Java issue - denial of service exposure

Many of you may have gotten information on this already. In case you haven't, here is some information on a vulnerability that can cause the Java Runtime Environment to go into a hang, infinite loop, and/or crash resulting in a denial of service exposure. This has the potential to impact quite a few IBM Tivoli products that use Java. Here is a link for more detail and the list (a long one) of affected products.

https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=wws11f1aa50037313ea7852578450082883b

Good presentation on OMEGAMON Maniframe Networks

At Share last week Dean Butler of IBM did a presentation on identifying and solving common mainframe network performance issues. It was a very detailed presentation with several practical examples of the analysis process, and how to apply OMEGAMON XE For Mainframe Networks to address issues.

Here's a link to a version of the presentation he did at the previous Share in Boston:

http://share.confex.com/share/115/webprogram/Handout/Session7688/SHARE_Boston2010_Network%20Performance%20Problems%20FINAL.pdf

Mangement GUIs, GUIs, and more GUIs

A lot of the focus for the Share conference this week has been, naturally, on z196 and on z/OS V1.12. There's a lot of powerful new feature/function in both z196 and in V 1.12. And needless to say there have been quite a few interesting sessions covering many aspects of both areas this week.

A couple of sessions gave me an opportunity to get some real "hands-on" with some of the new GUI management technologies, zOSMF and the zManager GUI for Unified Resource Manager. The zManager exercise was interesting because it provided an opportunity to see just how one goes through the process of setting and allocating resources for the zBX blades in the new zEnterprise environment.

There were also quite a few sessions on zOSMF. zOSMF is the GUI extension to the original WLM ISPF based dialogs. It does provide a much needed face lift to the process of setting up and managing your WLM environment. Plus it provides other functions. For an overview of zOSMF as of z/OS V1.12, here is a link to a Share presentation from last summer that covers it well:

http://share.confex.com/share/115/webprogram/Handout/Session7548/SHARE%20Boston%207548%20zOSMF%20Overview.pdf

Yet another useful OMEGAMON DB2 V5.10 enhancement

I've mentioned quite a few enhancements that have come about as part or OMEGAMON XE for DB2 PM/PE V5.10. There is one more I want to mention.

The Application Trace Facility (ATF) is an important part of the the OMEGAMON tool, and has been for many years. It remains one of the most consistently useful pieces of the tool. One aspect, or quirk if you will, of ATF in prior releases has been if you want to see SQL text in the trace, you can see the actual text for Dynamic SQL, but for static SQL, all you got was the statement number. You would then have to look somewhere else, referencing the statement number, to see the actual text for static calls. In V5.10 this is changed. You now have the ability to see the actual SQL text in the ATF trace regardless of whether it is a dynamic or static SQL call. Much more convenient since more often than not, the root of the problem may be poorly designed SQL code.

zEnterprise discussion at Share

Needless to say there will be quite a few sessions on the new zEnterprise technology this week at the Share conference in Anaheim. This will include general discussions of the overall technology (hardware and software), and the ability of the platform to handle very diverse workloads.

The ability of zEnterprise to operate diverse workloads is clearly one of it's strengths. Another aspect of this came up while I was talking at the trade expo with a customer who had brought in the new technology to their shop at the end of 2010. Their justification: the ability to be able to backup with integrity critical business data from a variety of operating system platforms with consistency from a single consistent coherent platform. For them being able to stream line and consolidate this process was imperative, and it stands to reason that consistent backups are a part of any data processing operation.

Aloha

Usually I try to post at least a couple items a week, even when I'm out on vacation. However, last week I was on vacation on the Big Island of Hawaii (near Kona), and what can I say? Here's a picture of where I held office hours last week.

I will be at the Share conference in Anaheim this week. I will be doing a series of presentations on monitoring and performance management, and attending sessions. I'm sure I will come up with quite a few nuggets of relevant information for the blog, so please stay tuned.

OMEGAMON XE For DB2 PE And Extended Insight

I've posted several times on new features in OMEGAMON XE for DB2 V5.10. But, I think that's for good reason, there is quite a bit of new feature/function contained within this new release.

Probably one of the most interesting new features added to OMEGAMON XE For DB2 PE (important note - this is relevant for PE only, it's not in PM) is a feature called Extended Insight. Extended Insight provides something that many users ask for often; getting an analysis of DB2 distributed queries that will break out the host time versus the network time. Extended Insight helps to answer a key question: is the problem on the host and the SQL query, or is the problem in the network?

The nice thing about Extended Insight is it can be referenced interactively within the Tivoli Enterprise Portal. When you are in a thread view you can drill down and get the relevant Extended Insight performance stats. In the screen shot I show here, you can see an example of the navigation. Another interesting thing about Extended Insight is it allows OMEGAMON DB2 to provide information that integrates nicely with ITCAM displays, and provides drill down detail of SQL level activity within ITCAM.

Again, please note that Extended Insight is only available with OMEGAMON XE For DB2 Performance Expert (PE), and is not in OMEGAMON For DB2 PM. So if you are a PM customer and want the feature, you may need to upgrade to PE. If in doubt, contact your IBM rep. I'm sure they will be happy to help you out.

Some recent and upcoming events of interest

Here are a few Tivoli z webcast events you might find of interest.

Tivoli for zEnterprise – Why integrated service management matters

Join us for this complimentary webcast and learn how Tivoli products 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 speaker is Fillmore Bowen.

Here's a link to register:

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/sw-events/webcast/U074717Q21914I24.html

zSecure V1.12 helps consolidate security management

Learn about the new capabilities in Security zSecure suite V1.12 that enhance mainframe security on the consolidated zEnterprise platform.

Here's a link to register:

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/os/systemz/webcast/jan20/index.html?S_TACT=110GU00M&S_CMP=twr

Better manage IT costs with Tivoli Asset and Financial Management for zEnterprise

Learn how Tivoli Asset and Financial Management for zEnterprise can help IT organizations more responsibly manage their entire asset lifecycles, optimize software spending and improve audit-readiness. The speaker is Sig Puchaz.

Here's the link:

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/sw-events/webcast/G509526H80465Q34.html

All these events are free, and you can download them after the fact even though the live event may have already occurred.

More on OMEGAMON DB2 V5.10

There's a lot of new stuff in OMEGAMON XE For DB2 V5.10. Another interesting nugget is Near Term History support for zIIP processors. This can be useful because collecting Near Term History data is one of the more costly functions of OMEGAMON DB2.

The cost of Near Term History collection in OMEGAMON can vary. It has the potential to be costly primarily because it has the potential to collect and store a considerable amount of data. In some shops it may be as much as millions of records of information per day.

What V5.10 provides is support for zIIP processor utilization by the tasks that write Near term History. The OMEGAMON DB2 zIIP support requires no special configuration options for the zIIP processor, and requires no special configuration or setup in WLM. Essentially what happens is, if a zIIP is available, OMEGAMON DB2 has the option of using, if appropriate.

zIIP support is a good way to offload some of the cost of DB2 historical data collection.

New capabilities in OMEGAMON DB2 V510

–OMEGAMON DB2 V5.10 is a robust new release. You should be interested in V5.10, especially if you are looking at going to DB2 for z/OS Version 10.

DB2 Version 10 offers quite a few new monitoring and metric capabilities. DB2 10 improves the support for monitoring and managing both static and dynamic SQL. A unique statement execution identifier (that I mentioned in a prior post) is introduced. Statement type and statement execution identifier are externalized that can be used to correlate statement execution on the server with the client application.

ØDB2 V10 provides updated IFCIDs related to SQL execution, and new Static SQL Statement Cache trace information (flag IFCID 400, comparable to IFCID 318 for dynamic SQL).

Here is an example of the kind of information you can now get in OMEGAMOn DB2 V5.10. Note that the information looks similar to what you could get before for dynamic SQL, but now we can get similar information for Static SQL. Look closely at the example, and you will see what I mean.

New stuff in OMEGAMON XE For DB2 V5.10

A new version of OMEGAMON is always an exciting event (for me anyways). The newest release of OMEGAMON DB2, V5.10, is no different. OMEGAMON DB2 V5.10 was made generally available last year to coincide with the release of DB2 Version 10. One of the things that V5.10 does well is exploit many of the new instrumentation features of Version 10 of DB2 on z/OS.

DB2 Version 10, like most new DB2 versions, provides more traces, more trace granularity and detail, and more collection/analysis options. This includes new trace IFCIDs, and more information added to existing IFCIDs. Some of the most interesting stuff revolves the notion of a statement ID. Statement ID is a unique counter used to identify a statement, and its usage, across a DB2 system. It allows for more granularity of performance information at the statement level.

OMEGAMON DB2 V5.10 provides support for statement ID information in several ways, including both the Tivoli Portal and Classic 3270 interface. This information can be shown for both dynamic as well as for static SQL calls. It looks like very useful information, and I plan to do some additional posts on this, and in general on OMEGAMON DB2 V5.10.

New video on creating Dashboards using the Tivoli Portal

I've made my first foray into the world of Youtube. I created a video that discusses and then shows an interactive example of how you can build an integrated management and monitoring Dashboard using OMEGAMON and the Tivoli Enterprise Portal. What I did was I created an example that shows how you can pull together information from multiple monitoring agents (z/OS, CICS, DB2), and place that information on a single display.

I have plans to create other relevant videos as we go along. I think that videos can be a great way to show customization and usage scenarios.

I've added an area for links on the right for my videos. There is also a link to the Dashboard video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs6Yhv1p4zg

IBM's mainframe-blade hybrid to do Windows

Here's a link to an interesting article in the UK press that talks about what is happening with the z196 zEnterprise mainframe. The focus of the article is on the zBX technology, and what IBM is doing to support AIX, Linux, and Windows in this environment. It's an interesting read from a 3rd party. Here's the link:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/12/ibm_zenterprise_zbx_update/

An even cooler SOAP example

So far I've shown examples of how you can use the SOAP client to issue SOAP requests into the ITM infrastructure and the results of those requests. But, there is quite a bit more you can do with the SOAP interface. For example, you can issue a SOAP request from the 'Action' tab in the situation editor. In other words, when a situation is true, OMEGAMON can automatically execute a SOAP request.

Here I show an example of how this is done. When my EW_DB2_Test situation is true it will issue the following command (note - the XML file needs to be in the -hilev-\CMS\html directory):

soap:CT_Execute,filename=test.xml

In the example I show that when EW_DB2_Test is true it will execute an XML file, and within that XML file it will issue the CT_Activate method, and it will work similar to the example on my earlier CT_Activate post.

Once you know how to set this up, it's easy and works quite well.

Another SOAP example - CT_Activate

Here's another interesting example of what you can do with the SOAP interface to ITM. The CT_Activate method allows you to activate a situation. In the example I show how you can activate a situation called EW_Demo_Sit.

In the SOAP IE client I select the CT_Activate method. In the payload field I enter the XML detail for the method (the hub, the name of the situation, etc.). Once I click 'Make SOAP Request' I then see EW_Demo_Sit being activated in the Tivoli Portal (see the example).

The CT_Activate method is a potentially useful way to start situations, when required. There is a corresponding CT_Deactivate method to use for stopping situations. Potential uses for this technique could include starting/stopping situations to manage alerts that are only required for certain time of day/day of week scenarios. This would be an alternative to using policies to manage the start up and shut down of situations. It works well, and it's convenient and easy.

SOAP example - The CT_GET method

IBM provides some useful SOAP methods with ITM monitoring Web services. The provided methods allow you to dynamically query information and control the ITM monitoring environment.

Let's start with a straightforward example where we are going to query some monitoring information using the CT_GET method. The CT_GET method enables you to receive a group of XML objects or individual XML objects from any ITM monitoring agent. You can use this to obtain real time data from the ITM infrastructure.

ITM also provides a SOAP client to issue the SOAP requests. The client can be either a command line utility (not supported on z/OS though) or executed through Internet Explorer. To start the client in IE you would type in a URL, such as in the following example:

http://localhost:1920///cms/soap/kshhsoap.htm

Once you get the client screen back (as I show in the example), you can select a method (such as CT_GET), and pass the additional needed parameters (such as the hub, and the information you want to get).

In the example, we are requesting information from the NT_System table from the Windows OS monitoring agent. On the right of the screen we see the information fields coming back from the agent.

Once you understand it, the SOAP interface is straight forward, and has some useful capabilities. Note that this same SOAP interface is being exploited by such IBM tools as System Automation to interface with ITM monitoring.

I will show some additional examples in subsequent posts.

New link for SOAP

On the right under Useful Links I added a link to a nice document "Using IBM Tivoli Monitoring V6.1 SOAP Services". This document is a nice tutorial on XML and using SOAP in IBM Tivoli Monitoring.

Getting Started using Tivoli Monitoring Web Services

To get started using Tivoli Monitoring Web Services you first need to configure the Tivoli Monitoring infrastructure to enable Web Services (SOAP) support. Don't assume that this option has been enabled by default.

In the example I have shown, here we see how to enable the ITM infrastructure for SOAP in a Windows environment. From the Manage Tivoli Services window, right click on the Tivoli Enterprise Monitoring Server (TEMS) entry, and then select the 'Advanced' option followed by the 'Configure Soap Server Hub' option from the pop up menus in Windows. You will then get a pop up window where you can enter the information on the SOAP configuration. Here you will enter information such as the Hub name, location, and IP port number. Note such things as the Alias name, you will need that for the IBM provided methods that I will demonstrate on later posts.

Once you enter the required information, be aware that Manage Tivoli Services will want to re-cycle the TEMS, so do this at a time where that is acceptable.

Using Tivoli Monitoring Web Services

The Web Services support that is included as part of the IBM Tivoli Monitoring (ITM) infrastructure, is a useful, but commonly overlooked component of the tool. Certain add on components, such as ITMSUPER, that I've talked about earlier use Web Services support. But, there is quite a bit more you can do with the Web Services capability.

IBM provides out of the box quite a few SOAP methods with IBM Tivoli Monitoring Web services. These methods allow you to dynamically query and control IBM Tivoli Monitoring
environments. Using IBM’s SOAP methods, you can:
- Stop or start policies and situations
- Forward trapped messages to Universal Message console
- Retrieve attribute data that you can display in charts or reports
- Open and close events
- Make real-time requests for monitoring agent data

The SOAP support can be employed as part of situation and policy support. You can also retrieve data and store it in the Tivoli Data Warehouse (TDW).

There are some supplied commands and tools you can use to test web services calls, and to get a better understading of what you can do with ITM monitoring and Web Services. I will next do a series of posts that cover Web Services, and how to set up and use them.

Upcoming System z Technology Summits

Want to learn more about System z and zEnterprise? IBM is putting on a series of System z Technology summits. There will be in-depth sessions on zEnterprise, DB2, CICS, application development, and data center operations/management. Learn more about what's happening with z/OS V1.12, the new zEnterprise, DB2 V10, CICS and much more.

The event will happen at multiple locations:
Toronto, ON -- January 27, 2011
Dallas, TX -- February 8, 2011
San Francisco, CA -- February 10, 2011
Washington, DC -- February 15, 2011
Atlanta, GA -- February 17 2011
New York City -- March 8, 2011
Costa Mesa, CA -- March 15, 2011

It's looks like a very nice in-depth event, and to sign up for event here's the URL:

ibm.com/software/systemz/summit