OMEGAMON XE for Mainframe Networks V420 FP3 New Features

FP3 is available for OMEGAMON XE For Mainframe Networks (4.2.0-TIV-KN3-FP0003). There are a lot of interesting features/enhancements in this fixpack including the following:

z/OS(R) v1.12 support - New workspaces and over 300 new attributes
Reduced SNMP footprint at a lower CPU cost for data collection
New product-provided situations
Enhancements to Connections node workspaces
More detailed and useful DVIPA data is now reported
New configuration options for more granular data collection
Enhancements to OSA support
Support for the PARMLIB configuration method

That's a lot of stuff, so if you have OMEGAMON for Mainframe Networks this is worth taking a look at.

What's in OMEGAMON DB2 V5.10

As I mentioned yesterday, OMEGAMON XE For DB2 PM/PE V5.10 is now generally available, to coincide with the release of DB2 V10. OMEGAMON DB2 V5.10 is a very robust new release with a lot of interesting feature/function included within the tool.

Some of the enhancements include:
- Expanded support for end-to-end SQL monitoring via Extended Insight
- Expanded data shring group level support
- Spport and exploitation for DB2 10 for z/OS, including support for new and changed performance metrics, such as: Statistics (more buffer pools, virtual storage, 64bit values, SQL statement cache extensions), Accounting (Lock/latch wait time separated), New ZPARMS, Audit (various new DBA privileges), and Performance traces.

There are also interesting enhancements in the area of integrated monitoring, and integration with IBM Tivoili ITCAM.

There is quite a bit here, and I will be posting more detail on what is new and interesting in the tool.

Good stuff! DB2 V10 and OMEGAMON DB2 V510

New releases are always exciting to report, and now we have a new version of DB2 for z/OS, DB2 Version 10, and an OMEGAMON DB2 to go with it, OMEGAMON DB2 V5.10.

For more information on DB2 V10, here is a link:

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/db2/zos/

For information on new versions of tools for DB2 V10 (including OMEGAMON), here is a link:

http://www-01.ibm.com/cgi-bin/common/ssi/ssialias?infotype=an&subtype=ca&htmlfid=897/ENUS210-345&appname=isource&language=enus

Upcoming webcast on Tivoli and zEnterprise

On October 28th there will be a free webcast on "Tivoli for zEnterprise – Why integrated service management matters". I've posted many times on the value of integration when defining and building a performance and availability management strategy. The webcast will discuss how Tivoli solutions can help you prepare for a better way of integrating service management under the new IBM zEnterprise “system of systems” and manage your data center as one.

The webcast is on October 28th at 11 AM, Eastern Time. Here is a URL to sign up:

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/os/systemz/webcast/28oct/

The price for the webcast is right, it's free!

Adding z/VM and Linux on z to the monitoring mix

If you are running Linux on z, or thinking about Linux on z, be aware that there is an OMEGAMON solution crafted specific to the Linux on z environment. OMEGAMON For z/VM and Linux is an interesting tool in that it's an integrated tool that will monitor both the z/VM resources and activity, and the Linux systems running within that environment. OMEGAMON XE for z/VM and Linux is a Tivoli Portal based solution, which means that you can take the information from the monitoring processes and integrate it with information from other IBM Tivoli monitoring tools. Here I show an example of how you can integrate information from both z/VM and Linux with information from other z/OS monitoring (and for that matter non-z/OS too), and have it all on the same screen.

The big advantage of OMEGAMON for z/VM and Linux is the ability to easily integrate information using the Tivoli Portal. The tool pre-reqs the Performance Tool Kit, but other than that it installs very similar to any other Tivoli monitoring tool.

New cumulative fixpack for OMEGAMON DB2 available

There is a new fixpack available for OMEGAMON DB2 (4.2.0.2-TIV-KD5-IF0003). In addition to the usual fixes for invalid fields, additional help, and other various fixes, this fixpack has one or two interesting items. First is the addition of more SQL call counters at the DB2 subsystem and DB2 thread level. The other enhancement is the addition of the DB2 Cancel command attribute column to more workspaces.

The value of having the Cancel command added to these other tables/workspaces is now it is easier and more convenient to take advantage of the DB2 Cancel command from more workspaces within the TEP.

Considerations for CICS task history

I recently had a customer with some questions about how OMEGAMON can gather and display CICS task history. Her goal was to be able to have an ongoing history of problem CICS transactions, with the ability to do an analysis after the fact of problem transactions.

When looking at OMEGAMON CICS you have several options for collecting history. First you have the Task History option. This will collect detailed history for CICS transactions to an ongoing task history file that may be viewed in 3270 interface or in the Portal. You can easily filter the display for specific transactions and look for outliers. The main limitation of Task History is that you can only keep what is in the VSAM file used for data collection. It is, by design, a wraparound file. The amount of history kept is a function of the size of the file.

A second option is that you can report from the SMF 110 records created by CICS. OMEGAMON provides the ability to add additional data (like MQ counts, etc.) to these records. The advantage of this approach is that you can keep data for longer periods of time. The down side is that the data must be accessed and analyzed via a batch mechanism, you don't have an "online" method in OMEGAMON to go back in time and look for outliers when using the SMF data.

The third option is to use the Tivoli Portal and to use the Tivoli Data Warehouse (TDW) feature. TDW can snapshot data in the Portal on an interval basis. The interval is definable by the user when you specify the history collection. The data may be kept at the agent (TEMA) level, or optionally sent to the TDW. The advantage of this approach is that it is easy to set up, and the data is readily accessible online, even data going far back. The problem is that the data is purely snapshot in nature. Even on a 30 second interval (as seen in the example), you can have a lot of transactions flow through between snapshot intervals that may not get recorded. It may be that if your goal is to capture outliers that run longer than the snapshot interval, this will work. Otherwise, maybe not.

So to get back to the original question. What if you want history that can be kept on a long term basis to look for outliers and problem trans? That is where maybe you consider other solutions, such as CICS Performance Analyzer or Tivoli Decision Support. What each of these solutions provide is a means to collect the history data and keep it for longer term analysis.

Some key resource links for information on Tivoli solutions

Here are four key resources that you can use to assist with learning about Tivoli products and how to use them. These resources provide a wide range of information from the standard product documentation to best practices to videos and tutorials. I hope you find this information helpful.

Tivoli Documentation Central: Get quick access to all the documentation for Tivoli products. This includes all available versions of the product information centers, wikis, IBM Redbooks, and Support technotes.

http://www.ibm.com/tivoli/documentation

Tivoli Wiki Central : Here is where you can access best practices, installation and integration scenarios, and other key information provided by IBM Tivoli subject matter experts. Everyone is invited to participate by contributing their comments and content on Tivoli wikis.

http://www.ibm.com/tivoli/wikis:

Tivoli Media Gallery: View tutorials, demos, and videos about Tivoli products. This includes product overviews and quick 'How To' instructions for completing tasks with Tivoli applications.

http://www.ibm.com/tivoli/media

IBM System z Advisor Newsletter: For System z customers, this newsletter provides monthly features, news, and updates about IBM System z software. This newsletter is e-mailed each month, and the link above provides a place for customers to subscribe.

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/tivoli/systemz-advisor

Collecting appropriate log data for IBM support

When you are having an issue with the IBM Tivoli Monitoring infrastructure, IBM support will often ask you for various logs for analysis purposes. There is a procedure called PDCOLLECT that will aid in gathering all the various logs you will commonly need. Here is a link to a write-up on how to use PDCOLLECT:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21446655&myns=swgtiv&mynp=OCSSZ8F3&mync=R