About Adapters

What are Adapters?

Adapters consist of specialized software that enables you to process data about IT resources from many diverse data sources. Adapters convert raw data from a given source into a set of organized IT resource information. This organization includes staged tables, aggregated tables, analysis- and report-ready data, and reports that facilitate aggregation and reporting on your IT resources.

Raw performance data is generated by the logging mechanisms that are inherent to IT resources. It can also be created by the Enterprise Systems Management tools that are used to manage the IT infrastructure. SAS IT Resource Management accepts data from many different vendors. The only requirement is that the data must include a timestamp so that it can be categorized and aggregated appropriately for subsequent analysis.

Raw data about an IT resource is represented using measures and formats that are specific to the software that collected it. In order for the data to be processed into meaningful statistics about an enterprise's IT resources, the raw data must be read, interpreted, and possibly converted into a more standard form. The data can then be loaded into staged tables in preparation for subsequent aggregation and reporting. For each type of IT performance data that is supported, SAS IT Resource Management supplies an adapter that consists of the transformations, template tables, and code that are necessary to stage, aggregate, and report on that IT performance data.

For most adapters, by means of the Adapter Setup wizard, SAS IT Resource Management also supplies Aggregation, Information Map, and Gallery transformations. These transformations create the aggregation tables, information maps, and reports that enable you to convert raw data from various sources into meaningful intelligence about your IT resources. If these transformations are not created by the Adapter Setup wizard, then they can be created manually. To do so, see Working with Aggregation Tables and Overview of Specifying an Information Map Transformation. For more information about using Gallery transformations and reporting jobs, see the SAS IT Resource Management: Reporting Guide.

Adapters stage the data by means of transformations that are executed by the SAS Data Integration Studio jobs. For information about how to work with SAS Data Integration Studio, see the documentation that is available for this product at http://support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/etls/index.html.

Supported Adapters

The name of an adapter represents the data source from which SAS IT Resource Management gathers raw data.

Note: All SAS IT Resource Management adapters are supported on all SAS IT Resource Management operating environments unless there is a technical limitation that is associated with the raw data (log file) sources. For example, if the raw data resides on a device that is not compatible with the architecture of the host system on which the SAS IT Resource Management server is installed, then that raw data file might not be usable as input unless further processing is performed.

Table of Supported Adapters

Adapter Name	Description	Latest Verified Version of the Data Source
ASG TMON2CIC	ASG TMON for CICS TS for z/OS (formerly from Landmark) monitors the CICS Transaction Server (TS) and provides resource consumption measurements by tracing each transaction's performance by CICS event and related unit of work. Note: CICS data can be produced by either ASG TMONCICS or as a subtype of SMF.	MXG 28.07*
ASG TMONDB2	ASG TMON for DB2 (formerly from Landmark) works with the SQL Analyzer to manage DB2 applications and critical DB2 resources by providing a single view of DB2 data-sharing group performance. ASG TMON for DB2 tracks DB2 buffer pools, lock contention and serialized resource usage, transaction statistics from ASG TMON for CICS to ASG TMON for DB2, and dynamic and static SQL calls. ASG TMON for DB2 provides a view for all performance statistics by plan, package, and statement, including CPU time, I/O analysis, lock activity, and buffer pool utilization by SQL statement.	MXG 28.07*
BMC Mainview IMS	BMC Mainview for IMS (formerly IMF) supplies transaction information such as CPU usage, number of I/Os, and response time. When you collect BMC Mainview for IMS data instead of IBM IMS data, BMC recommends that you collect a duration of one hour of consistently high activity, starting at the beginning and ending at the end of an RMF interval.	MXG 28.07*
BMC Perf Mgr	BMC Performance Manager for Servers (formerly BMC PATROL) collects UNIX and Windows enterprise system management data.	v3.7.30
CA TMS	The Computer Associates CA 1 Tape Management product (formerly TMS) controls and protects tape data sets and volumes in z/OS environments.	MXG 28.07*
DT Perf Sentry	Demand Technology Performance Sentry (formerly NTSMF) collects data from Windows systems and for Windows server applications such as Exchange, SQL Server, and IIS. SAS IT Resource Management also supports a separate Demand Technology Performance Sentry adapter that is z/OS based. The Demand Technology Performance Sentry with MXG adapter that is z/OS based is for raw data sources that are supported through MXG.	v3.1.4
DT Perf Sentry with MXG	Demand Technology Performance Sentry (formerly NTSMF) with MXG collects data from Windows systems and for Windows server applications such as Exchange, SQL Server, and IIS. (SAS IT Resource Management also supports a separate Demand Tech Perf Sentry adapter that is not MXG based.)	MXG 28.07*
HP Perf Agent	HP Performance Agent (formerly OpenView Performance Agent) captures enterprise systems management measurement data for IT resources from Windows systems and many UNIX variants such as HP-UX, Sun OS/Solaris, IBM AIX, Tru 64 UNIX, and Linux.	v5.0
HP Reporter	HP Reporter software (formerly OpenView Reporter) captures HP Performance Agent measurement data that is stored in a relational database via SAS/ACCESS to Oracle or ODBC.	v3.70
IBM AS400	IBM OS/400 Collection Services Note: The staging code that is required for the IBM AS400 data source is not automated by a SAS IT Resource Management adapter. Instead, SAS IT Resource Management supplies a User-written Staging transformation and templates that contain table and column metadata for this adapter for use with user-written staging code.	MXG 28.07*
IBM DCOLLECT	IBM DFSMS Data Collection Facility obtains the following Mainframe Storage System data: active data sets VSAM data set information volumes inactive data migrated data sets backed-up data sets capacity-planning data such as the following: - DASD capacity planning: IBM DCOLLECT provides information and statistics for volumes that are managed by DFSMShsm (ML0 and ML1). - tape capacity planning: IBM DCOLLECT provides statistics for tapes that are managed by DFSMShsm. SMS configuration information	MXG 28.07*
IBM EREP	IBM Environmental Record Editing and Printing Program processes the error records from the MVS, VM, and VSE operating systems to produce formatted reports. These IBM EREP reports can show the status of the entire installation, an I/O subsystem, or an individual device, depending on which report you request. IBM EREP reports can vary in format, depending on the following report types: System summary reports show error data in summary form. Trend reports show error data by daily totals. Event history reports show error data in a time sequence by occurrence.	MXG 28.07*
IBM IMS	IBM Information Management System (IMS) is the transaction and hierarchical database management system from IBM. Note: The staging code that is required for the IBM IMS data source is not automated by a SAS IT Resource Management adapter. Instead, SAS IT Resource Management supplies a User-written Staging transformation and templates that contain table and column metadata for this adapter for use with user-written staging code.	MXG 28.07*
IBM SMF	IBM System Management Facility collects and records system and job-related information that is used for the following purposes: billing users reporting reliability analyzing the configuration scheduling jobs summarizing direct access to volume activity evaluating data set activity profiling system resource use maintaining system security Note: RMF is a subtype of SMF records. IBM RMF is the IBM strategic product for z/OS performance measurement and management. IBM RMF is the base product that collects performance data for z/OS and Sysplex environments to monitor system performance. Because IBM RMF data is a subtype of IBM SMF data, the IBM SMF adapter can be used with IBM RMF data without requiring additional customizations.	MXG 28.07*
IBM TPF	The IBM Transaction Processing Facility operating system works with application programs to process transactions in a real-time environment. The IBM TPF system is designed for businesses and organizations that have large networks and high volumes of online transactions.	MXG 28.07*
IBM VMMON	IBM VM Monitor Collection product collects performance information that is associated with VM, including measurements for user activity, processor storage, I/O, and applications.	MXG 28.07*
MS SCOM	Microsoft System Center Operations Manager monitors Windows systems, Microsoft software, and applications to provide a view of the health of an organization’s Windows environment.	v2007
SAP ERP	Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software from SAP (formerly SAP R/3), via the SAS IT Management Adapter for SAP, collects SAP ERP and SAP Business Warehouse (BW) workload performance measurements. For SAP ERP, measurements are read from the SAP Statistic File (stat file). For SAP BW, the measurements that communicate the amount of computer resources that were consumed to populate and query BW cubes are read. These measurements are then used to supplement BW server performance statistics.	v7.0
SAR	System Activity Reporter is a logging mechanism that is native to most UNIX and Linux variants. SAR captures the contents of cumulative system activity counters.	Dependent on operating system. For information about specific operation system release versions, see “Accessing Raw Data for SAR” in Appendix 2, “Data Sources Supported by SAS IT Resource Management Adapters” in SAS IT Resource Management: Administrator’s Guide.
SNMP	Simple Network Management Protocol is a component of the Internet Protocol Suite. The SNMP adapter also supports gathering SNMP data from round-robin databases (RRDs) that are used in many network management tools.	Not applicable
VMware vCenter	VMware vCenter Server is an operational console for VMware and includes the VMware vCenter database that serves as the raw data source for this SAS IT Resource Management adapter. The vCenter database contains VMware performance and utilization measurements for both the virtual machines and the physical servers on which they run, including detailed CPU, memory, storage, and I/O metrics. The vCenter relational database is accessed via SAS/ACCESS to Oracle, DB2, or ODBC.	v4.0
VMware Data Acquisition	VMware Data Acquisition is a transformation that can extract topology and configuration information from the VMware vCenter database more frequently than once a day. The vCenter relational database is accessed via SAS/ACCESS to Oracle, DB2, or ODBC Note: This is not an adapter. However, a staging transformation is available for this source.	v4.0
Web Log	The Web Server Log adapter reads and analyzes Web logs that conform to the Common and W3C Extended Log Formats (CLF and ELF.)	Not applicable

* SAS IT Resource Management uses MXG for this adapter.

Note: The specific software versions of the raw data sources in this table have been used to verify each SAS IT Resource Management 3.2 adapter. This information is not an exclusive list of all data source versions that are supported. Earlier versions of some data source software might be supported. Future releases of some data source software might be compatible and supported by adapters for SAS IT Resource Management 3.2. For information about supporting a data source version that is not included in the previous table, contact your SAS Installation Representative or on-site SAS support personnel.

For data sources (and for raw data sources) that are user-written, staging code is supported by the wizards of SAS Data Integration Studio, and the transformations that are supplied by SAS IT Resource Management. The New Table wizard of SAS Data Integration Studio can create the transformations that can stage raw data from any input source.

Adapter Components That Stage Data

SAS IT Resource Management supports adapters that are essential for extracting, standardizing, and staging data. These adapters include the following three components to stage data:

template tables

These adapter-specific models are used when transforming and loading raw data into SAS data sets called staged tables. The values in template tables are supplied by SAS IT Resource Management for specific IT data sources and thus cannot be changed. However, you can view a template table's properties such as associated columns and related metadata. For additional information about template tables, see Working with Template Tables.

staging transformations

These transformations generate the SAS code that extracts raw data, transforms it to a standardized format, and then loads it into staged tables. Staging transformations include specific staging parameters such as the format of raw data, the location of the data, and how the data will be handled during the staging process. For example, a staging transformation might specify the network path to the raw data, how that data is delimited in its source format, and how duplicate data might be handled when it is staged.

SAS IT Resource Management provides several ways that you can customize and configure the way that your data is staged by a staging transformation. For example, you can use the Adapter Setup wizard to create and configure staging transformations for a supplied adapter. You can create staging transformations manually by using the User-written Staging transformation. You can also modify the staging parameters that are specified in a staging transformation after it is created. For more information about staging transformations, see Working with Staging Transformations.

staged tables

These SAS data sets contain the data that has been extracted from an input data store and rendered into a format that is suitable for further transformation and generation into reports. The structure and metadata for staged tables are based on corresponding template tables that SAS IT Resource Management provides for specific adapters and domain categories. For more information about staged tables, see Working with Staged Tables.