ERP/CRM/SCM/BI environments all have one thing in common, they need to operate efficiently or business users will not be productive. Tuning these large, complex applications and their database however can be a daunting task. Tuning options are often very limited. In some cases, the only real performance leverage is to create indexes since modification of an application may either be impossible or simply cost prohibitive. 

insure/INDEX, part of the HomeRun suite, is the first component of HomeRun to take advantage of Leftfield’s Autonomic Database Assistant (AutoDBA). As a result, insure/INDEX provides sophisticated analysis of your database, just like an on-staff database administrator - analysis designed to give mission critical applications the exceptional performance and availability necessary to deliver maximum business value.

insure/INDEX does end-to-end management of SQL indices and DDS defined logical files (access paths) in three areas:

• Identification and creation of new indices required to improve the performance of SQL-based applications, data warehouses, and tools that use ODBC or JDBC.
  
• Identification of unused SQL indices and logical file access paths in order to streamline production databases and reduce CPU, disk I/O, and main memory use.
  
• Optimization of existing SQL indices and logical files to improve the performance of existing applications, queries and batch jobs.

Because insure/INDEX is built with intelligent autonomics, expert advice is provided without the need for a high level of DB2 tuning expertise required with traditional methods.

Key benefits

• Advanced. Without insure/INDEX, opportunities to create the 'perfect' index can be missed. With Leftfield's proprietary algorithms and leveraging advanced DB2 functionality, a process called index melding results in recommendations that can provide the greatest benefit - even indexes that aren't intuitive to a performance expert. Recommendations provided by insure/INDEX represent “best practices” for DB2 that result in specific, practical, and actionable advice.

• Automated. Using AutoDBA technology, index recommendations are automatically generated and, if given permission, can be created by insure/INDEX without any involvement from IT personnel.

• Wizard driven. insure/INDEX requires very few system resources. Additionally, all index recommendations made by insure/INDEX can be implemented WITHOUT changes to the applications using the database.

• Manageable. insure/INDEX provides full auditing and historical tracking to allow a database administrator access to the history of index creation, deletion, or changes. This allows users to understand the scope of database changes and properly control a production environment. Furthermore, full UNDO support allows the administrator to back out any change by simply right-clicking their mouse.

• Flexible. The index creation wizard allows the database administrator to create recommended indexes, and apply their own expertise to the creation process. Discovery of needed or unused indices can be customized to suite the administrator’s needs and automation of any actions is under full control of IT.

• Integrated. insure/INDEX integrates with the iSeries environment by allowing the user to leverage built-in capabilities. For example, the index build can be scheduled when it's convenient and the source file can be stored on the iSeries for use by traditional source control systems.