Saving Data as Opposed to Using Local Variables

Local variables are those variables that are used within a rule, but are not saved permanently. At the time your rule terminates, whatever values that existed in its local variables are wiped from memory.

You may instead want to save these variables in the Control-M/Analyzer database, or in an AutoEdit PDS library member, for the following reasons:

• to reference it within other rules
• to retain it for an audit trail or for other historic purposes
• to have the information online, so you can retrieve at any time
• to reference it by other INCONTROL products
• to use for "debugging," meaning, to reconstruct what actually happened when a rule has been executed

The following discusses the advantages and disadvantages of either saving variables to the Control-M/Analyzer database, or alternatively, an AutoEdit PDS library member. The nature of the data you need to save in a balancing application will help you determine which of these methods to use.

Saving Data in the Control-M/Analyzer Database

When deciding if you should store variables in the Control-M/Analyzer database, consider the following questions:

• Will the data be used by another rule or application?
• Is the data required for online viewing?
• Are you reasonably certain that the data will be required at some time in the near future?

If you cannot affirmatively answer at least one of these questions, you should consider alternatives to storing data permanently in the database.

An alternative to storing those variables that are only required for debugging or audit trail purposes, is to print the values of the variables in a report. There are two standard reports provided when a rule executes—the SYSUSER report and the SYSPRINT Invocation Report. For debugging and audit trail purposes, it is probably better to print these local variable values using DO PRINT parameters to the Invocation Report.

Saving Data in AutoEdit Members

There are several advantages and disadvantages to saving data in an AutoEdit member as opposed to the Control-M/Analyzer database.

The advantages are:

• AutoEdit members are available to other INCONTROL products. They are used mainly by Control-M for JCL setup.
• AutoEdit members can contain more than one variable. Therefore, a group of variables can be retrieved into memory by one DO GETMEM parameter.
• New variables can be added dynamically to an AutoEdit member by the DO ADDSYM parameter.
• The values in the member can be edited and corrected.

The disadvantages are:

• Multiple generations, with audit trail information, cannot be automatically maintained by Control-M/Analyzer.
• No automatic rollback mechanism is available for AutoEdit members.