The Allocation Control Center (ACC) Monarch provides complete control over the creation and placement of SMS-managed and non-SMS data. ACC Monarch allows installations to easily define policies which implement standards for dataset naming, device type, volume selection, and space usage. Because the DFSMS ACS routines rely on the existence of well-defined standards, they are a crucial factor in successful implementation of system-managed storage. ACC Monarch then goes beyond standards enforcement to provide advanced features that aid administrators and users in making the most effective use the storage subsystem.

• Enforce Dataset Standards. ACC Monarch allows datasets to be created using existing naming conventions and characterics while warning of potential errors during the transition to new standards. ACC Monarch’s extensive SMF recording, messaging, simulation, and logging facilities make it easy to track and report violations while allowing JCL to be modified “on-the-fly” to meet installation requirements.
• Control Dataset Placement. ACC Monarch can make the datasets go where you want! Whether it is directing small tape files to DASD, establishing disk pools, migrating to new device types, or selecting volumes for use based on performance characteristics or space availability, ACC can place datasets where they are best suited, without the need for users to change JCL or programs.
• SMS Extensions. ACC Monarch doesn’t stop with improving standards enforcement or controlling dataset creation. Storage and database administrators can benefit from extensions designed to make system-managed storage easier to use.
• “Keep-Away” algorithm eliminates the need to use guaranteed-space storage classes to place performance-sensitive SMS-managed datasets such as DB2 tablespaces.
• Real-time ACS tracing allows users to answer the question “Why is this dataset on this volume?” by providing a line-by-line trace of the logic used by the DFSMS ACS routines to assign SMS classes.

Provides Organization, Standards and Controls

• Controls creation and placement of datasets
• Allows standardization for dataset naming, 
  device type, volume selection & space usage

Improves System Efficiency via Volume Placement & Pooling

• Controls dataset placement
• Reroutes small tape datasets to DASD
• Establishes DASD pools
• Facilitates migration to new devices
• Improves performance with intelligent dataset placement

Enhances DFSMS

• Facilitates successful implementation of System Managed Storage
• Provides advanced features to maximize utilization of storage subsystem
• Provides SMS extensions

Enhances Tape Management

• Automates tape-to-disk conversion
• Automates tape mount management conversion
• Pools to appropriate drives

Assists Application Staff

• Automatically overrides user JCL thereby eliminating manual work
• Automates routine storage management tasks

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“I have used ACC Monarch/SRS since 1996 and have been very pleased with the product. I have been able to virtually eliminate all space related problems. In addition, I have been able to implement System Determined Blocksize without any JCL modifications by using the JCL override features of the software. While IBM’s SMS has added some of the features of ACC/SRS, the ACC/SRS software is much more flexible, easier to test, easier to trace, and easier to implement. Oh, did I mention ACC/SRS allows you to trace your SMS ACS routines?”

Richard Pinion
System Programmer
Baptist Health Systems of East Tennessee

“ACC Monarch saved us 185,000 tape mounts last year and we’re only half way through this year and have already saved 184,000 tape mounts.”

Technical Support Manager
Large Midwestern Insurance Company

“We have not allowed cylinder allocations for several years but some how a couple of datasets always manage to sneak through. Just this week a colleague came to me for an increase in space allocation in order to install a new version of SAS. I cautioned him to allocate in tracks or blocks. Later I happened to notice that nearly every file was allocated in cylinders. I asked him about it. He said he was using the vendor supplied canned JCL but was pretty sure it was blocks. After we examined the JCL we discovered that while the files were allocated in blocks, each specified ROUND. Once we found the culprit I was able to adjust my ACC rules to remove the ROUND specification and things are back to normal.

Thank you once again for providing such an agile piece of software!”

Helen Seren
The University of Chicago
MVS Trail Boss

“Users don’t change JCL as they should – they’re just too busy. We use ACC to step in and take care of the situation!  A specific use of ACC we find very helpful is the redirecting of existing SMS-managed tapes to esoteric devices.”

George Arangelovich
ACXIOM

Allocation Control Center Monarch (ACC Monarch) was the first product developed by DTS Software, and was introduced in Japan in the early 1990’s. So, why would a U.S. based software company launch their first product in the Japanese market?

• Japan has a large “cross-platform” mainframe market, and DTS is in the unusual position of having expertise and experience with all of them. Many large Japanese companies run a mixture of IBM MVS, Hitachi VOS3, and Fujitsu MSP operating systems. DTS designed ACC Monarch to provide a single SMS-like storage management application that runs on all platforms.

• System software products that run on all three platforms are well insulated from most competition. Very few companies have the resources and/or knowledge to develop software for MVS, VOS3 and MSP. And none of the system vendors are likely to port storage management components to run on a competitor’s OS.

• To be successful in Japan requires a level of commitment and excellence that creates great products. The typical customer in Japan expects every feature to work as designed. When problems arise, detailed explanations are expected along with quick solutions. There are no shortcuts to the Japanese market.

• Lastly and most importantly, DTS has a great relationship with a Japanese distributor – CLC based in Tokyo.

After a successful introduction in Japan, DTS Software teamed with a U.S. distributor and entered the North American market several years later.