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Mac-hinations
I’m probably the last person you should give a new piece of kit to - if you want them to remain productive. But I’m probably towards the front of the queue if you want them to exploit the hell out of it. So IBM got me a new Macbook Pro for work. This post is about my early experiences with it. Some Background It’s fair to say this is not my first Mac; My household is -... [More]
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Structural Analysis
If confronted by a plethora 1 of things to manage you have to be careful with the approach you take. And so it is with Coupling Facility structures. Usually I would look at the biggest structures - whether memory, request rate, or CPU is the metric of “bigness”.
And normally I’m expecting a few dozen structures in a sysplex. Recently I was confronted with a scale challenge: Over... [More]
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What Are Goals Made Of?
Not sugar and spice and all things nice. Seriously, I'm interested in how Workload Manager (WLM) goals come to be. I've talked about WLM quite a bit over the years and one theme has repeated itself a number of times: “Just how did you arrive at that goal?” As I wrote in
Analysing A WLM Policy - Part 2 I see three categories of WLM policies: IBM Workload Manager Team based... [More]
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Mainframe Performance Topics Podcast Episode 10 "234U"
So here we are, barely one week on, with another episode. As I indicated, we had bits of this in the can when we put Episode 9 together. It was really nice to interview Elpida, and we have ideas for a couple more items in a similar vein; I always contemplated this as being the kick off for a stream of stuff. According to our statistics, quite a few of our listeners are on iOS, so hopefully the... [More]
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DDF Networking
In Lost For Words With DDF I wrote about matching up Client DB2 and Server DB2 Accounting Trace (SMF 101) records - for DDF. In this post I'm writing about a more generally relevant technique for DDF. In fact I've just completed some prototype code for this and, of course , thrown it straight into Production. Such is the way tools get sharpened. This technique enables me to draw the... [More]
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Mainframe Performance Topics Podcast Episode 9 "Back In Black"
It's been a long time since I… … recorded a podcast episode. But Marna and I have had lots of commitments since we last did. But we're back, and intend to stay that way. Indeed we have bits of Episode 10 “in the can”. And such a lot has happened in the meantime. Note: This is actually our tenth episode, though you might count Episode 0 as a pilot and Episode 10 as... [More]
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Lost For Words With DDF
I'm lost for words with DDF, I really am. “What's up with him?” my one reader asks. So let me explain… I debuted a presentation last year called “More Fun With DDF”.
But I've made progress since then. So what do I add to the front of this title? “Still”? “Yet”? “Even”? I don't even think there's a hierarchy to... [More]
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The Suite Spot
What is a batch suite? That might seem like a silly question to ask but it’s inspired by some significant enhancements to our Batch reporting. Dave Betten and I have worked hard on these as time permitted over more than a year. Traditional Definition Of A Suite Traditionally, a batch suite is a set of related jobs, usually with some kind of a naming convention that makes them recognisable.... [More]
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SMT - Some Actual Graphs
Back in the Summer I talked about z13 Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT) in Born With A Measuring Spoon In Its Mouth .
I shared that I was feeling my way forward, and discovering others were doing likewise. Here we are a few months later and my code has come on in leaps and bounds. 1 So I think it’s worth sharing some design stuff and a little discovery; I’m working on the principle... [More]
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Mainframe Performance Topics Podcast Episode 8 "Queue Me Up"
We wanted to get this episode out much sooner, but things conspired against us somewhat. Not least someone we really wanted to interview - to kick off a whole series of topics - having technical troubles. So we went a different way from what we intended. And we also had a few scheduling problems. But we’re here now. I hope it was worth the wait. And just to repeat one thing: If you come... [More]
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Right On Queue
Seasoned readers will recognise the title of this post as a bad pun, rather than a mis-spelling. [1] One emergent theme in our code for Parallel Sysplex Performance is treating individual coupling facility structures on their merits.
For example, lock structures are different from cache structures. But there is much commonality in the instrumentation.
For example Maximum Size, Size and Minimum... [More]
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Automatic For The Peep-Hole
I have to admit to being a bit of a wannabe when it comes to automation. Certainly most of my career has been built on using and building tools - and you’d have to pry them out of my luke-warm retired hands. But when it comes to automation in my personal life it’s a bit of a different story: I haven’t (yet) got into Home Automation. Baby steps still. 1 I don’t use many... [More]
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Transaction Counts
I’ve been musing on counting transactions for a customer recently.
I’d like to share some of that thinking with you. This post is about RMF SMF Type 72 data, rather than middleware-specific stuff.
That’s because it’s Generic - applicable to multiple transaction managers. Much lighter weight - so every customer can collect, retain indefinitely, and process it. I’m... [More]
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Mainframe Performance Topics Podcast Episode 7 "We Were On A Break"
Getting back “in the studio” was really nice. And we never had any doubt we’d keep recording - so the title is very tongue in cheek. Below are the show notes. The series is here . Episode 7 is here . Episode 7 “We Were On A Break” Show Notes Here are the show notes for Episode 7 “We Were On a Break”. The show is called “We Were On a Break”... [More]
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Why Do We Keep Building Bigger Machines?
I know of no customer who uses the full capacity of a zEC12, let alone a z13? 1 So why do we make them bigger each time? I should state this post is not in support of any product announcement; It’s just scratching an itch of mine. I think it’s an interesting topic; I hope you agree. What Is Bigger?
While this post isn’t exhaustive I think the main aspects are:... [More]
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