IBM Tivoli is looking for your feedback

IBM Tivoli is piloting a new request for enhancement (RFE) web site for a subset of the IBM Tivoli products. The product list includes TADDM, ITCAM for Transactions, OMEGAMON XE for CICS, OMEGAMON XE for IMS, OMEGAMON XE for Storage, OMEGAMON XE for z/VM and Linux, OMEGAMON XE on z/OS, ITRPM, TSPM, and TWS.

Customer input is important to improving the products, and I encourage everyone to check out this web site, and add your input. I can speak from experience, that I can talk to product development and R&D all day long, but customer opinion is what counts most.

Here's the URL:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/rfe/tivoli/

Improvements to OMEGAMON DB2 Near Term History

OMEGAMON XE For DB2 has a Near Term History (NTH) function that is one of the more popular and useful features of the tool. In NTH you can go back in time and look at detailed historical information at the DB2 subsystem (Statistics) and/or the DB2 application (Accounting) level. This is essential information for being able to analyze performance issues after the fact.

DB2 Accounting records, in particular, have the potential to consume a fair amount of DASD space. The records themselves are large, and DB2 may generate many of them, as many as millions a day in many shops. How far back in time you can go in NTH is a function of how many records you need to store, and how much space you allocate in the NTH collection files.

One little known aspect of NTH is that you have the ability to allocate and use more than the three collection datasets you get by default. It used to be you could go up to ten datasets. Now with recent enhancement, you can go up to twenty history collection datasets. This allows for even more storage space, and the ability to keep more history data online.

For more information on this enhancement, check out this link:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&q1=Near+Term+History+%28NTH%29+VSAM&uid=swg21452497&loc=en_US&cs=utf-8&cc=us&lang=all

SA System Automation integration with the Tivoli Portal

The Tivoli Enterprise Portal (TEP) is more than just an OMEGAMON thing. Many other Tivoli tools, such as the storage tools and SA System Automation also integrate within the TEP. I've been working with a customer on an availability dashboard concept for managing z/OS. One of the tools at our disposal is System Automation, and we have it integrated with the TEP.

In the example I show, we have some of the information from the SA agent, and I use that data to alert on key z/OS task availability. One aspect of task availability is to alert not only on when a task is down, but to factor in that there may be times when the task is supposed to be down (such as for maintenance, etc). The SA agent interface provides information, such as resource status, but also shows the desired status for the resource. In other words, you can alert on when the task is down, and also factor in if the task is supposed to be down.

In the example, I show part of the prototype dashboard, and I show an example situation. Here I'm looking at both the status of the resource, and the desired status. In other words, only alert if the resource is down, but it is supposed to be up (at least as far as SA knows).

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

New capability for the z/OS Event Pump

The Event Pump for z/OS is an IBM tool that enables the integration and forwarding of z/OS events from z/OS to IBM Netcool OMNIbus. The Event Pump can pass event information, plus resource status, and the severity of an event to OMNIbus. The mechanism is very similar to how OMEGAMON XE uses the EIF interface to pass alerts to OMNIbus.

There is one APAR of interest that just became available last week, OA34085. This particular APAR enables the integration of BMC Mainview alerts into the Event Pump. So the bottom line is, if you are BMc Mainview customer, and you have IBM OMNIbus for event management, you can now more easily forward alerts and events from Mainview into OMNIbus.

For more information, here is a URL:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg1OA34085&myns=swgtiv&mynp=OCSSXTW7&mync=R

Tips on customizing "Take Action" in the Tivoli Portal

The "Take Action" function in the Tivoli Portal (TEP) can be very useful. One of the nice things about "Take Action" is that it is very flexible and customizable. You can easily set up a pre-arranged set of commands and then select the desired command from a drop down list. One thing that makes "Take Action" flexible is the ability to use the attribute substitution function as part of the command definition. What this means is that you can have the Action command insert an attribute where needed to customize the command to be submitted. Here is an example of how you can use this function, in this example to set up a DB2 Thread Cancel function.

Webcast on "Monitoring Options in OMEGAMON XE for Messaging"

There will be a free webcast on October 7th on "Monitoring Options in OMEGAMON XE for Messaging" . The time will be 11 a.m., Eastern Daylight Time, 3:00 p.m. GMT.

The teleconference will discuss monitoring options to efficiently detect and identify root causes of your WebSphere MQ and Message Broker performance issues.

Here is a link to sign up for the event:
http://www.ibm.com/software/systemz/telecon/7oct/

z/OS 1.12 available shortly

z/OS Version 1 Release 12 will be ready for ordering as of Friday, September 24th.

z/OS V1.12 can provide automatic and real time capabilities for higher performance, as well as fewer system disruptions and response time impacts to z/OS and the business applications that rely on z/OS.

Interesting "new stuff" includes new VSAM Control Area (CA) Reclaim capability, a new z/OS Runtime Diagnostics function is designed to quickly look at the system message log and address space resources and can help you identify sources of possible problems, z/OS Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA) for managing SMF, performance improvements for many workloads, XML enhancements, networking improvements, and improved productivity with the new face of z/OS called the z/OS Management Facility (5655-S28).

Here is a link for more information on z/OS V1.12:

http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/os/zos/

A new photonic chip

While this does not have anything to do specific to z/OS or Tivoli, I thought it was an interesting read in Financial Times.

"A new photonic chip that works on light rather than electricity has been built by an international research team, paving the way for the production of ultra-fast quantum computers with capabilities far beyond today’s devices."

Sounds like an interesting breakthrough. Here's a link to the story:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8c0a68b0-c1bc-11df-9d90-00144feab49a.html

OMEGAMON XE For Storage V4.20 Interim Feature 3 enhancements

OMEGAMON XE For Storage V4.20 Interim Feature 3 has some interesting new enhancements. Some of these enhancements include the following:

DFSMShsm Common Recall Queue support
Display request info for all queued and active requests in the CRQPlex on a single workspace
Enable cancelling HSM requests from the CRQPlex Request workspace - even across systems
Provide Storage Groups and User DASD Groups space used stats in units of tracks and cylinders Multi-volume datasets now displayed as single entity in the Dataset Attribute Database reports Reports will now contain a column indicating whether a dataset is multi-volume or not
For a multi-volume datasets, space data will be summarized in a single row
Ability to identify TotalStorage array problems at the ranklevel
Situation alerts for DDM Throttling, Raid Degraded condition and RPM Exceptions
Support for issuing Storage Toolkit commands at a group level

If you have OMEGAMON Storage, here is a link for more info:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24027743&myns=swgtiv&mynp=OCSS2JFP&mync=R

Getting started using ITMSUPER

I've done some earlier posts on using ITMSUPER, and some of the useful information that is contained within ITMSUPER. ITMSUPER is a very useful utility that is easy to use, and provides quite a bit of diagnostic information as to what is happening within your Tivoli monitoring infrastructure.

Here is a link to a brief "Getting started using ITMSUPER". This procedure includes a link to where you can go to get ITMSUPER.

Here's the link:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21444266&myns=swgtiv&mynp=OCSSZ8F3&mync=R

Take advantage of snapshot history in OMEGAMON DB2

OMEGAMON DB2 has a very useful snapshot hsitory feature that is very granular and detailed. This particular history mechanism is different than the snapshot hsitory collected by the XE agent task for Tivoli Data Warehouse (TDW) history collection. The OMEGAMON DB2 snapshot hsitory can be collected on a frequent basis, provides considerable information, and is very useful for problem analysis. To access the OMEGAMON DB2 snapshot history, you need to enable and install the PE GUI interface (and yes you have access to this tool regardless of whether you run the PM or PE version of the product).

The example I have here shows how you can use the tool. Here I show two different views of DB2 active threads. The top one is from the current view, and the other is from several minutes prior. To change the history view you move the scroll bar I have highlighted. What's neat is you can easily move the scroll bar back and forth to get different point in time views of the system.

This feature is very useful, in particular for analyzing those problem scenarios where being able to go back in time and see the mix of applications running at the same time is key to understanding what is going on.