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All posts
Not So Much Renaissance Man More Tool-Using Ape :-)
If you come to my blog only for Performance- or SMF-related topics you’re going to be disappointed in this post.
But if, like me, you’re interested in storytelling and web-related technologies then read on. This post is about HTML5 Canvas - a technology I really like. Some Of Why I Care About Web Technologies To try and keep this focused I’m going to talk only about why web... [More]
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The End Is Nigh For CICS
… and other address spaces, too. In Once Upon A Restart I talked about how to detect IPLs and restarts of CICS regions and MQ subsystems (and other long-running address spaces) - from SMF Type 30 Interval records. It’s easy to see starts but what about stops ? [1] It turns out you can estimate when address spaces stop from the SMF 30 Interval records (Subtypes 2 and 3): When there is... [More]
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Curiouser And Curiouser, Spike
As you’ve probably gathered I like to get nosy about how customers run systems.
This is probably best and most recently exemplified by this blog post:
Once Upon A Restart So this post is about another piece of curiosity:
What spikes can tell us about how people run systems.
In a way it’s similar to what restarts tell us, hence the above blog post link. I like “Think... [More]
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WLM Velocity - Another Fine Rhetorical Device I've Gotten Myself Into
Back in 2010 I wrote about a graph I’d developed for understanding how a Service Class Period’s velocity behaves. That post is here: WLM Velocity - “Rhetorical Devices Are Us” . At the time I was concerned not to show up the customer by displaying the graph. I think that was the right decision. But in the presentation I mention here: Workload Manager And DB2 Presentation... [More]
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DFSORT JOINKEYS Instrumentation - A Practical Example
Some technologies show up “in the field” very soon after they’re announced and shipped. Others take a little longer. Back in 2009 [1] I blogged about one technology - DFSORT JOINKEYS. For this post to make much sense you’ll probably want to read that post first. Here it is: DFSORT Does JOIN . Dave Betten and I have - at last - a set of data from a customer where one of the... [More]
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Workload Manager And DB2 Presentation Abstract
I’m pleased to be presenting three sessions at UK GSE Annual Conference, Tuesday 4th and Wednesday 5th November in Whittlebury Hall. Two are on the zCMPA (Performance and Capacity or “UKCMG”) track: Life and Times of an Address Space (Tuesday) zIIP Capacity Planning (Wednesday) I’ve written about these extensively.
Obviously they’re evolved a bit and I have specific... [More]
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Broker And SMF 30
Sitting in Dave Gorman’s Broker V9 presentation in Budapest it struck me it would be a useful exercise to apply the “Systems Investigation” techniques I write about to Broker running on z/OS. So let’s see how far we can get with SMF 30 Interval records, in the vein of Life And Times Of An Address Space . It’s a nice exercise [1] but I think it’s directly useful... [More]
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System z Technical University, Budapest 12-16 May 2014, Slides
In Budapest at the European System z Technical University I presented three topics: zIIP Capacity Planning (twice) Life And Times Of An Address Space Parallel Batch Performance Considerations The links take you to the Slideshare uploads of these presentations. The first two of these are updated for this conference and I’ve overwritten the previous versions - as the new versions subtracting... [More]
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And Just Complain
“Mobile” appears to be “flavour of the month” right now, and this week at System z Technical University it has certainly been a topic in evidence, whether it’s discussions in the breaks, sessions on software pricing, or sessions on Mobile-enabling technology. I don’t intend in this post to discuss any of these. Instead I want to talk about the types of users... [More]
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Hints Of Other Systems
You can blame the weather for this post. I’m writing it on a flight above thick cloud [1] on my way to Munich and then to Budapest for this year’s European System z Technical University. I like to see the complete picture when I’m examining systems:
It makes getting it right so much easier.
And there’s something rather satisfying about getting your arms all the way round... [More]
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Appening 4 - SwiftKey on iOS
Sometimes I’m in the mood to carefully peck at the text and sometimes I’m in the mood to just “splurge write”.
And sometimes a bit of both. This post is a case in point:
I just want to get the words out as fast as I can. Now, I do quite a bit of writing on iOS as it lets me write wherever and whenever I get the chance.
I like its prediction and correction... [More]
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Once Upon A Restart
h3, h4, p {
margin-top: 2em;
margin-bottom: 2em;
}
If you have a large mainframe estate it can be difficult to keep track of when the various moving parts start and stop.
For example, if you’re a Performance person it’s quite likely nobody bothered to tell you when the systems were IPL’ed.
You might well know what the regime for starting and stopping CICS is but I... [More]
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Appening 3 - Editorial on iOS
Over a year ago I wrote about a couple of iOS applications I was enjoying using. [1] And now it’s time to write about a third, as it’s part of my authoring toolkit.
In
Recent Conference Presentations I showed off my then new writing rig: Byword (with MultiMarkDown) and my iPad Mini with a Logitech light keyboard cover.
I said that would be my rig for a while. So this post also... [More]
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Setting MEMLIMIT
h3, h4, p {
margin-top: 2em;
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} I’ve been meaning to write about MEMLIMIT and its importance for some time. [1] But it’s a moving target. So either there’s no good time to talk about it or lots of good times. So let me discuss it now and then again later as necessary. [2] So timing a post on MEMLIMIT is like choosing a wave to catch: In this case the... [More]
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zIIP And DB2 Version 10 DBM1
This post adds some additional DB2 Version 10 specifics to what I mentioned in
New zIIP Capacity Planning Presentation .
I said this would be a living presentation, and so it has proven to be.
It’s had two outings so far and there are a couple more confirmed. First the times I’ve given it: On 9 April 2014 I was very pleased this was the very first presentation given at the... [More]
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zBC12 As A Standalone Coupling Facility?
There’s been some interest recently in whether a zBC12 as a standalone Coupling Facility would be a good idea. Having replied to one such question in email form I can count that as a draft for a blog post on the subject. It’s a complex question as are most about Parallel Sysplex configuration design. So this won’t be a comprehensive answer but I hope it’ll give you food for... [More]
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After A Decent Interval
I’m writing about intervals again. [1] Two things have occasioned this: I’ve been updating my code for DB2 Versions 10 and 11 [2] . I’ve dealt recently with customers with unhelpful SMF or RMF intervals. As I’ve said before it’s important to understand the provenance of the data you’re using.
This would be true whether it’s performance data, financial... [More]
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Machines (Back To Humans)
As you know I mainly deal in SMF data (and other machine-generated instrumentation).
While I’m perfectly adept at conducting interviews and handling evidence from real live people there’s much merit in instrumentation. I’m also not keen on just replaying what you say back at you, with no value added in the process.
But I’m making an exception: I’ve just added to my... [More]
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And Some More Things On The Way To DB2 Version 11
It’s only fair to warn you this gets technical straight away.
And is probably only interesting to a DB2 audience anyway.
And as someone who disclaims on his DB2 knowledge anyway you might not want to read this. Still with me?
Excellent! As described in Coping With DB2 Version 10 And Preparing For DB2 Version 11 I’ve been revamping my DB2 analysis code. [1] Here are a couple of areas... [More]
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Coping With DB2 Version 10 And Preparing For DB2 Version 11
I’ve said this many times:
I’m not a DB2 person but I’ve bluffed my way in DB2 for many a year. [1] Perhaps that’s why I don’t get to use my DB2 analysis code nearly as much as I’d like. So it’s perhaps not so surprising my code fell behind when it came to new versions.
The last big update was for Version 8.
That was a big update - mainly because... [More]
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What We Share And What We Have In Common
The subtext of this post is “do try and keep up” - which is directed at me as much as anybody. And is a perpetual state of being when you’re dealing with evolving SMF data and enterprise computing environments. When I look at a system’s memory usage my code produces what I call a “PM2200” [1] chart. The giants on whose shoulders I balance precariously [2] first... [More]
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Factorise - For Your Eyes
As you might know I like maths, particularly algebra.
(If you’ve read
Another Neat Piece Of Algebra - Series Summation and
Hello, I’m Martin And I’m An Algebraic you do.) If there’s one thing I would be doing if I weren’t doing this [1] it might be teaching maths - but it would have to be at a level where algebra and calculus were substantial topics.
But I... [More]
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New zIIP Capacity Planning Presentation
In zIIP Address Space Instrumentation I discussed the subject of zIIP Capacity Planning. What I was working on - but wasn’t ready to reveal - was a presentation on zIIP Capacity Planning.
But I was also working on my new “zIIP CPU From Type 30” code.
And that’s indeed what that post is about. Now I am in a position to reveal my new presentation.
You can get it from here... [More]
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LPARs - What's In A Name?
Basic tutorial or advanced nicety? You decide... Having been told what I thought was a nice high level presentation was "a bit too technical" I'll confess to a perpetual (slight) anxiety about "level". Anyhow, this post is about inferences from LPAR names, particularly deactivated ones. (If you catch me saying "inactive LPARs" I apologise.
I mean ones that are defined on a machine but not... [More]
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zIIP Address Space Instrumentation
Increasingly people are going to want to understand their zIIP usage and do capacity planning for zIIPs.
Previously I’ve written about zIIP CPU numbers from the RMF perspective,
namely at the WLM Workload and Service Class levels.
This post is about taking it down a layer - to the address space level - using SMF Type 30 records. (I’ve always thought it a pity there isn’t a... [More]
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Batch Job Cloning Residency - To The Better End
Usually a residency ends on the last day. Well doesn’t everything? But this one’s been a little unusual in that regard.
Straight after the residency came a week in which two of us presented at the GSE UK Annual Conference on aspects of the residency: Dean Harrison presented on Scheduling and JCL aspects. I presented on Performance aspects. And Karen Wilkins, the other resident, was... [More]
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More Maintainable DFSORT
While writing
Creating JSON with DFSORT I realised one statement in particular is difficult to read and maintain.
It’s this one: INREC IFTHEN=(WHEN=INIT,BUILD=(SEQNUM,4,BI,
C'{"name": "',NAME,C'","number": "',NUMBER,C'"}')),
IFTHEN=(WHEN=(1,4,BI,GT,+1),BUILD=(2X,C',',5,70)),
... [More]
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Creating JSON with DFSORT
This post is yet another spin off from the residency I'm on in Poughkeepsie. I mentioned in
We Have Residents! I might do something with JSON (Javascript Object Notation) and indeed I have. But why would a residency on Batch Performance concern itself with JSON (and indeed XML, which I've also written about in the Redbook)? The reason lies in the word "modernisation".
This actually works two... [More]
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Unusual Sort Fields
While working through a scenario in our residency it became (briefly) important to be able to preserve
sort order on a field.
But this field wasn’t sorted in any recognisable way.
So the records couldn’t be sorted alphabetically or numerically.
In fact they had to be sorted so that this field was preserved in the following sequence: red orange yellow green blue violet pink white... [More]
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On The Third Day
Actually it's not been quite that bad, jetlagwise. So on this third day we're moving into the creative phase.
For example I might be writing actual Redbook text, Karen might be writing actual COBOL, and Dean might be telling TWS to do his actual bidding. The past two days have been filled with kick off and getting stuff set up.
We did, though, sketch out an outline of the Redbook.
So that gives... [More]
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