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

Attend a webcast on the latest capabilities of OMEGAMON V5.1

On August 29th there will be a complimentary webcast that will cover the latest updates on what is new with OMEGAMON V5.1. 

The webcast will cover new features and functionality in the OMEGAMON family to support increased demands around mobile, cloud and big data.  The speaker is Rich Edwards, Program Director, Cloud and Smarter Infrastructure Product Management, IBM Software Group.

The webcast will happen at 11 AM Eastern Time on August 29th.  

Here's a link to register:
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/os/systemz/webcast/aug29/

In case you missed the July 23rd announcements

If you missed the announcements last week, on July 23rd IBM announced a new zEnterprise server, the BC12. Here's a link to the announcement:

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/41529.wss?cmp=ibmsocial&ct=stg&cr=systemz&csr=tipsheet&cm=h&ccy=us&S_TACT=101AS12W

Some items to note from the announcement:

"The new zBC12 provides clients with superior levels of performance, flexibility and scale. Compared to its predecessor the z114, it boasts a faster processor at 4.2 GHz and two times the available memory; and, it allows clients to grow into their system with a pay-as-you-grow approach."


New innovations for the latest zBC12 and zEC12

"New hardware functions provide CPU and storage savings by compressing data on the server.  For example, there is a new high speed, low latency I/O connection for enabling up to an 80 percent reduction in network latency.  Also, with z/OS 2.1, IBM delivers not only performance and scale but simplified management with z/OSMF. There is also a new 2:1 ratio for zIIP and zAAP special purpose engines for improved workload economics. And with z/VM 6.3, clients can now consolidate up to 520 virtual servers in a single footprint with the increase in real memory and the new HiperDispatch function."

Oh, and also,

"For cloud, IBM enhanced the IBM OMEGAMON for z/OS family to detect performance problems in the cloud and minimize impact to the business and increase analytics visibility. "

Some interesting stuff, eh?

Attend a webcast on some exciting new zEnterprise announcements

On July 23rd there will be some very interesting new announcements on zEnterprise.  You are invited to attend the event, 'zEnterprise: The Best Gets Better'.  This is a virtual event that will cover such topics as:

• Energize your enterprise applications to foster growth
• Save money by consolidating workloads and exploiting the cloud
• Improve security on the industry's most trusted and resilient
  infrastructure
• Improve performance, flexibility and scale    

 Here is a link to register to attend:
 https://engage.vevent.com/index.jsp?eid=556&seid=53290

OMEGAMON V5.1.1 Announcement

IBM has just announced the following: 

 Tivoli OMEGAMON XE on z/OS V5.1.1
 Tivoli OMEGAMON XE for Mainframe Networks on z/OS V5.1.1
 Tivoli OMEGAMON Management Suite on z/OS V5.1.1
 Tivoli OMEGAMON XE on z/VM and Linux V4.3

The OMEGAMON Management Suite is an integration of OMEGAMON OMEGAMON z/OS, Mainframe Networks, and OMEGAMON Storage.

The announced date for OMEGAMON z/OS V5.1.1, OMEGAMON Mainframe Networks V5.1.1, and OMEGAMON z/VM and Linux is July 26, 2013.  The announced date for the Management Suite is September 6, 2013.

Here is a link to the announcement:
  http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=AN&subtype=CA&htmlfid=897/ENUS213-273&appname=USN#toc

 

Here's a new link to the ITM V6 Newsletter

ITM V6 is commonly used to refer Tivoli distributed platform monitoring.  If you are an OMEGAMON user on z/OS you may still have an interest in ITM V6 since, of course,  the Tivoli Portal component of OMEGAMON uses theTivoli Portal infrastructure in common with distributed monitoring. 

Te following newsletter is primarily focused on distributed monitoring, but there is information relevant to OMEGAMON agents running on z/OS.

Here's a link to the newsletter:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27019389&lnk=uctug_tivoli_nwsltr_ITMV6

Considerations when using SORTCOLS in e3270ui

On an earlier post I demonstrated an example of how you can add sort capability to a column on an e3270ui panel using the SORTCOLS statement. 

http://tivoliwithaz.blogspot.com/2013/04/adding-more-sort-columns-to-e3270ui.html

This can be nice to add when you need a specific sort sequence on a display, but the panel did not provide a sort option for that particular field out of the box.

There are a couple things to be aware when adding columns to SORTCOLS.  First you can have a maximum of 15 columns on the SORTCOLS statement.  If you add more than 15 columns, you will not necessarily see an obvious eyecatcher or message.

Another thing to be aware of is that when adding a column to SORTCOLS, the e3270ui interface will keep information sorted within the e3270ui address space (commonly called the TOM).  This may be a concern when displaying a table with a large number of rows of information.  So be advised.  SORTCOLS is useful, but be aware of how much data you may be sorting.

Attend a live Q & A session with the OMEGAMON Enhanced 3270UI architect

Coming up in July will be a pair of live Q & A sessions with Michael Crump of IBM on the Enhanced 3270UI.  This is a good chance to talk to OMEGAMON R&D about Enhanced 3270UI and the future of OMEGAMON in general.

The events will be on July 24th at 2 PM Eastern Time, and July 25th at 10 AM Eastern Time.

If you are interested in attending, please email me (Ed Woods of IBM) at    woodse@us.ibm.com   to get signed up.  Please tell me who you are, what is your company or organization, and if you are a current OMEGAMON customer. 

Check out a webcast on integrating OMEGAMON and System Automation

On July 18th there will be a webcast, "Improve availability and productivity with proactive automation". 

The webcast will discuss how using OMEGAMON to improve zEnterprise monitoring – interfaced with System Automation for z/OS – can increase availability as well as decrease unnecessary operations workload. Proactive automation enables correlation of problems across applications and drives automated problem resolution without manual overhead.

I've blogged quite a bit in the past about how you can integrate OMEGAMON and SA.  This is another chance to learn about the benefits of merging these technologies.

The event is July 18th at 11 AM Eastern Time.  The price is right, it's free.

Here's a link to attend:
https://ibmsystemsmag.webex.com/mw0307l/mywebex/default.do?nomenu=true&siteurl=ibmsystemsmag&service=6&rnd=0.4258345698996625&main_url=https%3A%2F%2Fibmsystemsmag.webex.com%2Fec0606l%2Feventcenter%2Fevent%2FeventAction.do%3FtheAction%3Ddetail%26confViewID%3D1251529409%26%26%26%26siteurl%3Dibmsystemsmag

Using STATICCOLS to control scrolling in enhanced 3270ui

One feature of the enhanced 3270 ui is the ability to scroll a display or subpanel from side to side.  How often you may need to scroll will depend on such things as the amount of data to view and how many lines and columns you defined when you set up your 3270 emulator session.

When you scroll you can have certain information on the left portion of the display stay in view.  This makes it easier to keep information in context as you scroll.  You can control how many columns will remain as static and stay in the display.  The STATICCOLS parameter controls how many columns will stay in view on the screen. 

Below is an example of the STATICCOLS parameter as used in and OMEGAMON IMS display.  You can see in the example below the position of the static column (after IMS Region Name).  This is set by setting STATICCOLS to 1.  If you wanted to keep more information on the left of the screen static (such as IMS ID and Region Type) the set STATICCOLS to 2 or 3.

Analyzing a Tivoli Data Warehouse collection issue

This scenario is an example of a discussion I had recently with an OMEGAMON user.  The user wanted to be able to analyze issues in the Tivoli Portal (TEP) using history data from the Tivoli Data Warehouse (TDW). 

Fair enough.  At first glance it looked like the history data was configured.  However, when the user tried to access the history data, no information was being returned. 

Here's an example of what we were looking at in the the history collection popup.  In this example the user wants to see IMS bottleneck history.  When you look at the bottleneck line it looks like there is information specified in there for TDW summarization and retention.  If you look to the left it looks like there is an entry for IMS bottlenecks.  So why no data?

If you look more closely at the above example you will see that next to the DBCTL history entry you see a "running man" icon.  However, there is no running man icon next to IMS bottlenecks.  What this means is that history collection is not really running for bottlenecks.  If you look closely at IMS Bottlenecks on the left portion of the popup you see that the icon is grey (as opposed to green).  If the icon is grey that means it has not been distributed to a managed system (meaning an agent or IMS system) for collection.  Therefore collection is not occurring.

When you have a problem with TDW it pays to take a closer look at these type of options.

OMEGAMON DB2 support for IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator

The IBM DB2 Analytics Accelerator (IDAA) is a workload optimized applicance that enables support for mixed workload performance for complex analytic needs. IDAA runs complex queries up to 2000x faster while retaining single record lookup speed and eliminates costly query tuning while offloading query processing.

As an appliance IDAA runs in physical componentry outside of native z/OS, but is tightly integrated within the zEnterprise hardware footprint.  OMEGAMON DB2 has offered support for some time in the form of batch report breakouts that show time in the IDAA.  Now you also have the ability to see IDAA time breakouts real time in the OMEGAMON DB2 classic interface. 

Here's an example:

Check out the IBM zEnterprise virtual summit

Coming up later this month there will be a virtual summit on IBM zEnterprise technology.  This is a virtual event, and you can attend any one of several technical tracks:  The tracks are as follows:

Track 1: The New zEnterprise – A Cost-Busting Platform
Track 2: DB2 10 for z/OS: Performance and Optimization Best Practices
Track 3: IMS: The Revolution/Evolution Continues 
Track 4: Smarter Computing to Accelerate Agile, Mobile and Cloud Application Delivery
Track 5: Cost-Efficiencies of a Modern Application Infrastructure
Track 6: Data Center Operations and Systems Management Update

This virtual event happens on June 27th.

If are interested in attending, here is a link:
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/os/systemz/virtual/summit/index.html?code=com

An interesting white paper on the role of System z in cloud

I recently read an interesting white paper by Forrester Research about the role of System z in cloud computing.  "The Role Of Mainframes In Cloud: To Meet The Full Range Of Reliability And Security Needs" covers quite a bit about what many enterprises are looking at as they start to invest more heavily in cloud technology.  The article is the output of a survey of 200 decision makers in larger IT organizations.



The core message?  As organizations move to more robust cloud deployments, this infrastructure will be geared to more mission critical applications.  These requirements cannot be met by basic commodity infrastructure.  Forrester sees a move in this area to "hybrid infrastructures" to provide the needed reliability, security, and scalability.   The underlying message is that System z fits very nicely within this paradigm.  After all, when you think reliability, security, and scalability, you have to think of System z.   To read the article, go to the following link: http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/z/solutions/cloud/   When you get to the page, scroll down and you will see a link for the Forrester article.