More on automating workload using the Tivoli Portal

I've posted earlier on how we use the integrated automation capabilities of the Tivoli Enterprise Portal to automate and manage the z/OS demonstration workload for our OMEGAMON Proof of Technology events. 

The earlier posts showed examples of how you can use policy automation to start/stop other policies and situations.  Policies work well as a way to manage your monitoring infrastructure.  The next step in the process is understanding the situations that are used to drive the policies.

In the DB2 workload example we looked at earlier, you see references to several situations that are checking for DB2 workload tasks.   Here's an example of how you may set up the DB2 workload check.

The following situation is actually an OMEGAMON z/OS situation (even though it's checking for a DB2 job).  The situation uses the 'Missing' option.  In this example if the job is missing (i.e. not running on the system), then the situation is true and the policy will start a new job.  Note that the situation checks for the job on a 1 minute interval.  Also, be aware that when using the 'Missing' option you can specify a list of missing items.

In addition to my OMEGAMON Power User session there were some other very good OMEGAMON related sessions as Share in Boston.

Here are some links:

What’s New with System z Monitoring with OMEGAMON
https://share.confex.com/share/121/webprogram/Session14073.html

Omegamon XE for Storage - Hints and Tips to Improve Performance and Usage
https://share.confex.com/share/121/webprogram/Session14121.html






 OMEGAMON XE for Storage
https://share.confex.com/share/121/webprogram/Session14163.html




What's New(er) for z/OS Network Performance Monitoring with OMEGAMON
https://share.confex.com/share/121/webprogram/Session13295.html

My OMEGAMON Presentation at Share in Boston

Last week I did a new presentation on how to become an OMEGAMON Power User.  This presentation showed examples of classic interface customization, e3270ui customization, and Tivoli portal features, such as situations and policies.

Here's a link to my presentation material:
https://share.confex.com/share/121/webprogram/Session14056.html

Share in Boston

Well, its the week of Share in Boston.  As always, Share has a lot of great technology and hands-on sessions.  I always find Share to be the most informative event I attend.

One of the big themes for this particular Share meeting is z/OS 2.1.  A lot of update and overview sessions discussing what new and what's coming with 2.1.

Here's a link to a good overview of what's in z/OS 2.1:
https://share.confex.com/share/121/webprogram/Session13581.html

Automating workload using the Tivoli Portal

I posted yesterday an example of how you can use policies to manage other policies and situations.  That is one of the most common and useful uses for the policy automation feature of the Tivoli Portal.  Let's look in more detail at how the the OMEGAMON Proof of Technology workload using OMEGAMON and the Portal.

In the prior post we were looking at the main workload control policy that started all the underlying workload management policies.  The following is one of the underlying policies, in this example to manage the DB2 workload.  This DB2 workload policy will be started when the main workload control policy is started.

In this policy we see that there is first a situation check to see if DB2 workload is not running.  If true, then the policy will issue situation checks for specific jobs.  Each situation will use a 'not found' check for a specific job.  If true, the situations will issue a console command to start the job.

Using Tivoli Enterprise Portal policy automation

One of the powerful aspects of the Tivoli Portal (TEP) is how automation capabilities integrate very directly within the TEP.  Integrated automation can take several forms:  System Automation (SA) integration within the portal, automated command capabilities of TEP situations, and automated command capabilities of policies.

I've blogged in the past on certain aspects of policies and policy automation within the TEP.  Policies are one of the more overlooked and underutilized features of  the TEP.  You can do a lot with policies to issue console commands, to start/stop situations, and to start/stop other policies.

One point of emphasis with the OMEGAMON Proof of Technology events we have been holding all around the US has been to use the OMEGAMON infrastructure to manage the infrastructure.  This means that we have made it a point to automate the sample workloads of the OMEGAMON Proof of Technology using OMEGAMON. 

Here's an example of how we launch the OMEGFAMON sample workload using a policy.  In the example we do several things: we launch other workload driver policies, we start situations to check for missing work, and we also set a timer so that the work stops after a specified time interval.  All using visual click and drag GUI technology (no REXX coding needed).

What was added with OMEGAMON V5.1.1

So you've heard about OMEGAMON V5.1.1.  What was added?  Some very useful capabilities were added in general with V5.1.1, including hub management improvements,  profile management in the e3270ui improvements, and threshold management in the e3270ui improvements.

Here's a link for more information on what's in V5.1.1:
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/5e65990a-9690-42e2-93b1-c2267be7620c/entry/super_charge_your_tivoli_omegamon_manager_now?lang=en