Poor response time: Causes and solutions

This table shows four levels of response time, in decreasing order of severity. The major causes are shown for each level, together with a range of suggested solutions.

The first step is to check the causes by following the advice given in Assessing the performance of your system. When you have identified the precise causes, you can find information in Improving the performance of a CICS system on how to implement an appropriate solution.

Table 1. CICS response time checklist
Major cause Solution
Level 1: Poor response at all loads for all transactions
High level of paging Reduce working set, or allocate more real storage
Very high usage of major resources Reconsider system resource requirements and redesign system, and check for application errors and resource contention
Level 2: Poor response at medium and high loads
High level of paging Reduce working set, or allocate more real storage
High processor usage Reduce pathlength, or increase processor power
High DB or data set usage Reorganize data sets, or reduce data transfer, or increase capacity
High communication network usage Reduce data transfer, or increase capacity
TP or I/O access-method constraint Increase buffer availability
CICS limit values exceeded Change operands, or provide more resources, or check if errors in application
Level 3: Poor response for certain transactions only
Identify common characteristics listed under Level 2 The solutions are as for Level 2
Lines or terminal usage Increase capacity, or reduce data transfer, or change transaction logic
Data set usage Change data set placement buffer allocations or change enqueue logic or data set design
High storage usage Redesign or tune applications
Same subprograms used by transactions Redesign or tune application subprograms
Same access method or CICS features used by transactions Reallocate resource or change application, and reevaluate use of feature in question
Limit conditions Reallocate resource or change application
Level 4: Poor response for certain terminals
Check network loading as appropriate Increase capacity of that part of network
Check operator techniques Revise terminal procedures
Check terminal definitions Redefine terminal definitions