the service class period data, plot data, and priority table data. From this data, you can also determine which service class periods are using the resources for which another service class period is delayed.