A technote on how CF structure utilization is calculated by OMEGAMON z/OS V5.1

OMEGAMON z/OS users will often use OMEGAMON to track and analyze resource usage and status inside the z/OS coupling facility (i.e. the CF).  There has been a recent chnage to how this information is calculated and displayed in OMEGAMON z/OS.  With UA67458 applied, the Utilized Storage Size now shows the 'in use' percent of the total allocated objects (entries and data elements) for the structure.

Here's a link to a technote that discusses this a little more detail.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21618059&myns=swgtiv&mynp=OCSS2JNN&mync=R

Using the Tivoli Portal for topology views

Thanks to my esteemed colleague, Ernie Gilman, for this example. 

I've shown quite a few examples over various blog posts of how to use plots, charts, and various other graphic capabiliities within the Tivoli Enterprise Portal.  But, did you know you could use the Tivoli Portal to build topology views that show the inter-relationship of various monitored resources? 

Here's a very nice example created by Ernie that shows how you can use the topology view to leverage the data that comes from OMEGAMON for zLinuz and zVM.  Here we see the inter-relationship of the various Linux OS's running within zVM.  It's a nice way to be able to see the big picture view, with drill downs for more detail.  Nice job, Ernie!

Documentation on techniques for analyzing OMEGAMON CPU usage

If you want to get a better understanding of the CPU usage of the OMEGAMON address spaces running on z/OS, there are a variety of techniques.  I've blogged extensively on the topic of OMEGAMON cost of monitoring considerations in prior posts. 

Let's say you are looking at a particular OMEGAMON task, and would like to know more about what that particular task is doing.  There are some useful commands available to help better understand OMEGAMON CPU usage (such as the PEEK command).

Here's a link to a document that shows examples of some of these commands and how to use them:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21607775&myns=swgtiv&mynp=OCSSXS8U&mynp=OCSS2JNN&mynp=OCSS2JFP&mynp=OCSSLSDR&mync=R

Technote on OMEGAMON Mainframe Networks V5.1 issues and workarounds

OMEGAMON For Mainframe Networks V5.1 became available in October.  At the time it came out there was also a technote published that listed various known issues and workarounds for V5.1.  If you are installing V5.1 of Mainframe Networks it's worth taking a look at this technote.

Here's a link to the technote:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21614258&myns=swgtiv&mynp=OCSS2JL7&mync=R

New 3270 displays in OMEGAMON XE For Mainframe Networks V5.1

Like the other OMEGAMON V5.1's, OMEGAMON XE For Mainframe Networks V5.1 offers support for the new enhanced 3270 user interface.  So you get a whole new set of screens and displays for networks analysis.

If you recall the "Top Consumer" display in OMEGAMON z/OS, that screen shows the top consumers of CPU, memory, and I/O across the z/OS environment.  It's a good starting point for a top down idnetification and analysis of potential issues. 

The new KN3TAP0 screen serves a similar fiunction.  From this screen you can see a network application summary view, and also see network exceptions, such as connections with segments out of order, segment retransmission, and connections in backlog status.  These can all be indicators of potential issues that may require additional analysis. 

Here's an example of the KN3TAP0 display:

Tivoli Enterprise Portal Support for DB2 V10

If you are installing the Tivoli Enterprise Portal Server (TEPS) on a platform such as Windows, the support matrix shown in documentation lists DB2 V9.7 as the hightest level release that works with the TEPS. 

The question that has been put to me recently is, when will the TEPS infrastructure work with DB2 10?  The answer is IBM Tivoli Monitoring (ITM)  6.23  Fixpack 2.  So if you want to run DB2 10, for example, on your Windows TEPS server, you need to be at the ITM 6.23 FP2 level.

Tivoli APAR notification page

I was looking up some APAR informationr recently and came upon a useful looking web page, the Tivoli APAR notification page.  The Tivoli APAR notification page contains a list of some open or recently closed APARs that may impact you.  There are links for many of the products of interest, including the various OMEGAMONs and Systme Automation. 

Here's a link to the page:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21177831&myns=swgtiv&mynp=OCSS9NU9&mynp=OCSS6V4G&mynp=OCSSLKT6&mynp=OCSSSHZA&mynp=OCSSSHTQ&mynp=OCSSSHRK&mynp=OCSSPLFC&mynp=OCSSXS8U&mynp=OCSS2JNN&mynp=OCSS2JFP&mynp=OCSS2JL7&mynp=OCSSGSPN&mynp=OCSSGSG7&mync=