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.

Attend one of the upcoming System z technical summits

In June IBM will be holding two System z technical summits, one in San Francisco on June 12th, and another in Chicago on June 18th. 

The System z technical summits will have multiple technical tracks, and will cover a wide range of topics inclduing the following:

Updating application infrastructures to expose business logic

Running business analytics on System z for faster access to transactional data

Low-cost provisioning of the secure private cloud

Dramatic performance and CPU improvements in the newest DB2 technology

Extending the reach of IMS™ assets by enabling new web services

Gaining capacity through the scalability enhancements of CICS

Reducing complexity in the data center while enabling multi-platform development

There will be a wide variety of speakers from IBM.  If you are interested in System z, then this is probably an event you will be interested in.

To attend either the San Francisco or Chicago event, here is a link to sign up:

http://www-01.ibm.com/software/os/systemz/summit/index.html

OMEGAMON Security considerations for ITM 6.3

IBM Tivoli Monitoring (ITM) 6.3 has been available for a while now.   (If you are interested in what is available with ITM 6.3, here is a link  http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v61r1/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.itm.doc_6.3%2Fic%2Fitmic_newversion63.htm).

From a pure OMEGAMON and z/OS perspective, ITM 6.3 may not offer that much in terms of new function.  One area of impact is in the area of Tivoli Enterprise Portal (TEP) security.  With ITM 6.3 automation commands, such as Take Action, situation-driven reflex actions, tacmd executeCommand, and Policy Workflow commands, may operate in a more secure manner.  ITM 6.3 offers the ability do such things as capture detailed audit information about every ITM command request, and to reject any command that comes from an untrusted source. This is important to be aware of, in particular if you are using commands embedded in situations or doing anything of significance with Take Action in the TEP.

If you want a more thorough understanding of the new security considerations, here's a link to a good write-up that covers it in detail:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27038508&myns=swgtiv&mynp=OCSSZ8F3&mync=R

A new fix for the Service Level Analysis (SLA) feature of OMEGAMON CICS

Service Level Analysis (SLA) is a nice feature of OMEGAMON CICS that breaks down and analyzes CICS workload, and shows % wait type information for that workload.  Looking at SLA can give you insight into where CICS workload bottlenecks may exist. 

Here's an example of OMEGAMON CICS SLA information.  In the example you see a variety of wait %s, including wait for using CPU, wait for DB2 and DL/I databases, wait for MRO, transient data temp storage I/O, and more.

As the panel header implies, OMEGAMON CICS SLA is gathered at the CICSplex level.  But, what if you want to collect information for some CICS regions in the CICSplex and not for others?  An OMEGAMON CICS collector task may collect information for many CICS regions on a given LPAR.

You can look at OA42104 to see that there is now a fix to provide that granularity and control. You can now collect SLA  information only for the regions you are interested in.  Here's a link for more information:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg1OA42104&myns=swgtiv&mynp=OCSSLSDR&mync=R#more

A interesting technote on RMF and OMEGAMON Storage

I was just perusing through some technical notes and ran into a brief writeup on OMEGAMON Storage and its interplay with RMF.  The bottom line is OMEGAMON Storage collects its device information from RMF (among other places).  As part of the collection setup you may specify a collection interval which can control how often information is gathered and potentially stored by the tool. 

One of the options for the collection interval is RMF, whch means the tool will collect by default on the same interval as RMF.  If your RMF interval is something like 15 minutes (common in many shops), then this will usually work fine.  However, if you you have a smaller RMF interval, then you may want to apply some more thought to the collection interval.  Collecting on a narrower interval, and therefore more frequently may result in more collection overhead.

Here's a link to the note:
 http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21636603&myns=swgtiv&mynp=OCSS2JFP&mync=R

More on adding navigation options in e3270ui user interface

I showed you in a prior post how to add drill down navigation to a field or a set of fields on an e3270ui panel.  Now the next step is what if you want to add more options to a navigation popup on a panel?  Well, that's easy to modify too. 

In the panel code, when you have a popup defined you will see lines that show ACTION=  and then will reference the panel to navigate to.  You want to add an additional destination in the popup?  Just add another ACTION= option.  A popup can have up to 16 action options. 

Below is an example of a panel that has been customized to add some additional ACTION= options.

In the example you see the KEYCOLS statement, and then after that you see the ACTION= statement.  Each ACTION= shows the character you would use to select, the text that appears in the popup and the destination panel.  The ACTION= that are highlighted with arrows are the ones that have been added to the panel.

With the addtion of the additional ACTION= statements the panel changes as below.


The net is that by adding a statement you can easily add more navigation options.  In the example there have been several options added to the popup.

Upcoming webcast on System z storage management

On May 16th there will be a webcast on System z storage management.  Kevin Hosozawa of IBM will be talking about "Enhanced System z Storage Management with improved visibility and reporting".

Topics discussed in the presentation will include the following:

- Protect data for integrated catalog facility (ICF) catalogs

- Prevent and recover from costly space-related abends
- Audit and automatically correct errors in the DFSMS environment
- Improve efficiency and reduce the cost of the DFSMS hierarchical storage management (HSM) environment

The webcast will happen tomorrow, May 16th, at 11 AM Eastern Time.  If you are interested in attending, here's a link to register:
http://ibm.co/ZzZjR4

Adding navigation to your e3270ui panels

A major advantage of the new e3270ui is ease of use and flexibility of navigation.  The e3270ui is, in essence, a 3270 based portal for performance management information.  It can be very easy to navigate from place to place once logged on to the e3270ui. 

What's also compelling is that you can easily incorporate this navigation into your panels with some very minimal changes.  So you don't like how you have to drill down through a series of popups or panels to get to a certain level of detail?  No problem.  Just add zoom column support where you need it and you are done.  The ZOOMCOLS function is nice because it's easy to add to an existing panel and can be just a one line change to add what you need.

Let's look at an example of ZOOMCOLS and how it functions.  Below we see the default KIPHLTI OMEGAMON IMS System Health panel.  This is a nice little overview panel that shows some key IMS status metrics such as queueing, CPU usage, paging, etc. 

From here it would be nice to add zoom support so that you can zoom in directly for more detail without having to navigate through multiple popups and panels.  Instead you could just position your cursor on the number of interest and press enter.

Here's how you can add the ZOOMCOLS parm to the panel code to add the navigation.

In the above example I've made a copy of the KIPHLTI panel member and edited it in hilev.UKANWENU.  If you look for the DISPLAYCOLS statement, that statement lists what information appears on the panel.  After all the DISPLAYCOLS are listed, you can add the ZOOMCOLS parameter.  In the ZOOMCOLS parameter you list the column name, and then specify the zoom destination panel.  Note in the example, you can have different zoom destination panels for different columns.

Now you get navigation such as below, simply by adding the one ZOOMCOLS parameter to the panel.  Note how when ZOOMCOLS is added the numbers in the column appear as white versus light blue.  You position the cursor on the number and press enter to zoom.