Want to learn more about the new release of OMEGAMON Mainframe Networks

OMEGAMON Mainframe Networks V5.1 is becoming generally available.  If you want to learn more about what is in the new version, you may want to check out this webcast:   "Improved Network Monitoring with OMEGAMON for Mainframe Networks" 

Is network performance and availability important to your business? Can you quickly find and fix network problems before they become outages? IBM has redesigned OMEGAMON XE for Mainframe Networks based on customer requirements to provide significant new network visibility. The redesigned OMEGAMON XE for Mainframe Networks V5.1 helps subject matter experts resolve network issues across the enterprise using fewer screens and keystrokes.

The speaker is Kirk Bean, Tivoli System Automation Product Manager.  The date and time of the event is November 15, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

To sign up here's a link:
http://ibm.co/ODhjVn

Here it comes - OMEGAMON Mainframe Networks V5.1

Planned availability is tomorrow, October 26th.  With the availability of OMEGAMON Mainframe Networks V5.1, the OMEGAMON suite has achieved an important milestone:  all the core OMEGAMONs on z/OS now offer support for the the new enhanced 3270 user interface. 

As with the other OMEGAMONs, the new enhanced 3270 UI offers new function, improved navigation and integration, but with the speed of native 3270.

If you are interested in more information, here is a link to the announcement:
http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?subtype=ca&infotype=an&appname=iSource&supplier=897&letternum=ENUS212-429

Useful link on OMEGAMON maintenance and service levels

So, you're in the process of applying maintenance to OMEGAMON.  Or better yet, you are in the process of upgrading to V5.1.  Where is there an integrated page to get information on the latest maintenance and service levels? 

Try this URL:

https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21290883#kc5420

New IBM System z blog

IBM has started a new blog site with a focus on System z.  IBM Mainframe Insights will be discussing many aspects of z/OS and the mainframe in general.

To check it out, here's the URL:
www.ibm.com/blogs/systemz

Troubleshooting OMEGAMON enhanced 3270 displays

You've logged on to the enhanced 3270 user interface and you see some displays that are mssing data.  What's next?  What are your trouble shooting steps? 

Here's a link to a a handy document that may help:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21610269&myns=swgtiv&mynp=OCSS2JNN&mync=R

Important. Do not apply PTFs UA66217, UA66505, UA66218 and UA66506

PTFs UA66217, UA66505, UA66218 and UA66506 have been marked PE.  These PTFs can cause storage overlays and system outages.


APAR OA40497 has been created to fix this problem. This APAR has been marked HIPER and is the fix for the PE.

Please note - If you already have any of these ptfs applied, APAR OA40497 has zaps that can be applied to resolve the problems until the fixing PTF can be applied.

Here's a link to the note:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21610372&myns=swgtiv&mynp=OCSS2JNN&mync=R

More OMEGAMON test drive events coming your way!

If you want a chance to take the new OMEGAMON enhanced 3270 user interface for a test drive, IBM will be having events in several cities in the next few weeks.

Here's the upcoming lineup of cities:

November 6, 2012

San Francisco
IBM Technical Exploration Center
425 Market Street
20th Floor - Room 380

November 8, 2012

Sacramento
IBM Sacramento Office
2710 S. Gateway Oaks Dr.
2nd Floor - Room 220

November 13, 2012

Costa Mesa
IBM Technical Exploration Center
600 Anton Blvd
2nd Floor - Room 208

November 15, 2012

Phoenix
IBM Technical Exploration Center
2929 N Central Avenue
5th Floor - Room 534

If you are interested in attending, please contact my colleague, Tony Anderson  (andersan@us.ibm.com or call (415) 545-2478)

Setting the threshold highlighting in the enhanced 3270 user interface

So you have just installed OMEGAMON V5.1 and you have logged onto the enhanced user interface for the first time.  You notice that there may be some fields on the various panels that are highlighted in RED, YELLOW or BLUE, for example.  This highlighting probably represents the default threshold levels provided by the tool.

The good news is it is easy to set the highlighting to levels more specific to your installation and your requirements.  For each of the products there is a default member provided that sets the default threshold levels  -  hilev.RKANPAR(kppTHRSH).   The pp refers to the specific product.  For example OMEGAMON z/OS is KM5THRSH,  OMEGAMON CICS is KCPTHRSH, and OMEGAMON DB2 is KDPTHRSH.

The following is an example of how the thresholds are set for the KM5TOPC panel.

OMEGAMON Messaging command interface

As in the prior example of OMEGAMON IMS V5.1, the new release of OMEGAMON Messaging provides an easy to use command facility integrated into the enhanced 3270 user interface.  Here's an example:

In the above example we see how you can issue commands, such as MQ channel commands seen here. 

OMEGAMON IMS V5.1 expands command support

In prior releases of OMEGAMON IMS the Type 2 IMS commands were not supported.  Now with OMEGAMON IMS V5.1 the tool finally provides support for Type 2 IMS commands.  Here's an example:

Powerful new 3270 displays with OMEGAMON Storage V5.1

OMEGAMON Storage V5.1 includes support for the new enhanced 3270 user interface.  The implementation of enhanced UI for OMEGAMON Storage is robust, and includes quite a few powerful new displays. 

One example of a very useful display that has been translated from the Tivoli Portal to enhanced 3270 UI is the Dataset Atttributes screen.  The Dataset Attributes Database is a feature of OMEGAMON Storage that helps you manage data sets. The database maintains attributes related to data set space, DCB, and catalog issues.  The database feature collects data regarding all data sets on all volumes in the z/OS environment (except for volumes that you have excluded) so that you can do analysis from a single point of control.  You can accomplish such tasks as identifying exception conditions regarding data sets throughout the environment, seeing an installation-wide view of data set space utilization, exceptional conditions, and summary statistics, and identifying resources that require attention, such as data sets that have excessive unused space, extents, or CA/CI splits.
  Here is an example of the Dataset Attributes screen in the enhanced 3270 interface.  Note how the display aggregates quite a bit of information together.  

OMEGAMON Messaging V7.1 provides many powerful new displays

It's exciting now that OMEGAMON Messaging V7.1 provides a robust 3270 interface.  With V7.1 there are many powerful new displays inclduing the Health overview panel. 

The Health Overview panel gives the overall health values for queue manager, queues and channels, and the worst health status on the display will be sorted to the top of list.  Among the various values used in determining health include Queue Manager status (Is it active?  Are the channel initiator and command servers active? Are there any connections?),  Queue performance indicators (Are there queues with high depth? Do XMIT queues have messages? Are there messages on the DLQ? Are there get inhibited or put inhibited queues?), and Channel status (Is the percent (of max) current channels or active channels too high?  Are there current channels not in running state? Are there in-doubt channels?)

There's a lot of information on the display, and it's a good place to start for problem analysis.  Here's an example of the screen:
 

OMEGAMON IMS V5.1 adds support for the enhanced 3270 user interface

With the release of OMEGAMON IMS V5.1, we now have another OMEGAMON in the suite that has support for the enhanced 3270 user interface.  The big benefits of the enhanced 3270 user are consistency and integration.  With the enhanced user interface you can logon to one UI and access any of the OMEGAMONs from a central point.

Here's an example of what the OMEGAMON IMS emhanced user interface looks like. 

Just like the DB2 monitor, you get a default panel that can show both IMSplex level information, and the individual IMS subsystems.  You can use the "/" navigation to drill in for detail, in the similar manner to how the other OMEGAMONs operate.

New versions of OMEGAMON IMS, Storage and Messaging announced

Yesterday IBM announced new versions of OMEGAMON IMS, OMEGAMON Storage, and OMEGAMON for Messaging.  These new versions continue the process that was begun earlier this year of expanding the integration and consolidation of the OMEGAMON 3270 interface capablities.  And, as always, and new version of OMEGAMON is always an exciting event.

IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE for IMS on z/OS V5.1, IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE for Storage on z/OS V5.1, and IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE for Messaging on z/OS V7.1 use a new architecture that simplifies installation (PARMGEN) and includes integrated enhanced 3270 monitors (the new enhanced 3270 ui). These products integrate related data to help subject matter experts  solve problems encountered on a day-to-day basis.

 

New capabilities of IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE for IMS on z/OS V5.1, IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE for Storage on z/OS V5.1, and IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE for  Messaging on z/OS V7.1 are designed to:

• Improve problem resolution efficiency by requiring fewer steps to isolate root  cause performance impact in real time, and, therefore, providing greater availability. 
• Improve visibility, control, and automation with a new more comprehensive 3270-based user interface capable of viewing the entire enterprise-wide environment from a single 3270 screen. 
• Reduce the time required for installation, configuration, and maintenance by leveraging enhanced IBM Tivoli Monitoring functions and a new PARMGEN configuration tool.
• Provide an enterprise end-to-end view of performance monitoring and availability on a common technology for both IBM System z® and open systems.

I will be blogging extensively on the capabilities of the new versions in the next few days.

For more information here is a link:

http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?infotype=an&subtype=ca&appname=gpateam&supplier=897&letternum=ENUS212-308

Using Tivoli Data Warehouse for trending analysis

Because it is snapshot type data, Tivoli Data Warehouse (TDW) data works well for trending and analysis.  TDW data is not necessarily equivalent to SMF data, which tends to be more interval or event driven in nature.  TDW is not equivalent to CICS SMF 110's or DB2 Accountig trace data.  But, if you want to be able to do things like trend resource usage (such as CPU, DASD, or memory) over time,  TDW can work well in that context.   Also, when doing trending analysis, the TDW summarization process can add some interesting information to the data.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about.  In this example, I'm trending z/OS CPU over time using CPU TDW snapshot data summarized by hour.  Note that in addition to average CPU usage you also get a Min and Max CPU usage for the same time interval, and here I show how easy it is to chart that information on a single graph.

Learn about what's new in zEnterprise

Today there will be a virtual event to introduce the next generation of zEnterprise, the world’s fastest, most scalable and secure enterprise system with the ability to integrate resources for operational analytics, trusted resilience, and efficiency at an enterprise scale. 

The virtual doors open at 10:45  Eastern Time.  Here's a link to attend:
http://bit.ly/NRtwF6

An example of analyzing issues with Tivoli Data Warehouse

I had an interesting project this week to get Tivoli Data Warehouse (TDW) operational for a customer.  With the assistance of an IBM colleague (thank you Andrew), we got TDW fully configured and (seemingly) connected.  The Warehouse proxy and Summarization/Pruning agents were started.  The Warehouse proxy log showed that it was connecting to the TEMS.  The Warehouse Proxy configuration workspace showed that everything was green and connected.  Real time monitoring was working great.  We could get 24 hours worth of history, but nothing more.  So why were we still not seeing any data being written to the TDW?

We looked at the Warehouse proxy log on the TDW box.  There were no obvious error messages.  But there also were none of the eyecatchers we noted in earlier posts (such as that TDW database objects were being created).  So if the Warehouse Proxy had no errors, what was the issue?

In this shop, the agents were mainframe TEMAs.  The next step was to look at the RKLVLOGs of the agents running on z/OS.  When I looked through the logs I noticed messages, such as the following, that would occur every hour.  Since we had set the warehouse interval for one hour for this collection, this seemed like more than just a coincidence.

+4EBF9D4E.0002 ERROR MESSAGE: "RPC Error"

(4EBF9D4E.0003-13B4:khdxdacl.cpp,577,"routeExportRequest") Export for object  (table POOLS appl KIP) failed in createRouteRequest, Status = 8.
(4EBF9D63.0000-13B4:kdcc1sr.c,460,"rpc__sar") Connection failure: "ip.pipe:#xx.xxx.x.xxx:63358", 1C010001:1DE00045, 21, 100(3), FFFF/4119,

The conclusion was that this message seemed to indicate that the TEMA was attempting to connect to the warehouse infrastructure to send the data to the TDW, but was getting a connection error.  And this error was happening every hour. 

The problem?  In this case, there was an internal firewall that was blocking off the port we needed (in this example 63358 - see above).  Although real time monitoring was working, and the TDW configuration panel showed green, we still needed this port to be able to send data to the TDW.  Once the port was opened, the TDW worked perfectly.

The moral of the story?  When analyzing these types of issues it is important to look at things from multiple perspectives, look at all the logs, and don't forget about things like firewalls and other security challenges.

Upcoming OMEGAMON webcasts in September

There are a couple webcast events covering OMEGAMON in September.

"Increase System z storage visibility with OMEGAMON Monitoring"  will cover what's new and exciting in the area of OMEGAMON Storage and System z.  The redesigned OMEGAMON XE for Storage V5.1 allows subject matter experts to resolve storage issues using fewer screens and keystrokes. OMEGAMON along with IBM’s Storage Management Suite can provide end-to-end visibility, control and automation for good storage management.  The speaker is Kevin Hosozawa, Product Manager, OMEGAMON for Storage, IBM Software Group . 

The webcast is September 13, 2012, 11 a.m., EDT.  Here's  a link to sign up:
http://ibm.co/N30pbq

Later in September there will be webcast on OMEGAMON IMS. 

"Improve IMS monitoring with new OMEGAMON V5."  Get the details about what’s new in OMEGAMON for IMS V5.1, including easier region navigation, reduced MIPS usage and the capability to issue IMS commands from OMEGAMON. Learn how it reduces potential delays or outages by reporting coupling facility structure statistics and other critical IMS attributes

The speaker is Mike Goodman, OMEGAMON for IMS Product Manager, IBM Software Group. 

The webcast is September 27, 2012, 11 a.m., EDT.  Here's a link to sign up:
http://ibm.co/NveTXc

More OMEGAMON V5.1 test drive events coming your way

Want a chance to take the new OMEGAMON V5.1 for a test drive?  You can try it out for yourself on a live z/OS environment.  There are more test drive events coming your way.  Here's a list:

Chicago  -  Sept 11th
IBM Chicago TEC
71 South Wacker Drive, 6th Floor  

Springfield, IL   -  Sept 25th
IBM Springfield TEC
3201 West White Oaks Drive, Suite 204

Minneapolis,  MN   -   Oct  18th
IBM Minneapolis TEC
650 3rd Avenue South

Omaha, NE   -   Nov  7th
IBM Omaha Office
1111 N. 102nd Court, Suite 231

REGISTER Now! Please send an email to IBM Representative Cliff Koch at

cjkoch@us.ibm.com or call (314)-409-2859. 

My presentations at Share

At the Share confernce last week in Anaheim I did a couple presentations. 

One topic was somewhat in keeping with one of the themes of the conference, Big Data.  In "Predictive Analytics and IT Service Management"  I cover the concepts of predictive analysis, consider common systems management challenges, and look at how predictive analysis concepts may be applied to address IT Service Management needs.  Here's a link:
https://share.confex.com/share/119/webprogram/Session11479.html


Another session that I did covered the topic of   "Understanding The Impact Of The Network On z/OS Performance".  This was an updated verison of a presentation I did at Share in Atlanta this past spring.  In the presentation I discuss how to create a more integrated, end to end monitoring strategy that includes relevant network information.  I cover understanding the impact of the network on z/OS performance, how to analyze typical z/OS workloads and network performance, analyzing performance using available tools (such as OMEGAMON), and recommended approaches and management strategies.  Here's a link:
https://share.confex.com/share/119/webprogram/Session11900.html