The 4-char SMFID has been around a very long time. This field is in the header of SMF records at offset=14 (SMF70SID), SMF0SID, etc.).
SYSNAME and SYSPLEX were added to many SMF records with MVS/ESA 5.1.0 (as documented in MXG with change 12.034 on Feb 14, 1994). LPARNAME was added in 1988 with PRSM. I think the OS was ESA/390 on 3090 hardware. For some expert witness work I did in the early 90s I began identifying MVS images with the 4-char SMFID from offset 14, the CPUTYPE (SMF70MOD) and the serial number (SMF70SER). I don’t think this happens anymore, but also long ago a machine could be significantly changed and keep the same serial number to make software licensing simpler. (For example, replacing a 3033 with a 3090). Keeping the CPUTYPE and the serial number handled that condition. This worked well, and I implemented the same image tracking when I wrote LCS (https://www.sherkow.com/lcs/) to help sites audit SCRT in 2002. One customer eventually showed me that more information was required. They had two 4-char SMFIDs ‘ASYS’ on the same machine in different LPARs simultaneously! That totally broke my software. I called Bob Rogers at IBM to ask what was happening and what didn’t I understand. He said “they must have different 8-char SYSNAMEs, as that is how Parallel Sysplex keeps those two ‘ASYS’ separate.” Eye opening for me… I had to add SYSPLEX and SYSNAME to completely identify images. I was auditing SCRT, so I determined I needed to add LPARNAME also. A particular 4-char SMFID, SYSNAME, SYSPLEX could be in two different LPARs on a machine during the month (not simultaneously) and I needed to keep them separate. (Later recognized they needed LPARNAME to properly merge SMF70 and SMF89 and in 2007 APAR OA20314 added the LPARNAME to the SMF89 record.) Most of my licensees have 4-char SMFID=SYSNAME. I have a few customers where they are different. As others have written some sites have found interesting uses for the extra four characters in SYSNAME. Al Sherkow, I/S Management Strategies, Ltd. +1 414 332-3062 www.sherkow.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
