How to know what maintenance level you are running

I had an interesting question from an OMEGAMON user recently.  If you apply maintenance to OMEGAMON and recycle the tasks, is there an easy way to tell if the new maintenance is being executed?

Well, fortunately there are some easy to find eye-catchers in the OMEGAMON RKLVLOG/SYSOUT output.  Logon on TSO and go to SDSF.  Depending upon the type of OMEGAMON task you may need to look in a different place.  For a TEMS or a TEMA task you would look at the RKLVLOG for the respective agents.  For a classic collector task you would look at SYSPRINT or JES messages.  Just go to the respective task and do a find on 'BUILD".  That's it.



Here's a z/OS example from the RKLVLOG of the TEMS (here you can see the TEMS is running at ITM 6.23 and has support for fixpack 1 included):

KDS Server Version: 623 Build: 12044 Driver: 'tms623fp1:d2050'


Here's an IMS example from the JES messages of the OMEGAMON IMS classic collector task:

OID100: OMEGAMON FOR IMS v510 (Build Level=20120723.1505) STARTED



Here's a DB2 example from the SYSPRINT of the OMEGAMON DB2 classic collector

FPEV0114I PTF BUILD IS 12.223 13:02:07

An example of the Network Extended workspace

I've posted earlier about the Network Extended workspaces.  These are workspaces that you can download and deploy in your Tivoli Portal if you have OMEGAMON Mainframe Networks. 

Here's an example of the Network Extended workspaces.  In this example you see an integrated view of TCIP performance metrics (both real time and a plot chart) across mutliple z/OS LPARS and TCPIP stacks.  On the left you see several drill down options to look at connecttions, backlogged connections, FTP, OSA, and much more.  There is also an option for the FIND capability that I will discuss on a later post.

An upcoming webcast on z/OS storage tools

Out of control storage growth is putting a heavy load on many storage administrators.  If you are interested z/OS storage management you will want to check out this webcast,  "Improve System z storage management with integrated storage suite". 

This webcast will discuss the consolidation of various IBM IBM z/OS storage management tools, and will discuss ICF catalog management, space management, auditing, and automatic correction of errors in a DFSMS environment. 

The speaker is Kevin Hosozawa, Tivoli System z Storage Management Product Manager, IBM Software Group.  The event will be December 5, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

To register for the event, click on the following link:
http://ibm.co/PQrxC4

Check out the Network Extended workspaces

If you have OMEGAMON Mainframe Networks, you have an opportunity to add a very nice set of field developed workspaces to your Tivoli Portal.  My colleague, Ernie Gilman, created these screens, and they have quite a few nice views and features.  The Network Extended workspaces provide a very powerful set of views of your z/OS network, plus adds a new FIND capability in the Portal.

It's easy to enable the screens.  You download the code, in the form of an XML file, and then issue a TACMD command to import the navigator item. 

Here's a link to download the  Network Extended screens (the link provides both the XML code and documentation:
http://www-304.ibm.com/software/brandcatalog/ismlibrary/details?catalog.label=1TW10OM1K

If you are interested in a demo of the Network Extended workspaces, here's a link to a Youtuve video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVjonG6Zfrw

An intereresting Tivoli Portal chart technique

The Tivoli Enterprise Portal offers quite a few plot chart and other charting options.  The graphics can be nice, and you have quite a few different ways to present the information. 

As with any screen of data, room on the screen may be precious.  When you are plotting multiple sets of data, the legend of the plot chart is important to show what metrics are being plotted.  However, the legend may take up quite a bit of room on the screen.  How can you condense this?  One way is to use a collapsible legend to show and then hide the chart legend.

Here's an example (this example is taken from Ernie Gilman's excellent Networks_Extended workspaces).  Here we see a plot chart for the network byte rate for multiple TCPIP stacks on z/OS. 

If you look at the bottom left corner of the chart you see the legend which shows which plot line is for which TCPIP stack.  To make the legend go away, click on the triangle pointed at by the arrow.

How do you enable the option?  If you look at the properties for the chart and click the style tab, you see an option "Place legend in collapsible panel".  Check this option to enable the collapsible legend.

It's an interesting technique to save a few pixels of space on the screen.

Added a new link for a blog

Dave Ellis works for IBM in the area of OMEGAMON R&D.  Dave also maintains a very informational blog on OMEGAMON and related topics.  I added a link to his blog under "Useful Links".

Sending SNMP traps from OMEGAMON agents

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) traps are a commonly used technique to forward alerts to alert management monitors.  There are a variety of methods to send SNMP traps from OMEGAMON running on z/OS to an SNMP alert reciever.  One common way is to use the SNMP alert emitter option that comes as part of ITM policy automation.  Another technique is to have OMEGAMON send messages to z/OS console automation, and then in turn use console automation (usually via REXX code)  to send the alert in the form of an SNMP trap.

But, there's another way you may not be aware of.  With ITM 6.22, IBM Tivoli Monitoring introduced the capability of agent autonomy.  With this support, you can create a trap configuration XML file that enables an agent to emit SNMP alerts directly to the event receiver with no routing through the monitoring server (meaning the TEMS).  To do this you need to place an SNMP trap configuration member, in the form of XML, in the RKANDATV library.

Above is an example.  In this example, we are sending alerts from the OMEGAMON DB2 agent.  So we added a member, KDPTRAPS (note - each agent type such as z/OS, CICS, etc will have it's own XML member).  Within the member we specified the address and port number for the SNMP receiver.  We then add the situation that will generate a trap, in this example DB2_Demo_Alert.  So in this example, if DB2_Demo_Alert is true, then agent will send an SNMP trap directly to the SNMP reciever.  If you want to add this for additional situations, you add additonal lines for situation name and target.

If you want more information on this, here is a link to the documentation:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21422088

Also, here's a link to another good blog post that describes the function:
http://davideellis.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/snmp-traps-from-ibm-tivoli-monitoring-itm/

ITM 6.23 Fixpack 2 is available

ITM 6.23 Fix pack 2 is now available.  This is a cumulative fix pack for ITM 6.2.3, and supersedes ITM 6.23 Fix pack 1.    The fix pack contains over 90 APAR fixes as well as a set of new features.

One thing to keep in mind is the new OMEGAMON releases (OMEGAMON z/OS, CICS, IMS, Storage. Mainframe Networks V5.1, OMEGAMON DB2 V5.11, and OMEGAMON Messaging V7.1) all will require ITM 6.23 support for the enhanced 3270 user interface.  I still see quite a few customers running ITM 6.22, so if you want to move to the new OMEGAMONs, now is the time to start upgrading your ITM infrastructure.

Here's a link for more information on ITM 6.23:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg2403242