Over the years I’ve written emails with data collection requirements dozens of times, with varying degrees of clarity. It would be better, wouldn’t it, to write it once. I don’t think I can get out of the business of writing such emails entirely but here’s a goodly chunk of it. Another thing that struck me is that the value of some types of data has increased enormously... [More]
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dfsort
z/os
smf101
rmf
smf
smf30
wlm
batch
db2
terse
ftp
mq
cics
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A couple of things have happened recently that lead me to post about projecting the amount of CPU that's zIIP eligible.
(Everything in this post applies equally to zAAPs, of course.) When we first introduced z/OS specialty engines we introduced the "Project CPU" mechanism, reporting most notably via RMF.
(I emphasise "z/OS" because ICF and IFL engines, which don't run z/OS, don't have such a... [More]
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ziip
projectcpu
rmf
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omegamon
gcp
zaap
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Another kernel popped the other day: SMTP / MIME . But what on earth is MiGueL Mainframe troubling himself with SMTP / MIME for?
Let's come at this from a different angle... You probably know by now that when you send me your data it gets put through some batch reporting:
Ultimately I don't create the graphs by hand, but I do do the analysis and put the presentation together myself.
That's the... [More]
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mime
batch
xmit
email
html
z/os
rememberthemilk
evernote
rtm
smtp
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About a year ago I posted: A Small Step For RMF, A Giant Leap For Self-Documenting Systems . A year on I've encountered some customer data that's made me go "huh?", related to this. In the referenced post I mentioned R744FLPN, the Coupling Facility's LPAR Number. For the first time I've seen data where the match - with SMF 70 Logical Partition Number (in Logical Partition Section) -... [More]
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rmf
smf74
smf70
r744flpn
facility
lpar
z/os
oa21140
smf
coupling
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Hackday X was good clean fun yesterday - though I think it deserves more than one kiss. Seriously, for once I think I have a hack that actually worked - at least up to a point. I called my entry "z/OS Batch Analytics Baby Steps" and I think that's about right.
My purpose in taking part in successive Hackdays has been more to participate rather than to win any prizes, and to wave the flag a little... [More]
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smf
gantt
batch
hackday
z/os
hackdayx
analytics
smf30
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This post is about unusual ways of using the SMF 30 Usage Data information, some of which you're certain to want if you're managing z/OS systems' performance. A long time ago I noticed character strings in SMF 30 records that looked like product names. (As is my wont I was looking at the raw Type 30 records for a different purpose and spotted them.) Some time later I figured out these were Usage... [More]
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cics
mq
ims
usage
db2
smf30
z/os
was
chargeback
smf
websphere
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It's been a while since I last posted here. And that's been more a matter of being incredibly busy than anything. Some of you will have seen me "on stage" - there having been several conferences and user groups recently. Some of you were with me at the zChampions meeting and some of you I'm actively working on customer situations with. (By the way one of the rules of zChampions isn't... [More]
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batch
pipes
z/os
uss
jcl
parallelism
unix
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If you think this title is obscure bear in mind the original working title was "Send In The Hobgoblins". 1 When I started to write - actually before the "mind mapping" stage - it was going to be all about inconsistency in the way bits of systems are named. You'll see some of that reflected in the finished article (pun intended) but the post has mostly gone in a different... [More]
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cpu
wlm
rmf
virtualstorage
db2
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mq
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I was pleased when Julian Bridges (who I worked with in IBM Global Services for a number of years) told me he had access to a z/OS Release 13 system. He agreed to write a blog post on the enhancements to the ISPF editor in Release 13 and this is that blog post. Enjoy! Julian Bridges It comes as a surprise to many how flexible the ISPF editor can be. Many times sitting with clients typing away... [More]
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z/os
ispf
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JVM-based languages have an interesting property for z/OS programmers: They are zAAP-eligible. As we all know zAAP Eligibility brings a number of benefits - including the licence charge benefits and the ability to run on a full-speed processor even when your general-purpose processors are subcapacity ones. (I'll briefly mention zAAP-on-zIIP here for completeness, and then move on.) You... [More]
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java
ruby
javascript
classpath
rexx
python
zseries
modernisation
unix
zaap-on-ziip
z/os
mainframe
rhino
systemz
jython
jruby
netrexx
jvm
bpxwunix
sed
javac
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The very first computer game I ever played was called Rhino and it ran on a Commodore PET. The school had been lent one for a fortnight. (I don't know why as we didn't go on to buy any, instead getting a single RML 380Z.) Imagine a character-grid screen where the rhino's are represented by pi symbols that chase you as you try to move from A to B. It was written in BASIC and allowed from 1 to 10... [More]
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java
dojo
ziip
z/os
zaap
jquery
bxwunix
unix
e4x
javascript
zaap-on-ziip
spidermonkey
xml
rexx
pet
rhino
commodore
uncharted3
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I don't think I've mentioned this before in this blog but Tivoli Workload Scheduler (TWS) has a nice "WLM Integration" feature. With it TWS can change the Service Class a job runs in - before submission. The main purpose of this is to elevate Critical Path work. We wrote about this in the Redbook mentioned in Touring The Upcoming Batch Optimization On z/OS Redbook , and so some of... [More]
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batch_design_authority
z/os
critical_path
opc
wlm
cics
bda
tws
gse
scheduler
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One of the nice enhancements in z/OS Release 13 JES2 was the support for SYSIN in a JCL procedure. (See here for the announcement letter.) I have a personal example of where it would've been handy. You probably have your own. We used to distribute sample JCL to use DB2 DSNTIAUL to unload the DB2 Catalog, one table at a time. Obviously with such a repetitive use in a single job step you'd want... [More]
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jcl
z/os
db2
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I mentioned APAR OA21140 before - here . It's quite an old APAR and so it will (in all likelihood) be on your systems. I'd like to draw your attention to a subtle 1-byte field in the SMF 74 Subtype 4 (Coupling Facility Activity) record: R744FLPN. It's the partition number for the coupling facility. (If you've seen any one of several of my presentations I'll've talked about this field.) Here's... [More]
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oa21140
z/os
rmf
memory
facility
lpar
smf
r744flpn
coupling
smf74
smf70
smf73
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As mentioned here , I recently participated in a residency in Poughkeepsie. Our task was to write the "Batch Optimization on z/OS" redbook that we hope will get out soon (though I think early next year is the most realistic timescale). These past two weeks I "toured" the redbook in the Nordics: 5 cities in 2 weeks (Helsinki, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm and Aarhus). I really... [More]
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redbook
governance
presentation
batch
z/os
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