Product Overview of Syncsort MFX
Syncsort MFX, developed by Precisely, is a high-performance utility designed for sorting, merging, copying, and other data processing tasks, specifically optimized for IBM Z mainframes and the z/OS operating system.
Primary Functions
- Sorting: Syncsort MFX rearranges data set records to produce a specific sequence, leveraging advanced sorting algorithms and dynamic optimization techniques to ensure superior performance.
- Merging: It combines up to 100 pre-sequenced data sets into a single data set with the same sequence, enhancing data integration and management.
- Copying: The utility reproduces data sets without the need for sorting, making data replication efficient and straightforward.
Key Features and Functionality
- Performance Optimization: Syncsort MFX exploits the latest hardware and operating system advancements, including IBM z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP), Modified Indirect Address Word (MIDAW), and IBM System z High Performance FICON (zHPF), to minimize CPU time and optimize system resources.
- Resource Management: The software dynamically monitors and responds to system status, including CPU utilization, DASD contention, controller caching, and central storage availability, to ensure efficient resource use.
- Advanced Data Utilities: Syncsort MFX includes features such as join processing, which combines records from two source files based on specified keys, and multiple output facilities, allowing for the creation of differently selected and reformatted data groups in a single pass.
- Report Writing and Output: The utility supports the creation of output files in PDF, HTML, or RTF formats and allows these files to be emailed to recipients. It also includes a dictionary feature for creating symbolic names for fields and constants.
- Integration with Other Systems: Syncsort MFX can directly retrieve data from a DB2 database using SQL SELECT statements, integrating seamlessly with database queries.
- SAS Integration: The MFX PROCSort feature is a high-performance, transparent replacement for the SAS procedure PROC SORT, reducing CPU time and sort elapsed time within SAS applications.
Additional Enhancements
- Syncsort ZPSaver: This optional feature offloads up to 90% of sort, copy, and SMS compression CPU cycles to the zIIP, significantly reducing costs and enhancing processing speed.
- Syncsort Pipesort: This feature uses advanced parallel sorting technology to execute up to eight differently sequenced sorts from a single pass of the input data, cutting total elapsed time by more than 50%.
Implementation and Flexibility
- Job Control Language (JCL) and Programming: Syncsort MFX can be initiated through JCL or invoked from programs written in COBOL, PL/1, or Assembler language. Exit routines can be written in various languages, including COBOL, C, FORTRAN, REXX, and Assembler, providing additional programming flexibility.
In summary, Syncsort MFX is a robust and highly efficient data processing utility that leverages the advanced capabilities of IBM Z mainframes and z/OS to optimize sorting, merging, copying, and other data management tasks, making it an indispensable tool for organizations relying on mainframe systems.