Thanks for your attendance of the previous PARMGEN customer open Q&A teleconference call held on February 17, 2016 .  We are scheduling the next monthly PARMGEN customer open Q&A webcast call, planned to be held on Wednesday, March 30th @ 11 a.m. US ET .  We tried to choose a time that would be convenient for most participants -- we apologize to those of you where this is very early or very late in the day.   As part of our continued focus on further improving PARMGEN and helping answer any... [More]

Tags:  netview messaging cics storage performance zos #mainframe parmgen automation was networks mainframe db2 ftu management websphere smu mq #ibmz jvm omegamon ims enhanced_3270ui

Java is one of the most well-known and used programming languages today, which makes Java Virtual Machines (JVMs) integral in today’s application programming.  When working with a JVM, you will undoubtedly encounter performance issues at some point.  When these problems arise, the thread data provided by the IBM Tivoli OMEGAMON XE on z/OS Monitoring Feature for JVM can be invaluable in resolving the issue.                JVMs split work across multiple threads... [More]

Tags:  performance thread mainframe jvm management enhanced_3270ui omegamon zos lock

            Locking is one of the most important aspects in Java application programming. When applications are multi-threaded, they must protect data from concurrent updates. Locking protects the integrity of shared data in a multi-threaded application.               There are some conflicts that locking can cause if used improperly. Some of these problems are deadlocks, improper or frequent lock acquires and excessive locking... [More]

Tags:  zos performance omegamon management enhanced_3270ui mainframe jvm lock

In November 2014, RACF and zSecure provided security enhancements to passwords for z/OS .  Equivalent support has now been provided for z/VM V6R3.   Background Password security is a function as much of user education as of technical controls such as making it harder for a cracker to run a brute-force attack. The Introduction provided in the Technote made available for RACF APAR OA43999 (for the original support on z/OS) provides an extensive discussion. The new enhancements provide new configurations... [More]

Tags:  racf zsecure z_systems racfpwchar/k z/vm mainframe racfpwencr/k servicemanagementconnect kdfaes security

On February 16, 2016 IBM announced authentication enhancements including a new product IBM Multi-Factor Authentication for z/OS (5655-162), with a planned availability date of March 25, 2016. z/OS Security Server RACF provided enabling infrastructure updates for z/OS V2R1 and V2R2. Supporting service stream enhancements to zSecure 2.1, 2.1.1, and 2.2 were made available around the same time. Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) raises the level of assurance of mission-critical systems. It is particularly important to strongly authenticate users... [More]

Tags:  racf z_systems servicemanagementconnect security mfa mfa/k mainframe zsecure z/os saf

'Dear Rocky' answers your System z monitoring and performance tuning questions. Rocky McMahan, a Senior Software Performance Engineer in IBM Z Systems R&D, offers valuable tips to help you get more out of your monitoring software.     Dear Rocky, Our company recent switch over to OMEGAMON after using another monitoring product for over 15 years.  We are quickly learning more and more of the features of OMEGAMON but wasn't sure how we should go about to start monitoring our mainframe network activity and out... [More]

Tags:  dear_rocky omegamon z/os netowrks performance mainframe best_practice tcpip situations

The announcement letter for IBM Security zSecure suite 2.2.0 issued on October 1, 2015 contained a Statement of Direction about providing 64-bit addressing support on a future date. This support has become available on June 25, 2016 through a Service Stream Enhancement (SSE). This SSE also contains performance improvements and scoping enhancements that also apply to 31-bit addressing mode.   Background IBM Security zSecure suite can help you protect your enterprise, detect threats, comply with policy and regulations and reduce costs. Most of... [More]

Tags:  qradar z_systems siem zenterprise securityintelligence mainframe zsecure performance security disa-stig servicemanagementconnect smf 64-bit compliance pci-dss z/os z196 carla

A set of user interface productivity enhancements to zSecure 2.2.0 has been made available in a Service Stream Enhancement (SSE) on July 30, 2016.   Background IBM Security zSecure suite can help you protect your enterprise, detect threats, comply with policy and regulations and reduce costs. Most of the products run on the z/OS operating system. IBM Security zSecure Admin boosts productivity for RACF administrators. IBM Security zSecure Audit helps review the security of the system in various ways. IBM Security zSecure Alert is a... [More]

Tags:  productivity z/os 64-bit zsecure z_systems security servicemanagementconnect mainframe

Announcing a new Beta for OMEGAMON for JVM on z/OS as part of the OMEGAMON Performance Management Suite Beta program.  Today we are opening our Beta program for OMEGAMON for JVM on z/OS with enhanced capabilities to monitor various Java Virtual Machines (JVMs) and their subsystems on z/OS.  This Beta is part of the OMEGAMON Performance Management Suite Beta program.  We are looking for customers and business partners who are interested in working with us to shape and validate the new capabilities we are developing to monitor JVMs... [More]

Tags:  mainframe management beta jvm z/os performance java omegamon monitoring

z/VM V6R4 was announced on October 25, 2016 with a planned availability date of November 11, 2016. Toleration fixes have been made available beforehand for zSecure Manager for RACF z/VM 1.11.1 and 1.11.2 and for zSecure for z/OS 2.1.0, 2.1.1, and 2.2.0.   Background IBM Security zSecure Manager for RACF z/VM helps you protect your z/VM systems. You can feed the data collected by its zSecure Collect for z/VM (CKVCOLL) component into IBM Security zSecure Admin and zSecure Audit. This allows comprehensive analysis including both z/OS and z/VM... [More]

Tags:  z/vm zsecure mainframe servicemanagementconnect security z_systems

IBM Security zSecure suite 2.2.1 was announced on October 25, 2016 with a planned availability date of December 9, 2016. You can read the US announcement letter here . This release provides live SMF event streaming to IBM QRadar SIEM, enhanced alerting capability in zSecure Alert based on specific access events captured by zSecure Admin Access Monitor, improved scalability through exploitation of 64-bit addressing mode, new policies in zSecure Command Verifier including the ability to link denial of access to an external security rule, zSecure... [More]

Tags:  acf2 mq z_systems zsecure servicemanagementconnect disa-stig mainframe qradar compliance icsf pci-dss access_monitor topsecret z196 mfa cdp racf siem zenterprise 64-bit windows securityintelligence security carla z/os

New in OMEGAMON for JVM on z/OS v540, a feature for diagnosing potential native memory exhaustion has been delivered.  An OutofMemoryError condition can occur for several reasons, one of which is when a JVM has run out of native memory in the address space.   When the JVM starts, memory for the initial Java heap size is allocated (specified by the -Xms Java option). For a 64-bit JVM this is usually above the bar (>2Gb) memory. For a 31-bit JVM this memory is allocated from 31-bit addressable memory (the “extended... [More]

Tags:  jvm memory native java mainframe e3270ui zos omegamon

Join us on March 30, 2017 11 EDT as Dean Butler the Lead Developer will present the next webcast in our series.   z/OS systems management experts rely on having fast and accurate information about their enterprise to quickly identify problems, locate the root cause and take  the appropriate actions. The OMEGAMON Enhanced 3270UI is the strategic interface for these subject matter experts to manage their z/OS infrastructure and key subsystems. To help new users become familiar with the Enhanced 3270UI we have planned a series of... [More]

Tags:  zos commserver mainframe networks networkmanagement omegamon

A Service Stream Enhancement (SSE) has been made available for the Access Monitor component of zSecure Admin 2.2.1 on March 30, 2017 to enable analytics processing. Insight Pack 3 for IBM Operations Analytics for z Systems (IOAz) 3.1 was made available around the same time, enabling IOAz to process Access Monitor statistics.   Background IBM  Secu rity  zSe cure  sui t e can help you protect your enterprise, detect threats, comply with policy and regulations and reduce costs. Most of the products run on the z/OS operating system. The zSecure... [More]

Tags:  z_systems securityintelligence zaware analytics interconnect2017 servicemanagementconnect access_monitor mainframe monitoring security ioaz zsecure z/os